Up to several million tons: daily cycling could massively reduce CO2 emissions

several million tons
Daily cycling can drastically reduce CO2 emissions

08/20/2022, 3:45 PM

Everyone can help reduce CO2 pollution. This is shown by a study from Denmark, where people cycle about 1.6 kilometers a day instead of driving. If everyone cycled as much as the Danes, more than 400 million tons of carbon dioxide could be saved each year.

According to a new study, every person cycling every day can help reduce global carbon dioxide emissions by 700 million tons annually. Main purpose of the magazinecommunication earth and environmentThe published study aims to show that cycling plays an important role in reducing CO2 emissions from transportation, said lead author Gang Liu, a professor of green technologies at the University of Southern Denmark.

According to Liu, the focus of the debate so far has been on the advantages of electric cars. Annual CO2 emissions can be reduced in a big way by cycling every day. Benefits to health and improvement in air quality are also not included.

In this context, the study refers to the Netherlands and Denmark – the Dutch cycle about 2.6 kilometers per day, the Danes about 1.6 kilometers. If everyone cycled as much as Danes do, there would be 414 million tonnes of carbon dioxide saved each year, which researchers have calculated to be the equivalent of Britain’s annual CO2 emissions. With 2.6 kilometers of cycle paths, as in the Netherlands, emissions could be reduced to 686 million tonnes per year. Global traffic is responsible for a quarter of annual CO2 emissions – one of the causes of global warming. Half of these emissions now come from cars.

The study processed data that an international research team had compiled from the early 1960s into the world’s first database on bicycle ownership and use in 60 countries. According to the researchers, from 1962 to 2015, the number of bicycles produced exceeded the number of cars. China alone, one of the largest sources of global CO2 emissions, accounted for about two-thirds of the approximately 123 million bicycles manufactured in 2015.

Nevertheless, the proportion of bicycle use for daily trips in the countries examined averaged only five percent. According to the study, while bicycles are plentiful in some countries, such as the United States, their owners view cycling more as a leisure activity than daily transportation, and they often travel short distances by car.