E-Mobility as a Driver for Change Towards a Gender Transformative and Just Transition to Electric Mobility

United Nations 2 years ago

Uganda’s transport sector is currently defined by men driving heavily polluting internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles on poor quality roads. Motorcycle-taxis have come to be a defining aspect of the transport sector in Uganda, particularly in regional towns and rural areas.1 Women report widespread harassment in the transport sector and are vanishingly rare as motorcycle-taxi or minibus operators. While they represent less than 1% of motorcycle-taxi drivers, they have made more inroads in government roles and in mobility startups. However, official gender-disaggregated data on the sector is severely lacking, with only very limited public data on vehicle imports and registrations, workforce composition, the occasional qualitative report on women in transport, and private sector data that is not made public. The e-mobility industry in Uganda has begun to address some of the major gender gaps in transportation but remains a long way off in gender parity in both leadership and ridership. From a brief survey of the sector, women tend to make up between 30-50% of the e-mobility startup workforce, but without known female founders or executives. Additionally, women electric motorcycle riders represent only around 2.3% of the e-motorcycle fleet, though this is higher than the less than 1% operating in the ICE motorcycle fleet. This report is a deliverable under the project “E-Mobility as a Driver for Change - Towards a gender transformative and just transition to electric mobility” which is being implemented by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) with funding from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The project aims to ensure that the introduction of, and shift to, electric mobility (E-Mobility) in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) will include and promote the position and interests of women, to create a more gender transformative and just transport sector. Engaging more women in the E-Mobility ecosystem can in turn help to speed up the transition to zero emission mobility systems.
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layersDaily Sustainability Digest

Published about 10 hours ago



Sustainable construction is moving from aspiration to liability management, with climate resilience, whole life carbon and verified emissions data now central to investment decisions.

The Environment Agency’s appointment of GRAHAM to deliver the Oxford Flood Alleviation Scheme signals the growing value of green infrastructure designed for climate adaptation. The scheme is expected to prevent more than £1.8bn in flood damage along the Thames, underlining how life cycle cost, building lifecycle performance and environmental sustainability in construction are becoming material financial considerations, not optional sustainability claims.

The circular economy is gaining practical force through the nationwide “Circularity in Practice” initiative, which aims to embed reuse, repair and material recovery into procurement, design and delivery. Circular economy in construction is shifting demolition waste from a disposal burden into an asset stream, strengthening resource efficiency in construction, end-of-life reuse in construction and circular construction strategies. For clients and contractors, sustainable material specification, low carbon construction materials, green building materials and environmental product declarations (EPDs) will become more important as supply chains face closer scrutiny over embodied carbon in materials and the carbon footprint of construction.

Carbon measurement is consolidating as Greenly acquires Normative to create what it describes as the world’s largest carbon-accounting platform. Better data will not cut emissions alone, but it will make whole life carbon assessment, lifecycle assessment and carbon footprint reduction harder to ignore across fragmented construction supply chains. The move strengthens the case for low carbon design, sustainable building design, eco-design for buildings and sustainable design that targets net zero whole life carbon rather than narrow operational efficiency. It also supports the wider push towards net zero carbon buildings, low carbon building delivery and decarbonising the built environment.

Political risk remains significant. The Trump administration’s rollback of coal and gas power-plant pollution limits threatens slower grid decarbonisation, weakening the benefits of electrified, energy-efficient buildings and low-impact construction. Green construction, eco-friendly construction, renewable building materials and carbon neutral construction depend on the carbon intensity of the energy system as much as on sustainable building practices. The direction of travel is clear: sustainable architecture and sustainable urban development will be judged on resilience, embodied carbon, whole life carbon, net zero carbon performance and credible standards such as BREEAM and BREEAM v7.

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