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May 17 14 tweets 9 min read
🚗 Electric vehicles are set to be the future of green transport - and women are driving the revolution in India.

⚡️ Its employment gender gap worsened across many sectors during the pandemic - except #EV manufacturing.

Meet the leaders & workers at the wheel of the industry 🧵
♀️ This is Prabhjot Kaur, co-founder and CEO of Esmito Solutions.

🔋 The Indian start-up produces batteries as well as crucial battery-swapping stations for EVs.

As she's built her business, she's often had to patiently explain her job in meetings where she was the only woman. Image
⭕️ Prabhjot credits her father for her determination.

🥋 He persuaded her to go to karate classes where she was the only teenage girl.

🗣 "It translated into me being the best student... It also taught me not to fear my surroundings and so I never feared large groups of men." Image
🟢 @SulajjaFirodia launched @KineticgreenEV, which sells electric vehicles.

🚘 Yet the start of her career in transport was tough.

After finishing university in the U.S. in the mid-1990s, she joined her family's auto business, only to be met with skepticism by staff. Image
But Sulajja has worked hard to shake up the male-dominated auto industry.

🚘 8 years ago, at a meeting with major auto brand reps, all men, she raised the fact that only 10% of people in India drove cars.

She has since made green mobility for the masses a policy priority. Image
♀️ Both Prabhjot and Sulajja's stories highlight the challenges of breaking into a business that has traditionally been steered by men.

🚪 But as #EV sales surge in India, more doors are opening - including for thousands of women factory workers. tmsnrt.rs/3sExect ImageImage
👷‍♀️ Pratibha Kumbhar is one of them.

⚡️ She trained in soldering and aimed for a career in electrical work before motherhood stalled her dreams.

🔋 But now she helps assemble #EVs in a Pune factory - her first job as a formal worker with fixed wages.
tmsnrt.rs/3sExect Image
♀️ As more women join the industry, they can bring new perspectives.

🛵 @mahuaacharya of @ConvergenceCESL says they often bring up issues men fail to spot, like highlighting safety and accessibility when setting up EV charging stations - not just power and land availability. Image
📈 Women-led businesses have also been key to growing the market for EVs.

💰 With non-profits and state authorities, Sulajja subsidised electric rickshaws as a new source of income for women drivers in Dantewada, as well as bicycle rickshaw pullers in Uttar Pradesh. Image
♀️ The Indian government thinks the EV sector will create 750,000 jobs in the next five years.

Women are expected to fill a good share of the roles, from design to manufacturing.

"Women leaders are already inspiring many to join," says Munira Loliwala of TeamLease Digital. Image
📈 Boosting EV sales is also part of India's plan to tackle the #ClimateCrisis.

New policies aim to cut planet-heating emissions from fossil fuel transport by promoting the use of electric scooters, rickshaws and cars.

⛽️ Rising fuel prices are also helping the industry grow. Image
🌹 But the picture is not all rosy.

👷‍♀️Labour rights experts say that sometimes, firms prefer female workers because they are viewed as less likely to unionise - and tend to receive lower wages.
tmsnrt.rs/3sExect Image
👗 Other manufacturing industries like clothing often hire women for these reasons.

🚨 Labour rights experts are urging EV companies to seize the opportunity to better protect workplace rights and equalise pay for women.
tmsnrt.rs/3sExect Image
♀️ @Rolionaroll and @AnuraNagaraj report on what it's like to be a woman working in India's fast-growing #ElectricVehicle sector: tmsnrt.rs/3sExect Image

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More from @TRF_Climate

May 19
⚡️ How can the world generate more clean energy? The answer could lie where you least expect it - down the toilet.

🇫🇮 Using sewage is one way Finland’s oldest city is planning to become carbon-neutral.

💩 Here's how the power of poo is helping Turku tackle the #ClimateCrisis🧵
🇫🇮 This is the Kakolanmaki wastewater plant, located in a cavern beneath Turku.

🔋 It uses industrial heat pumps to extract energy from waste flowing from the city's drains and sewers.

Sewage sludge is also used to produce biogas, a replacement for natural gas.
Guess how many people’s homes could be heated by Kakolanmaki?

tmsnrt.rs/3wA6nQ3
Read 7 tweets
May 5
🐐 Could fatter goats be a secret weapon in the fight against poaching?

