The initiative of C40 and ICCT, in partnership with the Local Government of São Paulo, brought together experts in public transport at an event, on October 1, to discuss the implementation of zero emission technology in the new concession of public transport for the city. The initiative is intended to pave the way to the compliance with Municipal Law 16802, which, in 2018, established a deadline of 10 years for the 50% reduction of carbon emissions of the buses used in municipal transport and 20 years for the 100% reduction. The particulate matter (PM), in turn, should be reduced by 95% and the emission of nitrogen oxide by 95% up to 2028. The event is part of the ZEBRA project for the acceleration of the transition to zero emissions buses in Latin America, and São Paulo is one of the supported cities. Among the subjects addressed, the following are highlighted: the regulatory and legal frameworks for the reduction of emissions, the available technology presented by manufacturers interested in the national market, financing mechanisms for the introduction of zero emission buses presented by financial institutions and investors, and business models in actual cases of application in Latin-American cities.

In all, 107 people were present from 60 institutions, including 29 private operators, 4 zero emission bus manufacturers, 2 bus coach builders and 7 financial agencies (investors and banks). The following next steps were defined:

Support for the structuring of projects and business models for the technological transition together with local private operators and regional coordination. It includes a definition of the roles of the actors and the solutions;

Support for the operators’ union SPUrbanuss in the technical training of managers and the design of financial models that can meet the needs of its associates;

The need to involve the public office financial department to evaluate the impact of the alternatives of zero emission technology and the different business models in the economic and financial balance of the agreements;

Study of the financial and technical incentives that can be offered to the operators in order to enable the zero emission technology as being the most technically and financially feasible.