Making THE (Transport, Health and Environment) link: Transport, Health and Environment Pan-European Programme and the Sustainable Development Goals

Transport plays an essential role in our societies and economies. It provides access to jobs, education, services, amenities and leisure, while contributing to economic growth, jobs and trade. At the same time, it has an impact on the environment and human health. Healthy and sustainable transport policies can make a major contribution to the attainment of many of the Sustainable Development Goals and fulfilment of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Since 2002, the Transport, Health and Environment Pan-European Programme (THE PEP), jointly serviced by the WHO Regional Office for Europe and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, has provided a unique intersectoral policy platform for Member States, and other stakeholders active in the pan-European region, to collaborate to integrate environment and health considerations into transport policies, and improve the integration of transport and urban planning. This publication presents an analysis of how Member States, working through THE PEP, can advance the 2030 Agenda on multiple fronts; and provides examples of how THE PEP can help.

Supporting Active Mobility and Green Jobs through the Promotion of Cycling.

This article is a summary of the main findings of the study "Riding towards the green economy: cycling and green jobs", which was developed in the context of the Transport, Health and Environment pan-European Programme (THE PEP). It builds on previous work under THE PEP, which demonstrated the job creation potential of cycling and of green and healthy transport more generally. The report summarized in this article collected data on jobs associated with cycling directly from city authorities and analysed these to re-assess previous estimates of the job creation potential of cycling. It concluded that the number of cycling-related jobs in the pan-European Region could increase by 435,000 in selected major cities if they increased their cycling share to that of the Danish capital Copenhagen. The implications and potential role of municipal and sub-national authorities in facilitating cycling while supporting economic development are then discussed. These findings indicate that investment in policies that promote cycling could deliver not only important benefits for health, the environment and the quality of urban life, but could also contribute to a sizable creation of job opportunities. Authorities need to be proactive in promoting cycling in order to deliver these benefits.