Just three years ago at COP26 in Glasgow in 2021, the transport decarbonisation agenda focused almost exclusively on the electrification of vehicles. Cycling and walking were totally absent from the Transport Day agenda, and only an intense ECF-led pro-cycling campaign helped achieve a last-minute recognition of active travel in the Transport Declaration.

Fast forward to this year’s COP29 where things looked very different, and much for the better. Active travel was firmly on the transport decarbonisation agenda. Walking and cycling appeared for the first time in a new COP breakthrough target and were explicitly cited by numerous government ministry officials as key solutions to reducing emissions from transport.

In addition, an Active Travel NDC Template with guidance on creating effective walking and cycling policies, which ECF contributed to and promoted as part of the PATH coalition, was endorsed and disseminated by the UN Climate Change High-Level Champions and the International Transport Forum.

Now that’s progress!

ECF and the PATH to Baku

Hosted by the Government of Azerbaijan, the 29^th edition of the UNFCCC’s Conference of the Parties (COP) took place in Baku from 11 to 22 November 2024. ECF CEO Jill Warren and Director of Members & Networks Froso Christofides were in attendance, representing ECF in our capacity as a UN-accredited observer NGO, as well as the Partnership for Active Travel and Health (PATH) as one of PATH’s founding and core coordinating partners. 

Since its founding in 2022, PATH has promoted walking and cycling as a quick, affordable and reliable way to reduce carbon emissions from transport and help meet climate goals, while improving people’s health and lives. It does this for example through:

• Producing and disseminating original research that makes the case for walking and cycling, knowledge products and guidance to help governments integrate walking and cycling into their climate commitments
• Promoting PATH aims by organising and speaking at relevant events, including at COP and in connection with COP processes and frameworks
• Participating in meetings and discussions with government officials, UN agencies, development banks, and other stakeholders
• Conducting campaigns and calls to action urging governments to commit to and invest in walking and cycling.

An eventful COP29

On behalf of ECF and PATH, Jill Warren and Froso Christofides made the case for cycling and active mobility at COP29 to government officials and other stakeholders as speakers in nine different events. These included a high-level ministerial event, an official UNFCCC COP29 side event, a Marrakech Partnership for Global Climate Action transport thematic event, various panel events organised by national governments, and the prestigious Global Climate Action closing event organised by the COP28 and COP29 UN Climate Change High-Level Champions, at which Jill Warren represented the voice of NGO Observers.

Froso Christofides said, “Jill and I were honoured to represent ECF and the PATH coalition in so many events this year in Baku. We took full advantage of these platforms to emphasise that enabling more people to walk and cycle safely is essential to achieving the Paris Agreement, and to urge governments to raise their ambitions and commit to active mobility in the next round of Nationally Determined Contributions, due in early 2025.”

The high-level COP29 events Jill and Froso spoke at included:

• UNFCCC Official Side Event “Transforming Urban Mobility: Leveraging NDCs for Sustainable Transport and Climate Action”, organised by UIC, FIA Foundation, and UITP
• High-Level Ministerial Round Table on “Greening Urban Transport”, organised by the COP29 Presidency / Ministry of Digital Development and Transport of the Republic of Azerbaijan in partnership with the International Transport Forum (ITF).
• Action Event on Transport - Unlocking ambition for transport: Leap towards a just and equitable 1.5°C future, organised by the Marrakech Partnership Focal Points for the Transport thematic group (ITF and SLOCAT) with support from the Climate Champions Team
• Global Climate Action Closing Event: Champions for Change: Celebrating Progress and Potential in Global Climate Action, organised by the COP28 and COP29 UN Climate Change High-Level Champions.

