Emission targets are unlikely to be met without a significant move away from motorised transport, according to the researchers, and shifting to active transport could save as much as a quarter of personal CO2 emissions from transport.
Published in the journal Global Environmental Change, this is the first study of the carbon-reducing impact of city-based lifestyle changes and it reveals that increases in active mobility significantly lower carbon footprints, even in urban European contexts with a high incidence of walking and cycling.
‘By following nearly 2,000 urban dwellers over time, we found that those who switch just one trip per day from car driving to cycling reduce their carbon footprint by about 0.5 tonnes over a year, representing a substantial share of average per capita CO2 emissions,’ says the lead researcher, Oxford’s Dr Christian Brand. ‘If just 10% of the population were to change travel behaviour, the emissions savings would be around 4% of lifecycle CO2 emissions from all car travel.’
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