A little over a year ago, Nidia Cely spotted a bright green public bus driving down the street in Bogota, Colombia. At the time, Cely had just lost her husband of 17 years to COVID-19 and was struggling to support her two teenage daughters as a delivery driver.
In the bus, though, she saw hope. That is because it was driven by a woman, a rare site in Colombia. Cely would learn the vehicle was operated by La Rolita, a public transit firm in Bogota whose entire fleet is electric.
About 18 months later, Cely landed a position driving one of those bright green buses, her first steady job.
“I am very happy to be in a great company where I feel supported and trusted,” she said recently. “I am grateful that I am now able to offer a better future to my daughters.”
Cely is one of 479 female bus drivers who work for La Rolita, which operates a fleet of 195 buses. The company is considered a pioneer for two reasons: it is one of the world’s few all-electric public transport companies and it has made hiring women a priority. Just over 50 per cent of La Rolita’s workforce and 60 per cent of its drivers are women.
La Rolita is in many ways a model firm in a world struggling with both spiralling greenhouse gas emissions and gender inequality, say observers.
“Enhancing women's participation and leadership in electric mobility will be critical to securing a healthy, prosperous, and just transition to sustainable mobility and clean energy,” says Rob De Jong, Head of the Sustainable Mobility Unit with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
The organization is leading a project in Colombia designed to make the public transit system more gender-inclusive.
High-emissions industry
The global transport sector is responsible for 15 per cent of emissions of carbon dioxide, a potent greenhouse gas that is driving climate change. The industry’s emissions—which total 8.1 gigatonnes annually—are growing faster than any other sector and are set to double by 2050, largely on the back of increases in the Global South.
Reining in those emissions is considered key to countering climate change. Switching to electric vehicles, promoting wider use of public transportation and better designing cities to require less travel, among other policies, could reduce all transportation emissions by more than 50 per cent.
In Latin America, a growing number of cities are embracing electric transport. The region boasts 5,084 e-buses, constituting about 6 per cent of its bus fleet, according to E-Bus Radar, an online platform that tracks electric bus use. In Colombia, 11 per cent of buses are electric. The country’s capital, Bogota, is home to 1,485 electric buses, says María Fernanda Ortiz, manager of TransMillenio, the bus rapid transit system that serves Bogota and Soacha, a neighbouring city.
In 2023, Colombia joined a novel project launched by UNEP and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. The initiative, which spans six countries, is designed to ensure a gender-inclusive shift to electric transport, creating jobs for women and ensuring public transit meets their needs.
La Rolita’s emphasis on hiring women has proven life changing for Jessica Mosqueira. She left home as a teenager, becoming a young mother and struggling for more than a decade to make ends meet. That changed when she joined La Rolita and began driving one of the company’s buses. In September 2023, she received a certification that attests to her driving skills, a recognition she celebrated with her two daughters and her extended family, with whom she is beginning to reconnect.
“I had been in a dark place,” says Mosqueira, who at one point almost lost custody of her daughters. “[But] I can now offer a better future to my children and show them that, in life, there are second chances.”
Maria Eugenia Silva, a former waitress, joined La Rolita in 2022. She says she has found an ideal work-life balance thanks to the flexible hours the company offers its female employees.
Silva says passengers are also happy with the company’s gender-diversity strategy: "People appreciate seeing a woman driving the buses. They say that we greet them with a smile."
Push towards gender equality
Globally, women hold less than 20 per cent of jobs in the transport sector, though Colombia has made strides in that area.
“Gender equality is crucial to advance the environmental dimension of sustainable development,” says Juan Bello, UNEP’s Director for Latin America and the Caribbean. “Sustainable development will only be achieved when everyone has a voice and an opportunity to contribute fully to a greener and fairer world.”
A key part of the UNEP-backed gender-diversity project is to compile information on how accessible transit is to women, their perceptions about safety and the success of gender-related transport policies.
“This data is crucial for early identification and rectification of inequalities,” said Melissa Valencia Duque, a researcher at Colombia’s Pereira Technological University, which is involved in the project. “By focusing on access to services and employment rights, we can foster an industry that grows without conventional gender gaps.”
The initiative is part of the UNEP-led Global Electric Mobility Programme, which helps 60 low- and middle-income countries in their shift to electric transit. The programme has provided over US$130 million in grants and other loan amounts at national, regional and global levels, part of an effort to jumpstart the transition away from fossil fuels. That shift is especially important in Latin America and the Caribbean, where 40 per cent of all carbon dioxide emissions come from the transport sector.
“The large-scale introduction of e-mobility will bring systemic changes in the way transport systems are planned, operated and used, and will provide an opportunity to integrate aspects of gender inclusiveness,” says UNEP’s De Jong. “This will provide the opportunity to use the transition to transform cities away from car- and male-centred transport systems into zero-emission, accessible transport systems.”
From March 18 to 21, Bogota, Colombia, hosted an event to accelerate the uptake of electric mobility across Latin America and the Caribbean. The Latin American Electric Mobility Forum 2024 was a collaborative effort between the SOLUTIONSplus Project and the UNEP/Global Environment Facility LAC Regional Platform for Support and Investment in Electric Mobility. The event brought together approximately 100 stakeholders from the electric mobility value chain, including those from Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru, St. Lucia and Uruguay. The forum featured on-site training sessions, case study presentations, and insights into regional experiences and achievements in electric mobility.
