Fit India Presents Sundays on Cycle at COP31 in Antalya

India's Fit India Movement carried its weekend cycling drive to the world stage on 15 November 2026, presenting Sundays on Cycle at COP31 in Antalya. COP31 is the 31st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The hour-long session, called 'Sundays on Cycle: From a Weekly Ride to a Way of Life', was held at the International Solar Alliance Pavilion, numbered D 610, on the summit's Children, Youth, Education and Skills Day. It was put together by the Fit India Movement of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports and offered as a working example of Mission LiFE, or Lifestyle for Environment.

What the ride has achieved

• It has been held on every Sunday since 22 December 2024, without losing a single week.
• Close to 3.7 million riders have joined it at more than 30,000 locations around the country.
• On World Bicycle Day this year, held with the Union Cycliste Internationale, organisers planned for 100,000 riders and about 400,000 arrived.
• An impact report covering the first 97 editions of the ride was released at the session.

Who spoke at the session

Mayank Srivastava, Deputy Director General of the Sports Authority of India, told the audience that a city can build a cycle lane but the lane only counts if residents choose to use it. The keynote came from Lindita Xhaferi-Salihu, who leads sectors engagement for Global Climate Action at UN Climate Change; she described Fit India as a model that could be copied anywhere and said sport can act as the connective tissue that technical climate talks lack. Ashish Khanna, Director General of the International Solar Alliance, gave a special address, said the session drew the biggest crowd the pavilion had seen and urged stadiums and gyms to switch to solar power. A short film carried the words of Dr Mansukh Mandaviya, Union Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports, who had launched the ride in December 2024 and calls cycling far more than exercise.

Global examples placed before delegates

Jim Walker of the Walk21 Foundation, who rode in Delhi last month, pointed to Bogota, where a street-opening tradition begun about 50 years ago now draws roughly 1.6 million people every Sunday onto 125 kilometres of car-free roads. Gashaw Aberra of ITDP Africa said car-free days in Addis Ababa helped Ethiopia frame its first non-motorised transport strategy. Felipe A. Ramirez Buitrago of the WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities, Sanjay Seth of The Energy and Resources Institute and Maud De Vries of BYCS also took part in the panel, which was moderated by Dr Bhairavi Joshi.

The pledge taken at Antalya

Closing the session, Amarjyoti, Executive Director of Fit India, asked every nation, city and partner present to hold at least one community-led 'active morning' over the coming year and to report it through the One Planet Network. The Turkish Cycling Federation was the first partner to sign up, and it joined a special ride for delegates in Antalya from Konyaalti to the old quarter of Kaleici. In India the same day, the 98th edition of the ride marked Children's Day with cycling and Zumba. The 100th edition will be held across the country on 29 November, and Fit India said it would circulate a toolkit so other cities can begin rides of their own.