Posts filed under 'green issues'
The rising price of fuel seems to have given car producers a kick up the backside as they are all now eager to exploit this and launch new electric cars. Nissan announced this week that they plan to have electric cars available for sale in America and Japan by 2010.
Hybrid cars like the Toyota Prius are already well established in the UK now. The Prius was first introduced to the Japanese market in 1997 and was the first mass produced hybrid vehicle. In 2001 it was launched in Europe and has become a popular car to those more environmentally friendly drivers. As well as being kinder to the environment, hybrid cars are cheaper to tax and receive dicounted car insurance with most insurance companies. The three major problems that I can see with hybrid cars is that they aren’t all that eye catching, they are expensive for the car that you get and of course they still use petrol.
A solution to these problems appears to lie in a new electric car, the Tesla Roadster. The man behind this is Elon Musk, who founded PayPal in 1999 and sold it to eBay for $1.5 billion at the age of 31. The Tesla Roadster does 0-60 in just under four seconds, enough to rival any sports car and it looks great too, not surprising as it has been based on the Lotus Elise. It is in huge demand in the states with movie stars like George Clooney, Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon being among the first to order the £45,000 car.
It is powered by 6,831 lithium-ion batteries - reported by Sky News as being the equivalent of almost 7,000 mobile phone batteries. It’s battery has a lifespan of 100,000 miles it can do up to 200 miles at a time and takes just 3 hours to charge up. This is considerably better than the lead-acid batteries which have been used previously in eco-cars which have a lifespan of only 3 years, cost £1,300 to replace and take 8 hours to fully charge. From the reviews that I have read it is wonderfully quiet, great to handle and, at 1p a mile, it is very economical too.
And the designers haven’t just stopped there. As well as being kinder on the environment when being driven, all its component parts can be recycled or reconditioned - how clever is that!
I can honestly see this design taking off in the future. At £45,000 it is still expensive for the average person but if the government backs the mass manufacture I am sure that this price will gradually come down as technologies advance. I for one would love to be doing my bit for the environment but in style.
May 16th, 2008
The government plans to build 10 Eco-Towns across the UK and have announced the 15 towns in the running.
The Prime minister announced his plan for the first new towns to be built since the 1960s. He would like to see 5 new sustainable eco-towns by 2016 and a further 5 by 2020. Planners have been told that there should be an acre of parkland to every 100 houses, schools and shops within walking distance so that people don’t have to use cars to do school and shopping runs and good public transport links. I have read that the plan is to use cutting edge green technologies and brownfield land, like former MOD sites and disused industrial sites, rather than Green belt areas. Such schemes could do away with the need for car insurance but I’m not sure what the affect would be on home insurance prices.
From what I have read there are very mixed views on creating these eco-towns. Many people think that the mere fact that building work is going to take place is not good for the environment, not to mention the damage to existing communities and wildlife. Others feel that the idea of eco-towns is good in principle but can’t see how they can be 100% eco-friendly due to the location of the sites and the modern day need to use cars due to expensive and inefficient public transport.
Some celebrities have started to speak up about their concerns. Dame Jude Dench is concerned that the planned construction of an eco-town near to Shakespear’s home town of Stratford-upon-Avon will put too much strain on the town. She says “I should stress that I am not against eco-towns per se – far from it. It is the location of the proposed site – so close to historic Stratford – that gives me cause for concern. The Better Accessible and Responsible Development campaign’s message is very clear: yes to eco towns, but not in a location that will devastate a town of such historical and cultural importance.”
Personally I think that they are a great idea but I’m not convinced that they will be sustainable. I think that we all need to think more about what we do and if we can do more to help the environment but I’m not sure if we are ready for eco-towns yet. Are you?
April 8th, 2008
Alistair Darling has delivered his first budget as the chancellor. The main theme of his budget was on creating a stable economy. It has been a tough first year for the new chancellor dealing with excessive public debt and a looming recession and the nationalisation of one of the country’s biggest mortgage lenders, Northern Rock.
There were the usual increases in alcohol and tobacco duties but as predicted the chancellor did implement some changes to encourage people to be more green.
