Colombia is committed to mitigating climate change and modernizing its transportation towards zero-emission technologies. It has already implemented 1589 electric buses in Bogotá, Medellín and Cali, and is working hard to bring zero-emission public transport to more cities. The National Development Plan, the central government’s public policy and investment roadmap, promotes the transition to low- or zero-emission public transport and freight fleets, in line with the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) and the Climate Action Act. The commitment is to reach a total of 600,000 electric vehicles, which have the potential to reduce 4.04Mt of CO2 equivalent and will contribute to the goal of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 51% from the baseline year to 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. The objective of this technical assistance was to characterize the environmental impacts of the production and final disposal of electric vehicle batteries and to outline a battery post-consumption strategy. This made it possible to build a life cycle analysis of electric buses to be shared with the public and private sector, facilitating the formulation of regulations on the importation, reuse and recycling of electric vehicle batteries.

This resource is only available in Spanish. The testimony that accompanies this resource is available here. An English overview of Climate Action Accelerator impacts in Latin America and the Caribbean is available here.