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For most of us, the simple, cheap and common bicycle is just a means of transportation. But the United Nations sees it as a useful weapon to fight climate change.

On March 15, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution (决议) supporting bicycles as a tool for dealing with climate change. The resolution calls on member countries to include bicycles in public transportation options (选择). More cyclists mean fewer greenhouse gases. More specifically, it focuses on bicycle-sharing services.

The resolution is not surprising. On Feb 28th 2022, the UN brought out a new report on climate change. It warns that the global average temperature will rise by 1.5℃ above pre-industrial levels (1850-1900), with more than 40 percent of the world’s population “highly vulnerable (脆弱的)” to climate change.

The UN said transportation is the third-largest source of carbon dioxide (CO₂), a greenhouse gas that causes global warming. Choosing a bike over a car just once a day can reduce a person’s transportation carbon emissions (排放) by 67 percent, according to a University of Oxford study.

The UN resolution could be seen as an approval (认可) of China’s 14 years of bike sharing, noted CGTN. More than 360 Chinese cities have bike-sharing systems that deal with nearly 20 million bicycles for an average 47 million trips each day, said China’s Ministry of Transport. It reduces CO₂ by 4.8 million tons every year, according to a 2020 report from the World Resources Institute.

In fact, bikes have been booming worldwide since the COVID-19 outbreak. Cycling to work is a safer choice for many Europeans as they worry about getting infected (感染) on buses and subways. Plus, gyms had to close during months of lockdowns, so people turned to bicycles for exercise, reported China News. In Spain, in May 2020, bike sales increased 22-fold (倍) compared with 2019. In London, large parts of the city are being closed off to cars so that people can walk and cycle safely. Cities like Berlin and Montreal have also added new, wider bike lanes.