Signing of the “Charter of Seville” at Velo–city 2011 International Conference at Seville, Spain
To stabilise Green House Gas (GHG) concentrations in the atmosphere and reduce the potential for severe or catastrophic climate change, significant reductions in the emission of radiative forcing compounds will be necessary in the first half of this century. For discussing the matter and for identifying lessons that can be internationally transferred for reducing Green House Gas (GHG) effects Velo–city 2011 International Conference was held at Seville, Spain on cycling and cycling policies.

Dr Pradip Kumar Sarmah, Executive Director of CRD along with dignitaries from 47 countries signed the “Charter of Seville” presented in the conference. The upshots of the conference promoted the use of cycles as a healthy and sustainable means of transport and appealed to the world to foster the use of cycles as an alternative daily mode of transport. The Velo-city conference is the premier international cycling planning conference organized by the European Cyclists’ Federation (ECF) and select host cities. The Charter aspires to convince all Ministers of Transport that attend the International Transport Forum (ITF) of the fact that cycling simply makes sense and to recognize and acknowledge the advantages and benefits of cycling as a daily alternative mode of transportation.

Putting forth his view in the conference, Dr Sarmah said, “If from now on we do not become aware of the growing problem of global warming it will be too late for us to secure a green planet for our coming generations. It is high time that we start adopting environment friendly means of transport.” As par an estimate, considering 10 million rickshaws existing in India and that each rickshaw covers an average distance of 25 kms per day, these rickshaws save around 20 million liters of bio fuels every day, which would otherwise have been burned if these 250 million kilometres had to be travelled by any other fuel based vehicle.

Therefore, rickshaws or any form of cycle can be considered as a very useful mode of eco–friendly transport and should be promoted for adoption as daily means of sustainable mode of transport.