Since ground transportation in Colombia was responsible for 12% of the overall country GHG emissions (29 MtCO2e) in 2017, tackling the transport sector is crucial for complying with climate change mitigation goals and electric mobility can be a major tool for achieving this. Additionally, public concern about air pollution impacts on public health has increased over the past years. According to calculations in Colombia urban air pollution is responsible of 10 thousand premature deaths and 75% of national health costs of environmental degradation, this is about 2% of the GDP (DNP, 2018).
Buses play an important role in Colombia’s transport landscape. However, given the increasing urban population densities and the deteriorating air quality (23% of Bogota’s local air pollution comes from buses, especially from older buses), the bus systems’ various configurations – from small feeder buses to bi-articulated high frequency corridor buses – together imply an untapped potential for providing access to clean urban mobility. The TRANSfer project is developing a National E-Bus Promotion Program together with the Ministry of Transport, that comprises technical and financial design, an MRV system and a steering structure.
In February 2020, Colombia became MobiliseYourCity partner. With partnering in this alliance, the National Government intends to obtain benefits in terms of health, quality of life in the cities, social justice, economic prosperity, reduction of road accidents and solutions that will allow us to achieve transformational changes towards a more sustainable transport that will contribute to the fulfillment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) proposed by the United Nations.
The city of Ibagué also has become a member of MobiliseYourCity in 2017 and has been selected by EUROCLIMA+ for the implementation of a pilot project on electric bicycle sharing scheme, which will be implemented with the support of GIZ.
In Bogotá, GIZ further assists the preparation of a 25km cycling highway (supported through the C40 Cities Finance Facility) under the umbrella of NAMA TAnDem.