A green group has on Thursday warned that Hong Kong people have been taking fewer journeys on foot, threatening both their health and the environment.

The World Green Organisation surveyed 500 residents in June and found that only 7.8 percent said they walked for at least half an hour a day – down from 8.4 percent last year.

William Yu, the group’s founder and CEO, said the drop in activity was likely due to the recent heatwave.

“Mainly because of the higher humidity in summer days, and also nowadays as you can see the record-breaking temperatures are reaching almost 34 to 35 degrees Celsius, I think the heat really prevents people from walking for long distances,” he said.

The survey also found that the majority of respondents gave up walking because they were in a rush. More than 20 percent, meanwhile, cited carrying bulky items as the reason.

“Sometimes people are in a hurry, they hope to make faster access to their destination. For convenience and utility, people might take vehicles in order to reach the destination much more rapidly,” Yu said.

He called on members of the public to walk more to help reduce carbon emissions and lead a low-carbon lifestyle.