Britains Carbon Footprint Continues to Grow

May 9, 2008 – 1:58 pm

A series of official reports out yesterday  from the Office for National Statistics have dealt a severe blow to the nations envrionmentalists as it shows that the nations carbon footprint is still growing, rather than decreasing as we need it to.  It appears that even though far more households are now seperating their rubbish out for recycling, the benefits of this increase have been wiped out by a decline in cycling, sharp rise in car journeys and dramatic increase in commercial flights.

The last decade it seems shows a decline in the use of cycling as a method of transport with miles traveled down to an average of 38 per year per person across the country rather than 43 in 1996 which is a drop of 12% overall.  London and Yorkshire showed an exception to this, with London showing an increase of 39% and Yorkshire 22%  It’s believed that the introduction of the congestion charge may have helpped bring about the increase in london.

The massive escalation of air travel is very concerning as this is the most damaging form of transport by far.  Over the past 5 years alone, air passenger numbers have increased by 54 million, with British airports dealing anually with around 235 million passengers.  The airport with the largest growth during this period is Stanstead which is up 73% since 2001, Liverpool, Bristol and Southampton airports have all doubled their air passenger numbers in this time as well. 

Car users again have increased with british households now owning 27.8 millon cars (an increase of around five million over the last decade).  The worst regions for this have been the North East and the East midlands who’s car registration figures are up by about 30% each, although overall, new car registrations in 2006 were 10% down compared to the 2001 figures.  The other problem is that the distance we’re travelling by car is increasing.  Over the last two years, there’s been a 3% increase in the average distance travelled per person per year taking it up to 5,900 miles per person per anum.

It seems household recycling however has improved with homes now recycling an average 27% of waste compared to 15% five years ago.  East Anglia shines out at the top with 34% of household waste recycled, with the East Midlands a close second at 32%, while London, and the North east are at the bottom with just 21% of their waste being recycled.

Overall it’s a very mixed report, with the statistics on household recycling being the only bright spot in an otherwise pretty gloomy report.  Paul Vickers who is the head of regional statistics at the ONS has been quoted in the Times Newspaper as saying:  “All regions are recycling more, with the eastern region recycling the most,” he said. “But air travel is up, and we have seen a substantial increase at regional airports, and the stock of cars owned is growing steadily.”

Whilst Mike Childs, the head of campaigns at Friends of the Earth, said:  “The Government must do much more to help people live less polluting lives. This must include tougher energy efficiency standards for products and cars, greater investment in public transport, and taxes aimed at making it cheaper and easier for people to go green.  If ministers are serious about creating a low-carbon economy they must take urgent action now”.

Certainly it seems something needs to be done, and fast.  The government’s actions over the last year or two just don’t seem to have worked, the increases in petrol prices don’t seem to have done much either it seems, so what’s next?  Do we need fiscal incentives implimented to get people on the right path rather than subtle increases in prices on non-green methods?