ecuador- quito

The Urban Pathways Implementation Tracker
is tracking the Projects Progress and delivers information on its four main outputs:

​INFORM, INSPIRE, INITIATE & IMPLEMENTATION

city profile: quito

Ecuador´s Nationally Determined Contributions: ​
Ecuador intends to reduce its energy related GHG emissions in 20-25% by 2025 relative to the emissions of 2011. With the support of the international community Ecuador estimates a reduction of up to 45,8%.

Population: 16,7 millions (2018)
Urban population growth: 2,3% between 2001 and 2010 (last census); 1,9% (estimate 2010-2020). Next census will be carried out in 2020
GDP: 98.613,97 million USD (2016)
Total Area: 256.370 km2

Quito, the capital of Ecuador, has a population of 2.7 million inhabitants. In 2011, it generated 5,164,946 tCO2-eq, which per capita represent 2.55 tCO2-eq. Quito aims at reducing its ecological footprint in 5% every year, starting in 2019. Quito has very good indicators in terms of service provision and coverage, but it is just starting to introduce environmental-friendly practices in their collection and management.

Energy: 50% of the energy comes from renewable sources, mainly hydropower. The other 50% is generated by thermoelectric plants. At present, the Municipality of Quito is implementing a series of projects to improve the energy efficiency and the share of renewable energy in Quito’s energy matrix. Some of them are the implementation of LED public lighting in the Historic Centre of Quito, photovoltaic infrastructure for isolated homes in rural areas, and new regulations to promote energy efficiency in buildings. 
 
Transport: Public transport in Quito accounts for 62% of the total trips. Quito possesses a comprehensive public transportation system that consists of 5 BRT lines, their corresponding feeder buses, and conventional buses. This system has already reached capacity. Thus, the municipality decided to build the first subway line, which is supposed to start operations in 2019. Furthermore, the municipality aims at replacing the fossil-fuelled BRT fleet with electric buses. A transit-oriented development strategy and control of the urban expansion still need to be implemented to have higher social and environmental returns from the high investments in public transport. 

Waste: Quito generates 1,900t of solid waste every day. A high share of it is taken to a landfill in the outskirts of the city, where the solid waste is turned into energy, generating 5 MW per day. This represents an emission reduction of 100,000 tCO2-eqper year.  Moreover, the Municipality of Quito is currently building a wastewater treatment plant, which will not only help to clean up the rivers, but it will also generate 40 MW of hydropower. This project will contribute to an emission reduction of 150,000 tCO2-eqper year

factsheets on energy, transport and waste management

The factsheets provide a basic introduction to specific measures in the areas of energy, mobility and waste management, which aims to provide a basket of possible solutions to partner cities.

UP Factsheets

e-learning programme

E-learning programme builds on the toolbox and factsheets and aims to provide a better understanding of possible actions, highlighting the experiences from the implementation of measures in other cities building on the wealth of knowledge of international experts. ​

UP E-Learning

Action Tracker

The Urban Pathways Action Tracker provides an overview of the project’s activities in the cities and reflects on the various action areas. The main objective of this is to share learnings with other cities and identify opportunities for synergies with other projects and initiatives.

UP Action Tracker

Capacity building in Ecuador

Change Maker Programme

City-to-City Partnerships

Regional Replication

policy environment assessment on ecuador

In its Intended National Determined Contributions, Ecuador commits to reduce by 2025 its emissions in the energy sector in 20,4% - 25% below the 2011 levels. The government states that with the proper availability of resources and support from the international community, Ecuador could reduce its emissions in the sector in up to 45,8% (Ecuadorian Government, 2015).
According to the National GHG Inventory, in 2012 Ecuador produced 80.627 Gg CO2-eq, representing only 0,15% globally. Latin America generates 11% of the total GHG emissions. The sources of GHG emissions in Ecuador are, in order of importance, the energy sector (47%), Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) (25%), agriculture (18%), industry (5%) and waste (4%) (MAE, 2017). The energy sector produced 37.594,03 GgCO2-eq in 2012, which accounts for 47% of national emissions. Between 1994 and 2012 the GHG emissions of this sector increased in 151%.
Transport is the most pollutant subsector with 46% of the sector emissions and 21% of national emissions. It is followed by the energy industry with 32% (MAE, 2017).

Transport: 
The transport generated 16.977,02 GgCO2-eq in 2012 with an increase of 123% in relation to 1994.
86% of the energy is used by terrestrial transport, which runs mostly on fossil fuels (gasoline and diesel).
Almost 2 million vehicles were registered in 2015, which in comparison to 2010 represents an increase of 57%. 28% of the registered vehicles are older than 12 years (INEC, 2016).

Energy: 
The electricity generation emitted 12.032,44 GgCO2-eq in 2012.
In 2015 26.462 GWh of electricity were produced, from which 52% came from renewable sources, mainly from hydroelectric power plants, and the rest from thermoelectric power.
The contribution of other renewable sources was very low with approximately 2%, from which the majority comes from biomass (MAE, 2017).
However, the studies conducted by the national government to assess the generation potential of different renewable sources show that the solar energy potential in Ecuador is 911 MW and only 1MW is being produced, wind power potential is 884 MW, from which only 2,1% is being used and geothermal energy has a potential of 952 MW, which has not been exploited at all (MAE, UNDP, & FOCAM, 2015).

Waste management: 
The waste sector produced 3.377,83 GgCO2-eq in 2012, which accounts for 4% of national emissions.
More than 80% of which comes from solid waste. Between 1994 and 2012 the GHG emissions of the waste sector increased in 136%.
12.450 tonnes of solid waste were generated every day in 2016, from which 61% was organic waste, 11% plastic, 9% paper and 2,6% glass.
Solid waste management in Ecuador is a competence of the municipal authorities.   125 out of 221 municipalities (57%) dispose their solid waste in open-air land-fills, being responsible for the pollution of air, soil and water, as well as for the health problems of the population and in particular of informal waste pickers.

Policy Development

Project Development

Funding solutions

Implementation Facility

Action Plans

Bankable projects

Implementation support