This report focuses on how three major climate hazards – extreme heat, air pollution, and flooding – are intensifying barriers, making urban environments more hostile and less safe for active travellers. To protect frontline travellers and prevent a decline in active mobility, urgent, inclusive climate action is an imperative.

This report addresses a core urban paradox: as climate conditions worsen, walking and cycling become less viable. This leads to a growing dependence on motorised transport, which in turn accelerates environmental degradation and climate breakdown. The impacts are unequal. Vulnerable groups, including low-income communities, children, older people, pregnant women, and people with disabilities, are disproportionately impacted by climate hazards on their daily journeys, despite contributing the least to global emissions.

This report aims to break the cycle by providing planners and policymakers with an evidence-based roadmap. It champions a people-centred planning approach, rooted in equity, that prioritises protecting those most exposed and sensitive to climate risks.