Mr Kwaku Ofori Asiamah, the Minister for Transport has said the sector remains a major source of green gas emissions, slowing down the nation’s effort to achieve the global target of net-zero emissions by 2025.

He said this was due to the nation’s dependence on fossil fuels, and that the Driver Vehicle and Licensing Authority had registered 3.2 million vehicles as at the end of 2022.

He said 72 per cent of the registered vehicles were petrol powered, 27 per cent diesel and about one per cent Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG).

The sector minister said this in a speech read on his behalf at the opening of the Bono Regional Consultative meeting on the Electric Vehicle Policy held at Abesim, near Sunyani.

It was organised by the Ministry of Transport and attended by key stakeholders in the transport industry, including representatives of the National Road Safety Authority, Driver Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA), Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) and other security services.

The Ministry, with support from the Ministries of Energy and Finance, are organising nationwide consultative meetings to collect inputs from key players in the transport industry into the policy.

Mr Asiamah expressed worry that the impact of climate change and global warming were well felt in parts of the country, and that it was having enormous consequences on the environment and human life.

Hence the need to phase out diesel and petrol-powered vehicles for electric ones.

Madam Justina Owusu-Banahene, the Bono Regional Minister said the nation must firmly do away with over-aged vehicles to put the nation in a position to achieve net-zero emissions by 2025.

She said carbon emissions from over-aged vehicles coupled with air pollution were contributing enormously to global warming, slowing down the nation’s climate change mitigation actions.

Mad. Owusu-Banahene said the government was committed in doing everything possible to help clear over-aged vehicles from the system, saying the vehicle assembling plants being set up in the country were all indications that the government was truly dedicated to place the country on a point to achieve the net-zero emissions.

This is because the vehicle assembling plants would make it easier for Ghanaians to buy and use brand new vehicles.