Regulating the negative environmental effect of motor vehicles with fuel standards: Evidence from the Krasnodar Krai
Importance Currently, air pollution aggravates due to a continuing increase in the number of motor vehicles, high density of road networks, big volumes of freight transportation and high intensity of car traffic. It is especially true for regions where economies with diversified structure actively develop, for example, the Krasnodar Krai. Air pollution poses a significant threat to population health and reduces the quality of life. The Krasnodar Krai sees a growing trend in cancer, leukemia, and endocrine disorders. Objectives The research constitutes a comparative analysis of how the fuel standards evolved in Russia and worldwide, as well as their effect on air quality. Methods We analyze the evolution of the European, Chinese and Russian fuel standards, identify implementation difficulties and factors of inefficiency of standards in terms of the adverse effect of vehicle emissions on the environment. We apply a bibliographic, statistical and comparative analysis as the main research methods. Results We found that emissions per car grow in respect to all the main indicators of pollutants. We put special focus on the air quality of the Krasnodar Krai as a region of intensive tourism development, including automobile tourism. Conclusions As the analysis shows, incompliance with the fuel quality standards became the main reason for growth in motor vehicle emissions and pollution. We investigated practices of other regions to ensure the appropriate quality of fuel, and we propose a set of initial measures to formulate a comprehensive regional system for protecting the air quality.