Swapping petrol-powered cars for electric vehicles won't do enough to tackle climate change, campaigners have warned.
The call comes as delegates and world leaders at COP26 will today turn their attention to transport and the need to reduce exhaust emissions.
The UK Government has already committed to ending the sale of new petrol or diesel cars and vans by 2030 but campaigners say it won't be enough to halt rising temperatures.
Transport is the single biggest source of greenhouse gases in the country and one of the fastest-rising worldwide.
The Sustainable Transport Alliance (STA) has claimed focussing on electric vehicles would mean ignoring their social and environmental drawbacks.
This includes a potential 51 per cent increase in road traffic across the UK – and the immediate benefits of shifting more journeys to existing greener forms of getting around.
Campaigners instead want investment in public transport as well as making it easier for people to walk or cycle around their neighbourhoods.
They'll meet today with ministers from the UK and Scottish Governments in Glasgow.
It comes as the Scottish Greens warned COP26 faces "a credibility gap" after analysis predicted that commitments made during the summit will still lead to a catastrophic level of global warming.
The Climate Action Tracker - which offers independent scientific analysis on efforts to tackle global warming - shows pledges made so far in Glasgow will still lead to a 2.4 degrees rise by 2100.
Xavier Brice, chief executive of the pro-cycling charity Sustrans, said: “Cars dominate the UK’s CO2 emissions and too much of our public space, resulting in congested neighbourhoods, uninviting public space and poor air quality, ultimately limiting our freedom to move around our local areas.
“Electric vehicles are increasingly seen as a silver bullet to tackling carbon emissions from transport.
“They are clearly part of the solution but they won’t get us to Net Zero quickly enough and risk embedding all the downsides of car dependency.
“We know that most journeys of less than two miles are still being done by car, and so COP26 is an opportunity to focus on the importance of public transport and cycling and walking to deliver carbon neutral journeys now.
“Liberating people from the need to drive in order to build healthier and happier communities for a shared sustainable future for everyone is not only essential but also entirely possible.”
Jools Townsend, chair of the Sustainable Transport Alliance, said: “The inspiring campaigners and change-makers from around the world who have been addressing COP26 have been underlining how we must put people, communities and justice at the forefront in tackling the climate crisis, and this very much applies to transport.
"The evidence is clear that we cannot put all our faith in electric cars - we need a more fundamental shift in how we get around, and we have much to gain from this.
"By focusing on a shift towards public, shared and community transport, walking and cycling, we can create healthier, happier communities and more equal access to opportunity, without adding to emissions and environmental problems through the manufacture of millions more cars.
"We’re proud to be coming together with our NGO partners at COP26 to showcase action and amplify voices within communities across the UK that are working towards a greener, better, more inclusive transport future.”
Scottish Greens climate spokesman Mark Ruskell said: “Unlike other predictions, this analysis shows the real gap between ambitious targets and the action required to meet them.
"2.4 degrees of heating would mean a much higher instance of fires, flooding and droughts with a catastrophic loss of species including pollinators.
"Ambitious targets are meaningless when you are going to be burning even more fossil fuels and encouraging more and more people to drive and fly.
"It’s time the UK Government woke up to its responsibility and drove real action in the final days of the talks, before it’s too late."
It comes amid reports a global deal to end new car emissions by 2040 is struggling to attract support from the world’s largest carmakers and governments including the US and China.
The pledge is due to be unveiled today includes a commitment to “work towards all sales of new cars and vans being zero emission globally by 2040, and by no later than 2035 in leading markets”.
But the absence of major car producing nations like the US and China has meant several major firms have pulled back from signing up the commitment.
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