Hello and welcome to the Green Alliance podcast. We're the charity and think tank that is all about

achieving ambitious leadership for the environment. I'm Zoe Averson, a policy analyst at Green

Alliance, and this week we're talking transport, the biggest source of carbon

emissions in the UK. 55% of transport emissions come from cars and although petrol and diesel

vehicles are being phased out from 2030, uptake of electric cars is unlikely to be quick enough for

us to meet our carbon targets. Electric cars will also continue to create problems of air pollution,

congestion and dangerous roads. And the more cars we need, the bigger our reliance on critical raw materials for batteries.

This means we can't rely solely on electric cars to solve our environmental problems.

Getting more people using public transport or active travel will be crucial to decarbonising the transport system.

One of the biggest challenges for public transport is its convenience.

If people have to walk a long distance to get to their nearest station, they're more likely to choose a car.

But instead of trying to build more stations near people, what if we try to get more people living near stations?

Today I'm talking to Amp Breach, a senior analyst at the Centre for Cities, about his latest research

looking at this very question.

His latest research on transport networks in the UK's cities shows that there's more

than one way to tackle the public transport challenge.

If you increase that public transport accessibility to the European average, you add about

£23 billion every year to the European average, you add about £23 billion every

year to the national economy. So to start with, then, why are cities important for the environment?

Cities are important from the environment because by sharing land and infrastructure,

they reduce the pressure that human civil civilization puts upon the natural world.

And by having a concentration of jobs, of people and of homes, within a particular place,

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