26 April 2010
Newsletter: Opinion Piece - Reducing Carbon Emissions
By John Webster
It is well known that the vast majority of man-made sources of carbon dioxide are derived from energy production and transport, but how likely is it that the global energy demand can be converted to renewable sources within the required time-scale?
A recent book by Stewart Brand illustrates the magnitude of the problem by quantifying the effort required to convert current global energy to a range of sustainable sources in the next 25 years in addition to existing “sustainable” sources such as wind and nuclear (“Whole Earth Discipline” by Stewart Brand, quoting figures by Griffith).
Thinking readers will already have concluded that this is unlikely to be achieved, so it demonstrates the importance of rolling out ways to reduce demand - such as better insulation and improved building standards. It also highlights the need to reduce car use by proven measures such as better, high quality integrated public transport with electrically powered buses and trams using energy from sustainable sources. It also highlights the spending anomalies in the Scottish transport budget with huge sums going towards the Second Road Bridge, Aberdeen by-pass, dualling of the A9 etc, which can only lead to even more carbon dioxide emissions, not less.
Yet, one relatively inexpensive infrastructure enhancement has been shown in many countries to yield huge savings in terms of reduced congestion and carbon dioxide emissions as well as significant quality of life and health improvements. What is the magic bullet that could achieve these gains? Improved cycling infrastructure! In Denmark, as a result of 40 years of investment in segregated cycle lanes throughout the major cities, large numbers of citizens now cycle to work, shops or school. In Odense, for example, where 510 kilometres of cycle path have been built to date, about 35 % of commuters now cycle to work with 89% of these saying they do so because they feel safe on the cycle paths. Half of the commuter cyclists used to use a car so the improved cycling infrastructure has taken about 12,000 cars off the road each day with significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions as an added benefit.
Could Scotland lead the UK in this respect by investing in city centre cycle lanes to show how it can enhance quality of life while also getting people into a more active lifestyle?