On average travel represents a staggering 56% of our primary
(personal) footprint in Ireland. Car
ownership is rapidly increasing throughout the EU reaching an estimated 252
million in 2015/6. This is equivalent of
600 million tonnes of CO2 e being emitted by European drivers each year, which
is only a small portion of the 1.8 billion cars worldwide.
Manufacture’s fuel efficiency data and fuel types are
discussed explaining the difference between real and lab based emission values.
Comparison with other transport modes are made using carpooling as an example
of how drivers can make car usage more efficient than public transport where it
is limited or not available. The booklet
explains practical ways in which we can all drive more sustainably as well as
exploring the problem of emissions arising from the manufacture and disposal of vehicle which is
currently ignored in our footprint analysis.
Buying a car is discussed and studies have shown that you don’t need to
buy a new electric vehicle (EV) or hybrid to drive with minimum impact. Emissions from EVs are compared to standard
fuels indicating that the selection of the most appropriate vehicle type can
save you a lot of money over the lifetime of the vehicle, and that EVs and
Hybrids are not always a good choice for drivers with selection dependent on
length and frequency of journey, whether urban or rural, or used for commuting.
Driving sustainably results in drivers reducing their fuel
consumption by 10-50% saving without actually driving less distance of using
the car less frequently. This represents
significant financial savings as well as reducing emissions, pollution and
increasing driver safety.
This means that an easily achieved 10% reduction in fuel
consumption which all drivers can achieve, without reducing the frequency or
distance driven, would save 10 million tonnes of CO2e within the EU
each year, equivalent to 7.9 million tonnes in the UK or 0.42 million tonnes of
CO2e in Ireland where car ownership is around 2,000,000. So for every 10% reduction in fuel usage each
car would on average be saving 0.234 or 0.213 tonnes of CO2e per
annum in the UK and Ireland respectively from their primary footprint. With a 20-30% reduction possible for the
average driver then driving sustainably can make a significant different to
greenhouse gas emissions responsible for climate change as well as making our
air cleaner and driving safer.
Driving
Sustainably: A guide to reducing your carbon
footprint is written by Nick Gray and is the first guide to reducing your
carbon footprint in the Tigroney Sustainable Planet Series published by Tigroney
Press. Available as a free e-book (ISBN 978-1-912290-20-8) download at: http://hdl.handle.net/2262/85300
or https://bit.ly/2QrWnFe
