Recently the Department of Transport has issued its vision for transport Decarbonising Transport report, which it hopes to achieve by 2050. One of the main threads of their vision is to reduce our dependence on petrol and diesel car.
The burning of petrol and diesel in cars produces carbon dioxide which goes into the atmosphere and significantly contributes to climate change. The gases emitted by these vehicles also produce pollutants damaging people’s health, causing breathing problems, skin reactions and having a particularly bad effect on people with respiratory problems.
One way of achieving a reduction in these gases is to encourage the use of electric cars. But these are expensive to buy, need a new charging infrastructure and a lot of energy, which produces more pollution.
One of the government’s aims is to reduce the number of car trips that we all make. They hope to do this by:
- Provide frequent and reliable public transport (buses) so that we don’t have to use our cars.
- To get us to lead healthier life styles by walking and cycling rather than driving.
But how do you get people to abandon such a convenient form of transport as the car? This will require a lot of changes in our everyday life and our mentality. EEAN is convinced that tackling transport pollution and achieving a culture change in societal attitudes to transport is one of the crucial elements in reducing the effects of climate change.
See the summary of the Decarbonising Transport report in our Library.
David Everson
Transport Group