The International Cooperation and Development Fund (TaiwanICDF) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) provided a loan to the Sofia Electric Transport Company (SETC), owned by the municipality of Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, to introduce 30 electric buses and 12 charging stations into the city. Once the diesel and fossil fuel-powered buses are replaced by the electric ones, air pollution caused by exhaust emissions will be abated to a large scale. In recent years, the municipality of Sofia has been improving transport infrastructure, aiming at providing safer, environmentally friendly and thus more sustainable public transportation. The introduction of electric buses is one of the important measures.

According to the statistics of the International Energy Agency in 2014, carbon emissions caused by transportation in Bulgaria account for 19.5 percent of the total volume, ranking second only to the electricity sector. Electric buses will allow Bulgaria to take a giant step forward in clean transport under the EU strategy. What’s more, the World Health Organisation (WHO) classified diesel engine exhaust as carcinogenic to humans. The replacement of diesel buses with electric ones will help improve air quality and reduce risks of getting cancer. The promotion of clean energy vehicles has become a worldwide trend.

Currently, the SETC also provides trolleybus and tram services in Sofia. The trolleybus network is comprised of nine routes while 14 tram lines are in operation spanning an integrated network length of more than 14,000 km. After the purchase of electric buses, the SETC will take over another six bus routes. With the expansion of a green transport network in Sofia, the urban public transport system as a whole will become cleaner and more efficient in terms of energy consumption.

The TaiwanICDF sponsored the establishment of the EBRD Green Energy Special Fund (GESF) in 2011 to promote utilization of advanced and highly efficient technologies, especially in the municipal infrastructure sector in the EBRD’s countries of operations. To date, the GESF has supported projects including LED lighting, solid waste management and grid network upgrade in eastern European and western Asian countries. Echoing the EBRD’s Green Economy Transition approach, environmental sustainability is now one of the core areas of cooperation between the TaiwanICDF and EBRD.

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• Update: 2018/11/02
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