A People Powered Panacea

Chris Boardman is at COP29 in Azerbaijan where he is explaining how active travel not only helps tackle climate change but also improves health and wellbeing and boosts investment in public transport

It was 7.30am on a dark autumn morning as I trundled towards West Kirby station on my bike, breath visible in the cool air, leaves crunching under my wheels. For nearly five years, this is how I began my commute into Greater Manchester. What I didn’t know at the time was this path would also lead to COP29. 

The trail I was pedalling on was, until 1969, a railway line that ran 11 miles down the spine of the peninsula where I live. It became both Britain’s first country park, and my traffic-free route to the local station, with its previous incarnation guaranteeing no gradient I encountered was steeper than 2.5%.  

No way would I have felt able to make that self-propelled early morning trip to the station, especially on dark winter nights on the (hilly) alternative road route, mixed in with stressed and bleary-eyed drivers. 

So, this unassuming gravel trail was the difference between jumping on a bike three times a week or climbing into a car. And I wouldn’t have been just driving to the station five miles away. Once in the car, I’d have been driving the 120-mile round trip to my Manchester office. 

That local link was the difference between a low carbon lifestyle and driving 14,400 miles a year, contributing to congestion, and helping to maintain the stubbornly unchanging transport emissions status quo, by producing over three tons of CO2 a year. 

My simple story is only skimming the surface of what that track unlocked. It doesn’t take into account that I felt able to give up my car, reducing our household vehicle ownership by 50%, or that this choice upped my usage of public transport for other trips too. 

All of this took place whilst I worked for the Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham as his Active Travel and Transport Commissioner, and it led me to consider the power of small changes when they are enabled at scale. How many others are there like me in the UK? Or in the world for that matter? And what would the collective impact be if all urban dwellers had the choices I did? 

New research from Oxford University shows that people who switch just one trip per day from car driving to cycling or walking reduce their carbon footprint by about 0.5 tonnes over a year – that’s an almost 30% reduction in transport-related CO2 for an average UK urban resident. If just one in five permanently changed their travel behaviour in this way, it’s estimated it would cut emissions from all car travel in Europe by about 8%. 

In a sense, this is the same ‘aggregation of marginal gains’ maxim, deployed effectively in sport to turn thousands of small improvements into Gold winning performance, applied to an even bigger challenge. 

The net effects of increasing active travel on CO2 emissions are complex and currently under-researched. But there is certainly enough evidence to show we are only just beginning to understand the full potential of embedding these affordable and proven choices, that offer manifold benefits, back into our lives. 

Last month Health Secretary Wes Streeting said: “Without action on prevention, the NHS will be overwhelmed.” By prioritising active travel, we are set to tackle climate change in a way that also improves the wellbeing of a nation, while simultaneously ensuring investment in public transport is enhanced by having a ready supply of customers connecting with those services for longer journeys.  

And that’s why I’m making the long trip to Azerbaijan to tell my tale as part of the UK delegation because the path to decarbonisation, better health and joined up investment is right outside our door. 

Chris Boardman CBE is National Active Travel Commissioner