By promoting active commuting—walking or cycling—more effectively, Finland could substantially reduce its carbon emissions. At the same time, increasing everyday physical activity would improve physical health and function among the population. Our new policy recommendation focuses on active commuting (trips between home and the workplace) and outlines various ways to increase its prevalence.
Finland urgently needs additional climate actions to meet the national and EU-level emission reduction targets. At the same time, insufficient physical activity among Finns is detrimental to the population’s physical health and functional capacity. Increasing the prevalence of active commuting could simultaneously help tackle both these challenges. However, achieving this goal requires utilizing all existing measures.
There are numerous ways to encourage active commuting at both national and local levels, as well as measures that employers can implement. These possibilities include the company bike benefit scheme, flexible working hours, development of urban form to support active travel modes, ensuring proper winter maintenance of walking and cycling paths, allocating street space to walking and cycling, and making car use less appealing, for instance by limiting parking spaces or with parking fees.
Read the policy brief here: https://ilmastotuuppaus.fi/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2024/12/CN-policy-brief-commuting.pdf