Dozens of civil society groups have demanded the UK government do more to promote cycling and walking, after this summer’s extreme heat exposed the desperate need to decarbonise transport. This summer’s heatwaves and wildfires were “immediate, real-world manifestations of the climate emergency”, the groups said, making reform of transport – responsible for more carbon emissions than any other sector in the UK – an urgent priority. Last year, domestic transport was responsible for almost a third of the UK’s net greenhouse gas emissions – with the total emissions from the sector increasing 2% over the previous year.
The groups call for a “modal shift” in transport provision. The demand comes after Labour appeared to have shelved targets for an increase in trips made by public transport and a reduction in trips using private vehicles. Before the 2024 election, Labour had committed to setting goals for shifting travel habits away from private vehicles and towards public transport and active travel, such as cycling and walking.
But by this summer the government’s cycling and walking strategy had no broader targets to increase the percentage of total trips made by public transport or to reduce the percentage of total trips made by cars. The intervention, signed by 54 civil society organisations, was led by the Campaign for Better Transport. Plowden said their call had been lent increased urgency by the summer’s repeated heatwaves and the oil price inflation caused by the US war on Iran.
Plowden said: “It’s really a question around getting on with the sort of investment primarily in local transport improvements that would allow all of those things to happen simultaneously and as part of the same process. And of course obviously increase the uptake of electric vehicles as well.” A Department for Transport spokesperson said: “We’re giving people real choice in how they travel by making buses, trains and active travel cheaper, more reliable and easier to access – including lowering the bus fare cap to £2, freezing rail fares, and investing £4.5bn in cycling and walking. More broadly, we’re accelerating the UK’s transition to cleaner transport through our ZEV [zero-emission vehicle] mandate, backed by £7.5bn.”
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