17 min

Tinkering with Tuk Tuks: How One Sri Lankan Engineer is Transforming his Community and Local Economy Heat of the Moment

    • News

Converting to electric vehicles is an important part of the quest to eliminate carbon pollution and stabilize the atmosphere. It’s estimated that globally the transportation sector contributes about or about one fifth of all global emissions; three quarters of that comes from road travel. And it’s not just CO2 emissions that are on people’s minds when they think about converting, it’s also clean air and less sound pollution, and greater economic potential.  
On today’s episode we hear first from Todd Watkins, the Director of Transportation for Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland. He discusses how the Montgomery County Public School system is changing their fleet of fourteen-hundred buses to electric, over the next fourteen years.
Our featured guest Sasiranga de Silva is an engineer and lecturer at the University of Moratuwa. De Silva has developed a conversion kit that converts two-stroke tuk tuks to electric, improving the health and wellbeing of his community and creating cost savings for local drivers. 
Interested in learning more in the runup to COP26, the United Nations climate conference? We’re offering free access to an FP Analytics briefing called “Firm Zero-Emission Power.” Normally that’s only available to FP Insider subscribers, but you can read the report for free by submitting your email. Go to https://foreignpolicy.com/cop26 to learn more.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Converting to electric vehicles is an important part of the quest to eliminate carbon pollution and stabilize the atmosphere. It’s estimated that globally the transportation sector contributes about or about one fifth of all global emissions; three quarters of that comes from road travel. And it’s not just CO2 emissions that are on people’s minds when they think about converting, it’s also clean air and less sound pollution, and greater economic potential.  
On today’s episode we hear first from Todd Watkins, the Director of Transportation for Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland. He discusses how the Montgomery County Public School system is changing their fleet of fourteen-hundred buses to electric, over the next fourteen years.
Our featured guest Sasiranga de Silva is an engineer and lecturer at the University of Moratuwa. De Silva has developed a conversion kit that converts two-stroke tuk tuks to electric, improving the health and wellbeing of his community and creating cost savings for local drivers. 
Interested in learning more in the runup to COP26, the United Nations climate conference? We’re offering free access to an FP Analytics briefing called “Firm Zero-Emission Power.” Normally that’s only available to FP Insider subscribers, but you can read the report for free by submitting your email. Go to https://foreignpolicy.com/cop26 to learn more.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

17 min

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