Panama, Nov 16 (EFE) .- If 22 Latin American cities replaced their fleet of buses and taxis by electric vehicles, they would save 64,000 million dollars in fuel from here by 2030 and 300 million tons of carbon dioxide would be released, according to a study released today by the UN.

The UN Environment Regional Office announced today at the Panamanian capital results of a study on the benefits of implementing an electric public transport system in twenty cities in the region, among which are Santiago de Chile, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Caracas, Lima, Quito, Bogota, Panama or Mexico City.

The transition to electric vehicles in these cities would also help prevent the premature death of more than 36,500 people as a result of respiratory diseases associated with air quality, according to the text.

"Electric vehicles they are the most efficient means of transport that exists today, because they are powered by electricity instead of fossil fuels, "explained the UN climate change coordinator. Environment for Latin America, Gustavo Máñez.

The specialist recalled that the vehicle fleet in Latin America, the fastest growing in the world, can triple in the next 25 years, which in turn would imply a proportional increase in emissions of greenhouse gases, greater local pollution and collapse in the road infrastructure of cities.

The study was carried out by the UN Office for the Environment in conjunction with the International Automobile Federation (FIA) and was supported by the Spanish Agency for Cooperation International for Development (AECID) and the European Union.

"Transforming the transport sector into the electricity sector is crucial to comply with the Paris Agreement," he added. Máñez during the presentation of the study.

The agreement, signed in 2015 by nearly 200 countries and from which the United States decided to leave recently, seeks to reduce emissions from greenhouse gases to ensure that the increase in temperature at the end of this century does not exceed 2 degrees centigrade.