CO2 Reduction Campaign Introduced

A new advertising campaign has been launched by the Department of Transport that is aiming to spread awareness about the importance of reducing carbon dioxide emissions from the use of cars.  The initiative aims to persuade motorists to drive five miles less a week.

The campaign believes that every driver can make a difference. Driving five miles less a week could mean you share a car journey with a friend or walk or cycle instead, the TV advert states.  The top tips issued by the government to reduce car usage are:

• combine your car journeys – complete more than one task within the same journey, and you'll save CO2, fuel, and your own precious time
• walk the one-mile trips – besides the health benefits, if you walk you'll save more than £160 a year in fuel
• use two wheels – a quarter of car trips are under two miles: make this a 12-minute cycle, and you'll burn off 100 calories
• share a car – travelling with friends and family makes for more fun and less fuel
• know before you go – use a journey planner to find your shortest route

The government claims that around 40 per cent of the UK’s CO2 emissions come from personal, i.e. non-business usage.  And of this 26% of carbon dioxide emissions are from car travel making it the top single source of CO” emissions from personal usage. The government further suggest that if every car driver in the UK drove five miles less per week, Britain’s CO2 emissions would fall by 2.7 million tonnes a year.

Developed as part of the cross-government Act on CO2 campaign, the advert aims to raise awareness of the impact of car travel on CO2 emissions and ways in which drivers can play their part in reducing this.

Transport minister Sadiq Khan said: "In our daily lives we create over 40 per cent of the UK's CO2 emissions, and every action we can take to reduce this figure will make a difference."