The episode in detail
Co-benefits of cycling: where the IPCC meets the Sustainable Development Goals
Gonéri Le Cozannet, a researcher at BRGM and author of the IPCC’s sixth report, returns to the Vélotaf podcast to cover a specific angle: the co-benefits of cycling for climate adaptation. In IPCC language, a co-benefit is a gain obtained as a side effect. Someone who switches to cycling to cut emissions also gains health, air quality and economic benefits, without having sought them.
The IPCC report weighs these co-benefits against the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by UN member states in 2015. In 2024, France had met only two of these goals according to the European Sustainable Development Report, and it had lost the one on eliminating poverty as inequality widened. The climate, biodiversity and education goals still present major challenges.
“The sense of urgency is felt very weakly. We are locked in by past choices, such as sprawling peri-urban development that favours the car.”
Physical and mental health: the leading co-benefit of cycling according to the IPCC
For Gonéri, health is the main co-benefit of cycling. The core mechanism is tackling physical inactivity: excess weight, cardiovascular risk, avoidable illness. The IPCC report (Europe chapter) shows that by combining climate stabilisation below 2°C with a reduction in vulnerability factors (inactivity, diet, pollution), the European population could be healthier than today despite the warming.
The report addresses the objection about injury risk directly. The health gains from active travel far outweigh the risk of accidents. The net outcome is positive for society.
The indirect co-benefit concerns air quality. Ozone pollution peaks in summer, fine particles in winter: shifting to cycling reduces these episodes. Cycling also, somewhat unexpectedly, builds resilience to heatwaves: regular cycling lowers sensitivity to extreme heat. That is why the IPCC classes cycling as an adaptation solution, not only a mitigation one.
“The health gains from active travel, walking and cycling, far outweigh the risk of injury.”
Mental health completes the picture. Physical activity acts as an outlet amid anxiety linked to climate and geopolitical tension. Cycling to get around, getting out into nature: these habits protect psychological health.
Economic benefit: six times cheaper than the car for society
Cycling generates a net benefit of a few tens of euro cents per kilometre for society. This figure factors in avoided health costs, the lower cost of cycling infrastructure compared with roads, and productivity gains.
By comparison, the cost of cycling to local authorities is six times lower than that of the car. The total cost of the car in Europe is estimated at around 500 billion euros a year. This figure includes building and maintaining infrastructure, parking, accidents and, above all, congestion. Time lost in traffic jams represents a huge economic cost, often invisible in municipal budgets.
The problem is that the health benefits of cycling do not show up in local authority budgets. They are absorbed by the national health insurance system. This gap between who invests (the local council) and who reaps the benefit (the health system) holds back political decisions.
“Cycling infrastructure is far cheaper than roads. The cost of use is six times lower.”
Urban planning: towards the 15-minute city by bike
A transport system built around cycling reshapes the urban form. Compact cities are naturally suited to walking and cycling. Sprawling cities need to move towards a cluster model where essential services (doctor, pharmacy, shops) are within 10 to 15 minutes on foot or by bike.
This reorganisation does not mean adding density everywhere as in Paris. It means rebuilding centres in peri-urban areas and rediscovering local shops. Town-centre businesses benefit from the shift towards walking and cycling. It is a virtuous circle: more cyclists, more pedestrians, more local commercial activity, less dependence on out-of-town superstores.
Greening goes hand in hand with this transformation. Cycle paths lined with planting, space freed from car parking replanted: reorganising public space also benefits water quality and urban biodiversity.
Gender equality and independence: the role of the e-bike
The IPCC report identifies a co-benefit for gender equality. Historically, the typical urban cyclist has been a man aged 35 to 45, not easily put off by road risk. The e-bike changes this by opening cycling up to a wider public: women, older people, and people with reduced physical fitness.
Independence also matters for children. In the Netherlands, children rank among the happiest in the world according to several studies, partly because they can cycle unaccompanied from a young age. This freedom of movement is rare in countries where the car dominates public space.
“The goal is not for cycling to stay a niche club for people who are not afraid of being knocked down. The idea is that everyone can take part.”
Biodiversity and planetary boundaries: cycling in a wider context
Gonéri widens the perspective to the IPBES report (the IPCC’s equivalent for biodiversity, published in 2019). It identifies five causes of biodiversity loss: habitat destruction, pollution (nitrates, phosphates, pesticides), overexploitation of ecosystems, climate change and invasive species.
Cycling helps reduce the first cause, habitat fragmentation and destruction, by cutting land take. France’s ZAN law (net zero land take) points in this direction. Fewer roads, fewer car parks, less urban sprawl: every kilometre of cycle path uses a fraction of the land a road for cars would take.
Gonéri accepts that even the IPCC’s most ambitious scenarios are not enough to significantly reduce the threats to biodiversity. There is still a great deal of work to do. But the overlap between the IPCC’s scientific findings and the demands of cycling advocacy groups points to a way forward. The co-benefits of cycling are not a promise: they are documented, measured and confirmed by international scientific consensus.
“Having this overlap between the associations promoting cycling and the scientific studies, it’s still worth noting that there is something positive to draw on there.”
