Driving public transit decarbonization: the role of international cooperation missions on battery-electric bus adoption in Latin America

• Missions catalyze BEB transitions via multilevel governance and coordinated finance. • They act as policy entrepreneurs aligning agendas and enabling sociotechnical change. • Concentrated in major cities, they generate visible pilots and global branding effects. • Mission narratives connect BEBs to health, justice, and urban renewal, extending beyond decarbonization goals. • Lasting legacies: institutional capacity, reduced risk, and readiness for BEBs. This article examines how international cooperation missions have shaped the adoption of battery-electric buses (BEBs) in Latin America (2018–2025) and what this means for governing public transport decarbonization. Through content analysis of national plans and a comparative case study of ZEBRA and the TUMI E-Bus Mission, we find that while national and local governments retain formal authority, substantive coordination often takes place in arenas mediated by transnational finance, expertise, and influence. In practice, policy entrepreneurship is exercised by international organizations working with cities to open windows of opportunity, mobilize capital, and accelerate learning. Advances concentrate in major metropolitan centers with global projection, creating high-impact demonstrations that serve as benchmarks for other municipalities—not only smaller ones, but also those outside the circuit of large regional capitals. Yet, structural dependence on external funding shapes the behavior of implementing organizations, aligning their influence with donor priorities and making effectiveness contingent on government endorsement. Missions are thus most valuable as nodality tools that reduce uncertainty, connect diverse actors, and build institutional capacity—helping cities prepare for the emergence of new technologies that challenge ICE-based models. To broaden impact, future efforts should strengthen coordination between national, metropolitan, and local levels of government, diversify financing, and extend tailored support beyond flagship cities.