Yes this is yet another green blog. Yesterday I wrote about the new report from a working party of the Conservatives on environmental issues. They quite liked the idea of big trucks.
Today I have been reading the latest report from the Commission for Integrated Transport, the Government quango that produces long boring reports on the future of transport.
The Conservatives reckoned that 8% of emissions come from the haulage industry. The integrated transport outfit in its report is much more pessimistic, putting the figure at 22%. Cars accounted for 54%, then lorries, followed by vans at 13%. The figure for railways was 2% (that sounds wrong) and the much-criticised air travel within the UK only came to 2%.
And not only that but lorries have increased their emissions by almost a third since 1990 and vans are doing more harm as well (particularly the way they are driven).
Fortunately Alan McKinnon of Heriot-Watt University shows in the report how the carbon footprint of the industry can be reduced.
And as the Freight Transport Association says “The report rejects any return to the Fuel Duty Escalator, arguing that rising world oil prices already influence road user behaviour and lock in savings that have already been made.”
I don’t know about you but all this environmental stuff is getting a little boring. Is it going to be another Millennium Bug? Will we find in 10 years' time that global warming had more to do with normal changes in climate rather than carbon? But that would be heresy.