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When it comes to travelling around, if you use a vehicle powered by fossil fuels – a car, a motorcycle, a plane, a ship or, to a lesser extent, a bus – each journey adds directly to your carbon footprint.
Emissions are also generated as fossil fuels are extracted, shipped and refined.
And if you fly, there are other things that contribute to global warming. Those contrails (condensation trails) planes leave in the sky as they fly over Martlesham? They contribute as well. According to scientists at Imperial College London, the warming effect of the contrails in the atmosphere today is more than that of all the CO2 that has been emitted by aircraft since the dawn of flight.
According to the Department of Transport, transport was responsible for 24 percent of the UK’s carbon emissions in 2020. And remember, that was a good year. Most of us were locked down at home! Thanks to restrictions on travel, the share emitted by cars, trucks, buses and trains was 19 percent lower in 2020 than in 2019.
The bottom line is clear: if you want to cut your carbon footprint, you have to change the way you travel.
Here are some ideas:
Work from home as often as you can
The pandemic proved that working from home isn’t just possible for many workers but can increase their productivity. Whether or not it can reduce your carbon emissions isn’t quite as clear. Depending on factors such as how you heat your home, how you commute (walk, cycle, public transport or car) and what sort of vehicle you travel in, the emissions you generate keeping your home warm could exceed those you save by cutting down on travel. The longer your commute, the greater the chance you’ll save.
Share your car
According to Government statistics, cars emit generate more carbon dioxide and other emissions per passenger mile than buses, trains and coaches.
When you use public transport, you share the emissions with everyone else on board so, while the vehicle might use more fuel, the amount involved in moving you from A to B is much lower.
The same rule applies to cars – the more passengers, the better – so lift share whenever you can.
Walk, cycle or use public transport
According to Esso – yes, Esso! – the easiest way to consume less fossil fuel is to drive less.
As the government points out, about half of car journeys made in the UK are under five miles, including a quarter that are under two miles. That makes them easy to do on foot or by bicycle.
Bus services around Martlesham aren’t the best in Britain, but they are much better than in rural parts of Suffolk. The more that use them, the better they will be, so get on board if the bus is going your way.
Check your tyres
It’s obvious on a bike: if tyre pressure is low, cycling is a lot harder work. The same applies to cars: if the tyres are correctly inflated, they use less fuel.
If you don’t need them, leave heavy things behind
The heavier your car, the more fuel you’ll use. Is there anything heavy in your boot that doesn’t need to be there? If so, take it out and leave it at home.
Slow down
Tempted to drive at 80mph instead of 70mph? According to Which?, that uses 25 percent more fuel. Or 70mph instead of 60mph? That uses nine percent more. It might add a few minutes to your journey, but slowing down and keeping to a steady speed cut consumption, reduce emissions and save you money.
Switch to an electric car
Month by month, there are more electric cars on Britain's roads.
Yes - they can cost a lot. At the end of 2023, the EV Database was listing more than 50 models that cost more then £50,000. They included the Rolls Royce Spectre, with a predicted cost of £350,000.
At the other end of the spectrum was the Citroen e-C3, with a rather more affordable starting price of £21,000. Petrol-engined models start at around £14,000 -so, yes, an electric model is more expensive, but not seriously so bearing in mind it would cost less to run.
And second hand?
In November 2020, VW Ipswich were listing a 2020 all-electric ID.3 at £18,990 - just £200 more than the cost of a 2020 VW Golf.
So more expensive? Not necessarily so.
And don't forget:
- Electric vehicles are 21% cheaper to run
- They cost up to 85% less to refuel
- You won't have to pay road tax (aka VED) until 2025.
(Figures from Octopus Electric Vehicles.)
Try not to fly
Aviation contributes about two percent of global CO2 emissions, but contrails – the plumes aircraft leave in the sky – amplify the effect, roughly doubling it.
The aviation industry is working to cut its emissions. Newer aircraft are much more fuel-efficient, and airlines are experimenting with alternative fuels, but they are hard to come by and may never be available in sufficient quantities.
If you can, take a train instead. Europe’s cities and resorts are nearer than you might think. And when you factor in getting to and from airports and waiting times in lounges, you’ll find trains can get you to many destinations in much the same time as planes.
Be a landlubber
Did you know that a week-long holiday on a European cruise adds up eight times as much carbon dioxide to the atmoshere as taking a flight and staying in a hotel?
Like other big ships, cruise ships generally use low-quality bunker oil, which generates a great deal of pollution when burned.
Some - Royal Caribbean’s new Icon of the Seas, for example - use less-polluting fuels like liquified natural gas and there are even hybrid-powered ships - Hurtigruten's Roald Amundsen and Fridtjof Nansen, for example. The latter claim to reduce consumption by 20 percent.
So, if you do fancy a cruise, do your legwork first. Check the ship out before you book.
To probe further…
- Changing the way we move around [blog – PDF]