UN,CHINA: The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on Tuesday adopted a resolution supporting bicycles as a tool for combating climate change. All the 193 members of the UN General Assembly unanimously passed the resolution proposed by Turkmenistan.
The decision comes amid widespread recognition of China’s successful policy of public bicycle sharing in tackling the scourge of air pollution and contributing to sustainable development.
The UNGA resolution, which is non-binding like all General Assembly resolutions, calls on member states to “integrate the bicycle into public transportation, in urban and rural settings in developing and developed countries.”
The resolution notes that increasing cycling through improved road safety and the promotion of bike-riding will help achieve “sustainable development, including the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.”
As if drawing from the Chinese experience, the resolution specifically encourages member states to “give special attention to cycling in cross-cutting development strategies, including bicycle sharing services,” as well as, when possible, in “international, regional, national and subnational development policies and programs.”
The UN resolution could be seen as an endorsement of China’s overwhelming success in bike-sharing over the past 14 years, which has seen substantial results in improving public health and the environment by severely cutting down air pollution.
The move is also in sync with China’s ambitious pledge to achieve carbon neutrality before 2060, announced by President Xi Jinping in his September 2020 address to the UN General Assembly.
China has often been described as the “Kingdom of bicycles” owing to its status as the country with largest number of bicycle users.
The latest data from China’s Ministry of Transport show that more than 360 Chinese cities have dockless bike-sharing systems that deploy nearly 20 million bicycles for an average 47 million trips per day. China’s total number of shared bicycle users crossed 259 million in 2019, according to data from iiMedia Research.
China is largely responsible for the global boom in bike-sharing in recent years. Globally, 37 percent of bike-sharing programs can be accounted to China, according to a study by U.S.-based bike-share and scooter-share consultancy firm Metrobike. – NDTV
