Reducing carbon emissions
Reducing carbon emissions from transport is critical to tackling climate change - widely seen as the greatest threat facing the world today. TravelSmart achieves significant reductions in distances travelled by car, and hence in CO2 emissions from road transport. Because the changes achieved by TravelSmart are sustained over time, these benefits are also sustained.
Large-scale TravelSmart projects have resulted in annual savings in car travel ranging from 740 to 1,400km per household. Based on the lower figure in this range, and the average CO2 emissions per km of new cars sold in 2005, it is estimated that a National TravelSmart programme targeting all 25 million households in the UK would save around 0.9 MtC (million tonnes of carbon) a year. This compares, for example, to the projected annual saving of 1MtC from converting 5% of fuel for UK road transport to biofuels in line with the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation.
Sustrans is working with Socialdata and other partners to build further evidence of the effectiveness of TravelSmart in tackling climate change (see below for the initial findings of work conducted by Sustrans Research and Monitoring Unit on the value of carbon savings generated by TravelSmart). It is hoped that this might lead to the UK following the example of Australia, where the National Greenhouse Office has been the driving force behind the growth of some of the world's largest TravelSmart ITM programmes.
A 'carbon appraisal' of TravelSmart
Sustrans' Research and Monitoring Unit has developed a model to estimate the value of the carbon savings generated by TravelSmart. The model assumes a roll-out of TravelSmart to all households in urban areas of England over a ten-year period. Based on outcomes of recent programmes, the annual carbon savings generated by this programme would reach at least 0.6 MtC by Year 10. Using the standard 60-year appraisal period for major transport projects, and current DfT estimates for the societal costs of carbon (£78.66 per tC), the total value of these savings would reach just over £1 billion, outweighing the cost of such a TravelSmart programme by a factor of more than three.