STORY: Drivers in Colombia's capital

left their cars at home for a day

as part of a campaign to encourage cleaner transportation

Locator: Bogota, Colombia

(Carolina Urrutia, Bogota's Secretary of Environment)

"In Bogota more or less 23% of the emissions of particulate matter, the pollutant that affects people's health, comes from the vehicles on the roads, all kinds of vehicles, and more or less 47, almost 50% of our greenhouse gas emissions, the ones that cause climate change, also come from road transport. This day is an opportunity to learn to mobilize the way we want in the future in this city."

The initiative kept an estimated 2,280,000 vehicles off the road

which reduced carbon dioxide emissions by about 8,300 tons