In November 2016 I wrote about transport in Britain, and how it was the sector of the economy that was making the least progress on reducing emissions. Since it takes a while to calculate the statistics, those were the 2014 figures. They showed that 31% of Britain’s carbon footprint was from our energy supply, with transport in second place at 23%.
Last week the latest CO2 bulletin was released, and it shows the consequences of ignoring transport emissions for so long. It’s now leapfrogged energy and is the biggest source of emissions at 26%. We’re using less coal, so emissions from energy have fallen, while transport emissions have risen by 2%.
Just as a reminder, 70% of the transport sector is classified as ‘surface transport’ – and over 90% of that is road traffic. We’re talking about cars. Car culture is one of the biggest challenges to a sustainable future in Britain, and should be a top priority.
I wrote about transport every week last year. Perhaps I need to keep it up.
The Earthbound Report 