🇿🇼 In Zimbabwe, farmers are breeding bigger animals to earn more money and feed their families, so they don’t need to hunt protected wildlife.

We won’t bleat around the bush. Here’s what you need to know.🧵
🇿🇼 More than 60% of Zimbabwe's population is involved in farming, according to @FAO.

📉 But many living in Binga village near the border with Zambia face frequent waves of drought.

When their crops fail due to erratic rains, their income drops and food supplies dwindle.
⭕️ Scorching temperatures linked to climate change also damage habitats for some wildlife, driving them onto human settlements in search of food and water.

🚨 Farmers then resort to killing the animals to protect their land and harvests.
tmsnrt.rs/3MMB6Q4
Read 7 tweets
Apr 14
🏭 Kilns billowing smoke
🔥 Garbage piles on fire
🚧 Builders burning tar

🇮🇳 Welcome to Bhiwadi, the city with the world’s worst air pollution

Many people face ‘a slow poison’- but are more worried about putting food on the table. We go inside the Indian city to find out why.🧵
🇮🇳 Bhiwadi's air carries more than 20x @WHO’s recommended maximum level of tiny airborne particles.

🩺 Doctors say long-term exposure can lead to:

😷 Asthma
🫁 Lung cancer
🩸 Reduced blood oxygen levels that can cause irregular heartbeats
tmsnrt.rs/3rpuvTD
🚦 Meet traffic policeman Surendar Singh. He works at a clogged intersection in the city.

🫀 What “literally keeps [him] alive” is an implanted cardiac defibrillator device inside his chest.

🗣 "It's the price you pay for working in this madness," he said.
Read 9 tweets
Apr 13
🌊 It's hard to ignore climate change when it's knocking at your front door.

🇺🇸 But as rising seas and stronger storms threaten Virginia’s Tangier Island, some residents are skeptical about the #ClimateCrisis.

Their homes could be wiped out yet they're set on staying. Why?🧵
🇺🇸 Welcome to Chesapeake Bay, home to Tangier Island in the U.S.

📈 Researchers believe 60% of its habitable upland areas have disappeared since 1967 - and the rate is only accelerating.

⭕️ As the land shrinks, so is its population. Today just 400 or so people remain.
🌊 Some residents on the island blame erosion - not climate change or sea level rise - for Tangier’s problems.

🗣 James “Ooker” Eskridge, Tangier Island's mayor whose family has lived there for generations, says: “If we’re refugees, we’ll be erosion refugees.”
Read 9 tweets
Feb 15
🇮🇳 India is betting big on solar parks to meet its ambitious climate targets.

🚨 But there could be a dark side to these green energy plans.

With more communities losing land and income, we go inside some of the world’s biggest solar farms to ask: are they worth it? 🧵
🟢 India is on a mission to move away from coal, which still produces 70% of the country’s electricity.

⚡️The Bhadla and Pavagada solar parks are key to the country’s renewable energy goals, generating a combined 4,350 megawatts.

⭕️ That's enough to power several million homes.
⭕️ For villagers like YouTuber Anand Kumar, the Pavagada park raises many questions.

He uses his channel to educate people about how clean energy helps tackle climate change.

🗣“Only if we know what is going on and what is our right, will we be able to fight for it," he said.
Read 11 tweets
Feb 3
🚨 The world is losing the Amazon at an alarming rate.

🌎 But no one is protecting the Earth better than indigenous people.

🌳 Here’s how their wisdom and ideas are helping save our rainforests and fight the #ClimateCrisis - before it’s too late. 🧵

news.trust.org/item/202202031…
1️⃣ Sustainable farming

🌱 Colombia’s indigenous people use age-old farming techniques

⭕️ Women farmers use a piece of cleared land for five to seven years and then move on to a nearby patch.

🌳 This allows the soil to regenerate and trees to regrow.

news.trust.org/item/202202031…
2️⃣ Mapping lands

🗺 Many communities have a map in their heads, and sometimes on paper, of how land should be used.

🎣 Areas for hunting, fishing and farming are clearly laid out.

🔒 But sacred sites and homes belonging to isolated communities are heavily protected.
Read 9 tweets

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