Have you taken steps to reduce your carbon footprint? Are those steps going far enough to actually make a difference? Dr Christian Brand, Associate Professor in Transport, Energy and Environment at the Environmental Change Institute (ECI) and Transport Studies Unit believes that the movement towards reducing carbon emissions is encouraging.
Last month the UN warned that the ‘era of global boiling’ had arrived “Climate change is here. It is terrifying. And it is just the beginning, children swept away by monsoon rains, families running from the flames, workers collapsing in scorching heat”, said the UN Secretary-General António Guterres. “The era of global warming has ended. The era of global boiling has arrived. The air is unbreathable, the heat is unbearable, and the level of fossil fuel profits and climate inaction is unacceptable”.
While governments look at what they should be doing to reduce carbon emissions, individuals are taking immediate steps for themselves. Whether that’s making fewer car journeys, flying less, using e-bikes and buying e-cars, investing in a heat pump, eating less meat or buying second hand. “Many people want to contribute but often don't know exactly how.” says Dr Brand.
These actions themselves are not without controversy with the concern that electric vehicles are good but not good enough and can bring problems of their own Dr Brand added: “Especially if we allow oversized (SUV-style) electric cars to be sold, subsidised and promoted. These larger and heavier vehicles emit 15-25% more carbon and also produce more toxic air pollution from tyre wear and road surface abrasion.”
According to the Government’s own statistics transport (excluding international flights) accounted for 34 per cent of the UK’s domestic emissions in 2022. By far the biggest contributor to that figure was road travel.
Driving is the most direct way in which people use fossil fuels, pouring oil into their cars and burning it. Private vehicles also dominate travel, with 61 of personal journeys made in England in 2019 done by car.
In 2021, 67 per cent of trips between a mile and five miles long were made by car, as were 17 per cent of trips under a mile.
Switching to a bicycle or an e-bike for these journeys is the greenest way to travel, according to a recent study by Dr Brand at the ECI. Where available, public transport is also greener than a car, while also reducing air and noise pollution and the danger to pedestrians.
Following the study: The climate change mitigation impacts of active travel: Evidence from a longitudinal panel study in seven European cities Dr Brand said: “If just 10 per cent of the UK population were to change travel behaviour, the emissions savings would be around four per cent of lifecycle CO2 emissions from all car travel.”
Another contributing factor to the speed of carbon emission reduction is that although emissions are falling in many countries, the gap between the carbon footprints of the highest and lowest-income groups is growing wider. It is no surprise that richer people consume more, and so generally have larger carbon footprints
Add in the latest research from Oxford University that finds plant diets lead to 75% less climate-heating emissions, water pollution and land use than meat-rich ones. Vegans, vegetarians, fish-eaters and meat-eaters in the UK show discrepant environmental impacts was co-authored by Marco Springmann, Senior Researcher in Environment and Health at the ECI. Researchers found that eating a vegan diet massively reduces the damage to the environment caused by food production, the most comprehensive analysis to date has concluded. The study found vegan diets have one fourth the climate impact of meat-heavy diets, and having big UK meat-eaters cut some of it out of their diet would be like taking 8 million cars off the road.
Ultimately, we shouldn’t be disheartened from continuing to do ‘our bit'. Doing more of a good thing combined with doing less of a bad thing – and doing it now – is much more compliant with a ‘net zero’ pathway and preserving our ‘perfect planet’s’ and our own futures.”