A coalition of bike riding, walking and health groups is pushing for greater commitments for active transport at the latest global climate change meeting in Azerbaijan in November.
The Partnership for Active Travel and Health (PATH) members include the European Cycling Federation, Dutch Cycling Embassy and World Cycling Alliance as well as the United Nations Environment Program.
Bicycle Network has signed on to PATH’s open letter to national governments attending the Council of Parties 29 (COP29) meeting to include bike riding and walking infrastructure in their climate commitments.
Even though most countries promote riding and walking in their transport strategies and goals, not enough are committing the money needed to build infrastructure, according to the open letter:
Enabling more people to walk and cycle safely and to access public transport by foot and by bicycle can help cut transport emissions in half by 2030 … Despite two-thirds of nations having active travel policies in place, there remains a pressing need for increased ambition, action, and investment in their climate commitments to fully unlock the benefits of walking and cycling.
As part of its call to action, PATH has produced tools to help countries improve support for bike riding and has assessed progress to date by countries and regions.
It rates countries on their Nationally Determined Contributions towards bike riding, these are commitments countries make to reduce their emissions as outlined in the global Paris Agreement on climate change. Australia fares poorly over several parameters for supporting active transport.
PATH members will speak at and participating in nine workshops and forums at the COP29 meeting in an effort to loosen government purse strings for active transport.
England’s Active Travel Commissioner, Chris Boardman, spoke about the power of cycling in combating climate change on Tuesday 19 November at the panel discussion Active Travel: a people powered panacea?
And some 200 dedicated advocates have ridden part or all of the way from Paris to Baku over 6500km to lobby for more action on bike riding: https://cop29bikeride.org/
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