Good cop, bad cop

Why cycling is so vital in the climate fight

- Laura Laker

As I write this, COP27 is kicking off in Egypt, with world leaders meeting to discuss measures to limit global heating to 1.5°C, a target we are currently set to miss, with potentially devastating consequences. Cycling has a crucial role to play. It's no understatement to say it hasn't yet reached its full potential here in the UK, though. Our terrifying summer heatwave, and extreme weather events around the world that continue to devastate lives and livelihoods, have shown us how important it is to tackle the climate crisis yesterday.

Transport is our largest single carbon emitter, the latest Government figures putting it at 24% of our total CO₂ output, 91% of which comes from road transport, half of which again is from cars and taxis.

For many of the trips we take, the car is not the best travel choice - it's expensive, inefficient and often stressful - but thanks to decades of car-centric transport planning, it's often not only the easiest but the only choice. Around 59% of our day-to-day journeys are less than five miles - a distance cycled in around 30 minutes. These sub-five mile trips generate 19% of our cars' carbon emissions, in part because there simply aren't decent cycle routes where we need them.

When politicians talk about investment in infrastructure that supports growth, a problematic enough concept on a finite planet, often they ignore the fact road building offers desperately poor returns sometimes barely earning our money back. Meanwhile, the car trips roads generate increase air pollution and congestion and make cycling and walking harder. Active travel, meanwhile, offers fabulous investment returns. The head of Active Travel England, Chris Boardman, recently estimated for its current £2bn active travel fund, England will reap £12bn on things like better health, air quality and decongestion - a whopping six to one return.