BYD joins Latin American Mayors to lead climate change mitigation

Global green tech giant BYD Co. Ltd. joined over 20 Latin American Mayors at the C40 Latin American Mayors Forum – held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on March 27, 2015 – to take the lead in climate change mitigation. Mayors of Buenos Aires and Mexico City, Mauricio Macri and Miguel Ángel Mancera, along with former President of Mexico Felipe Calderón, joined Mayor of Rio de Janeiro and C40’s Chair Eduardo Paes, to announce and sign two important documents: the Declaration on the Compact of Mayors and the C40 City Clean Bus Declaration of Intent.

Both documents share the goal of delivering climate friendly solutions by reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. “By taking these decisive steps here today, Latin American Cities are leading the way towards reducing climate risks and greenhouse gas emissions, while improving health, well-being and economic opportunities for urban citizens”, said Mayor Eduardo Paes. During the Forum, Mayor of Curitiba Gustavo Fruet made a presentation to showcase Curitiba’s leadership in sustainability and clean transportation. During his speech, he presented pictures of the BYD e6 taxi, which has been running in Curitiba since the beginning of March this year. Along with the taxi, pictures of the BYD pure electric bus also drew the audience’s attention and acclaim.

With its state-of-the-art Electrified Public Transportation Solutions already in successful operation in more than100 urban centers worldwide – in South America, BYD’s electric buses and taxis are in operation in major cities like Bogotá, Montevideo, Santiago, Curitiba and São Paulo – the company proves it is fully equipped to enable Mayors to achieve their sustainability goals of decarbonizing urban mass transportation. “For many years BYD has been leading worldwide efforts to electrify public transportation and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Taking part in such historical moment is very gratifying, especially seeing Latin America as the first to join efforts in a continental scale. The cities of Bogotá and Curitiba were pioneers in implementing Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) solutions, which are now moving on to most Latin American Cities,” said Fred Ni, vice president of BYD America. Adalberto Maluf, BYD’s Director of Government Relations stated: “As global pioneers – with our electric buses already a reality in cities like Hong Kong, London and Los Angeles – it is especially encouraging for us to see Latin American Cities making bold commitments to reduce emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gas through electrified public transportation. We are excited to see the commitment of these cities – like Campinas, Salvador and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, along with Cali in Colombia, Asuncion in Paraguay and Buenos Aires in Argentina – to improve their citizens’ quality of life by reducing the emissions resulting from their public services.”