Further COP events ECF spoke at included:

• Unlocking the potential of sustainable urban transport for more climate ambition organised in the Sustainable Development Goals pavilion by UN-Habitat, UITP and World Bank
• Active travel: a people-powered panacea? organised in the UK pavilion by Active Travel England
• Accelerating Change: Unlocking Global Funding for Walking and Cycling Infrastructure, organised in the Benelux/EIB pavilion by the Netherlands Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management
• Walking the Path to Sustainability: Active Mobility, Public Transit, and Governance for a Greener Future, organised by the Office of the Secretary of State for Mobility, Republic of Portugal
• Climate Compatible Growth (CCG) Transport Day organised by CCG, High Volume Transport (HVT), Asia Development Bank (ADB), GIZ, SLOCAT and World Resources Institute (WRI)

ECF also attended and gave a short welcome address at a Transport Community reception hosted by CCG, SLOCAT and FIA Foundation, which also sponsored the event.

Campaigning for walking and cycling to national governments

At COP29, ECF took the opportunity to meet with ministry officials and share in person the PATH COP29 Open Letter signed by over 370 non-profit organisations from more than 70 countries, together with the PATH Active Travel NDC Template. Officials we spoke with included:

• Burundi: Dieudonné Dukundane, Minister of Infrastructure, Equipment, and Social Housing
• Chile: Juan Carlos Munoz, Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications
• Netherlands: Afke van Rijn, Vice-Minister for the Environment and International Affairs
• Somalia: Abdirizak Adam Gedi, State Minister of Planning and International Cooperation
• United Kingdom: Mary Creagh, Minister for Nature
• United States: Gretchen Goldman, Director of Climate Change Research and Technology at the U.S. Department of Transportation

More ministers embrace walking and cycling

A significant and welcome change at COP29 compared to previous COPs and other high-level transport ministerial meetings was the growing number of ministry and other senior officials who explicitly mentioned walking, cycling and active mobility in their official statements as key solutions to decarbonise transport and improve health and liveability. At the COP29 high-level ministerial meeting on Greening Urban Transport, these included officials from the European Commission, UNECE, UN Habitat, Asian Development Bank, Azerbaijan, Burundi, Chile, Czechia, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Netherlands, Romania, Türkiye, Uganda, and the United Kingdom.

Multi- and intermodal sustainable transport

In the same ministerial meeting, NGO colleagues from UITP (public transport) and UIC (rail) emphasised the benefits of integrating walking and cycling effectively with these modes of transport, including the fact that enabling more people to walk and cycle safely and to access public transport by foot and by bicycle can help cut transport emissions in half by 2030.

More generally, throughout the COP process there has been excellent collaboration between all the organisations representing these most sustainable modes of transport, with a number of joint opportunities and events to promote our respective knowledge products, NDC templates and guidance.

Championing the PATH Active Travel NDC template and guidance

ECF and the other PATH coordinating partners were very pleased to learn that the PATH Active Travel NDC Template and guidance document was included in two important publications aimed at government transport ministries: the ITF’s Guide to Integrating Transport into Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and the UN Climate Change High-Level Champions’ Whole-of-Society rallies to support strong National Climate Plans. This has ensured a wider dissemination of this important guidance and will hopefully lead to a wider adoption of walking and cycling policies and commitments in countries’ next-generation NDCs.

A major breakthrough for walking and cycling

Transport decarbonisation targets and frameworks typically employ the “Avoid – Shift – Improve” approach to environmental sustainability. However, the “improve” part of this approach has traditionally dominated, with a focus primarily on the electrification of motorised vehicles.  

The Transport Avoid & Shift 2030 Breakthrough launched by the UN High-Level Champions builds on a call to action launched by the SLOCAT Partnership (of which ECF is a member) and other sustainable transport stakeholders at COP28 acknowledges that the electrification of vehicles, while necessary, is not enough to meet the Paris Agreement goals. Instead, the Climate Champions introduced a more ambitious and balanced 2030 Transport Breakthrough Target to:

“Double the share of energy efficient and fossil-free forms of land transport for people and goods by 2030, by focusing on shifts to public transport, walking, cycling and rail freight, as well as electric vehicles and railways”.

Reflecting on ECF’s participation in COP29, Jill Warren said, “It’s exciting and encouraging to see more and more COP stakeholders publicly acknowledge cycling and active mobility’s enormous further potential to decarbonise transport and improve people’s health and lives and to raise their ambitions accordingly. ECF and the PATH coalition stand ready to support governments in making and implementing commitments that will enable many more people to walk and cycle safely around the world.”