Many strategies to address climate change bring with them additional opportunities to protect or improve our health, above and beyond the health benefits of reducing climate change. Transportation currently contributes a significant proportion of the nation’s and the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.

By building our communities to support active transportation — walking, biking,scooting or skating, and the walking people do to use transit — we could see significant improvements in obesity and diabetes, heart disease, depression, and more.

Jim Sallis, Director of Active Living Research and a long-time proponent of active transportation spoke recently as part of PHI’s Action in Climate Change and Health event in New York City, on the eve of the UN Climate Summit.

“We have a great opportunity to simultaneously advance carbon and public health goals by increasing active travel. Of course, this will require more investments in, and better design of, pedestrian, bicycling, and transit facilities and other intervention strategies,” writes Sallis, in his blog post about the event and other activities during Climate Week NYC.