Mouthpiece: Peddling the case for more sustainable transport systems

From 16 to 22 September events and activities aimed at encouraging citizens to think differently about how they travel and the impact of that mode of transport on the environment, are being organised.

In Edinburgh, events have included the Commuter Challenge and this Sunday's Car Free Day 2009.

The theme of this year's campaign – "Improving City Climates" – aims to promote alternative means of transport including cycling, walking and public transport and make citizens think wider to initiatives like car sharing.

Last year's European Mobility Week engaged 220 million citizens in 39 countries. This year, its hoped even more will take part.

In Scotland, an alarming one third of people don't believe their actions contribute to global climate change.

But the role of Scotland, combined with the leading role the EU is playing in the climate change debate, will be instrumental in achieving the European Parliament's Climate Change and Energy Package targets by 2020 – a 20 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, a 20 per cent improvement in energy efficiency and a 20 per cent share for renewables in the EU energy mix.

As a Scottish MEP and as president of the European Parliament's Intergroup for Climate Change, Sustainability and Biodiversity, I believe that every small step to help achieve our tough target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 42 per cent by 2020 on 1990 levels must be encouraged.

Bike rental schemes such as the one in Brussels, which follows the highly successful initiatives in Paris and Copenhagen, are designed to encourage people to give up their cars and cycle to and from work. Bikes are available for hire for indefinite periods simply by swiping a credit card.

Maybe Scotland's big cities could learn from this?

All this will be discussed and reviewed when MEPs from across Europe participate in the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference in mid-December to agree a new climate change treaty as a successor to the Kyoto Protocol.

Last year's European Mobility Week initiative saw more than 7,500 permanent measures implemented. Examples include the creation of pedestrian areas; an improvement to public transport and workplace travel plans.

With more than 70 per cent of the European population now living in an urban area, European Mobility Week offers an ideal opportunity for us all to take direct action and think carefully about how we will travel in and around our cities.

Struan Stevenson is a Scottish Conservative MEP