Emissions

By Julie Sinclair

01st December 2007

Take a deep breath... Traffic-choked Greater London produces the lowest CO2 per person from road transport in the UK. That’s one of the shock findings in the latest report from the Gov­ernment, which highlights the pollution rate per capita.

In 2005, 1.7 tonnes of carbon dioxide were emitted for each resident in the capital. That’s 32 per cent less than the national average, according to the study by the Department for Environ­ment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).

By comparison, the figure for Nor­thern Ireland and the East Midlands was nearly double that – they emitted 20 per cent more greenhouse gas than the 2.5-tonne national average. A Society of Motor Manufacturers and Trad­ers spokesman said: “This suggests London’s new car buyers are more conscious of their carbon footprint.”

But road transport wasn’t the worst CO2 culprit in the emissions report. Just under half the recorded carbon dioxide output in the UK during 2005 came from industrial, commercial and public sector sources, such as power stations and refineries.

This equates to 242 million tonnes of CO2. Meanwhile, domestic sources – including gas or electricity consump­tion – emitted a total of 150 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. This matched the output created by road traffic.