Jerusalem, Feb 1 (IANS): All buses purchased in Israel since 2026 should be electric types, Israel's Ministry of Environmental Protection announced on Tuesday.
By 2024 at least 30 per cent of the buses purchased will be zero-emission ones, and by 2025 half of the procured buses should be emission-free, the Ministry said in a statement.
As part of the efforts to electrify public transportation, all municipal public transportation in Israel will be with zero emissions by 2036, the statement added.
It said that today diesel-powered buses account for less than 1 per cent of all vehicles in Israel but emit nearly 16 per cent of all nitrogen oxides and about seven per cent of all soot particles emitted, Xinhua news agency reported.
In contrast, electric buses cut greenhouse gas emissions by up to 80 per cent and reduce noise by threefold, it concluded.