According to a study published in the journal Communications Earth and Environment, the world could reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 700 million tonnes per year, which is comparable to Canada’s annual emissions, if everyone rode bicycles to work every day, as the Dutch do.
The transportation industry is responsible for one-quarter of all current greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change, and global transportation demand is expected to treble by mid-century.
Currently, autos account for half of these emissions, and their sales data are more closely monitored than motorcycle sales.
To compensate for this shortcoming, an international group of scholars has been working since the early 1960s to develop the first global database on bicycle ownership and use in 60 countries.
According to the report, the number of bicycles produced between 1962 and 2015 outnumbered the number of automobiles.
More than 123 million bicycles were produced in 2015, with China generating nearly two-thirds of them.
The average proportion of daily bicycle commuting in the 60 countries analysed was less than 5%. Although the quantity of bicycles in use in some of these countries, such as the United States, is significant, consumers perceive riding them as a leisure activity rather than a daily form of transportation, and they typically use autos for their local commute.
However, the researchers demonstrated through their calculations that if everyone cycled an average of 1. 6 km per day, which is equivalent to the average daily distance that Danes cross, global carbon dioxide emissions could be reduced by approximately 414 million tonnes per year, which is the equivalent of Britain’s annual emissions.
If bicycles are ridden for two hours.
In addition to the health benefits of this mode of transportation and the improvement of air quality, 6 kilometres each day, as in the Netherlands, can cut emissions by 686 million tonnes per year.
According to Gang Liu, Professor in the Department of Green Technology at the University of Southern Denmark, the study’s main benefit is that it demonstrates that the bicycle can play an important role in reducing transportation’s carbon footprint, whereas the current debate focuses on the transition to electric cars.
Cycling has the potential to drastically cut carbon emissions.
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