From April 2010 there will be no tax payable in the first year on new cars that emit less than 130g per kilometer of CO2. A higher first year rate will be charged on the most polluting cars that emit more than 255g of carbon dioxide per kilometer with Vehicle Excise Duty of £425. Also from April 2010 the most polluting vehicles will face a £950 showroom tax. The chancellor said “It is right that if people choose to buy a more-polluting car that they should pay more in the first year to reflect the environmental cost. The changes will provide a real incentive to manufacturers and motorists.” He also said that new funding will be set aside to develop technology for national road charging which could reduce congestion and help environment measures”.
Charges on plastic bags may be introduced in 2009 if the voluntary progress is unsuccessful and a total of £26 million will be committed to the Green Home Service to help families cut fuel bills.
The planned rise in fuel duty which was scheduled to go up by 2p per litre in April, has been delayed until October. Much to the anger of environmentalists. John Sauven, Greenpeace executive director is quoted in The Independent as saying “Darling’s safe pair of hands have dropped the ball on climate change. Suspending the promised increase in fuel duty has fatally undermined his boast that this is a green budget, and tinkering with taxes on planes and cars isn’t going to stop new runways and roads being built. The Chancellor should have channeled cash into clean technologies, energy efficiency projects and support for the renewables industry. On all these counts, his measures have failed to match the scale of the challenge we face.”
Mr Darling announced that the first carbon Budget will be delivered alongside the Budget next year. Maybe that announcement will do a little more to appease environmentalists.
March 12th, 2008
Alastair Darling’s first budget tomorrow is being referred to as their ‘green budget’. He is expected to increase the price of petrol by 2p a litre, impose a ‘showroom tax’ and a higher vehicle excise duty on those cars deemed to be gas guzzlers.
However, The Independent reports today that the ‘green taxes’ are to be delayed due to the concern that Britain is heading for a recession. However, the usual increase of taxes on alcohol is expected to take immediate effect.
An interactive survey by The Times Online confirms that people are very concerned about the economy with many people citing the main concerns as the soaring gas and petrol prices, higher council tax and bigger supermarket bills. Sadly, pensioners are struggling to cope with the rising costs of essential basic items like bread and eggs according to this report.
Although Mr Darling may decide to delay some of his tax increases tomorrow, I am sure that they will be introduced at some stage. The important issue to me is that the revenue generated from these increased and newly introduced taxes, imposed in the name of improving the environment, needs to be visibly seen to be being used to help our environment, support green schemes and encourage people to use public transport. The congestion charge, although hated by most people, is an example of where we can clearly see that money generated is being ploughed back into improving the bus network in London. And the same needs to be seen with the governments increased revenue.
People need to be encouraged to make their homes and cars more environmentally-friendly by being offered subsidies, for example installing and using solar power panels and by buying hybrid cars (although I’m not sure anyone would want to buy a new car if the ‘showroom tax’ comes in). Some car insurance companies like Swiftcover offer a discount for those who purchase more environmentally-friendly hybrid cars like the Honda Civic, Honda Insight or Lexus RX. Many other companies also encourage customers to buy green. You can now buy solar powered lights, sheeps wool bedding and even solar powered bricks that can light up a path at night.
Rather than seeing red, let’s hope the budget tomorrow encourages us to be a little more green.
March 11th, 2008
Nowadays, owning a car is a very expensive necessity. You have the initial outlay for the car of your choice, the annual costs of services, taxes, and insurance and we also have to suffer with the ever increasing cost of petrol. I passed my local petrol station this morning and saw that a litre of petrol will now cost a staggering £1.05. Unfortunately there is very little, if anything, that we can do to influence our costs for services, taxes and petrol but we can make a difference on our car insurance premiums.
According to research carried out by Sainsbury Bank the average car insurance premium in 2007 increased by 5.24%. Similarly, research from comparison site Moneysupermarket showed an increase in premiums of 4.5% during the second half of 2007.
Swiftcover.com published an article yesterday stating that UK motorists are collectively paying £1.9 billion over the odds for car insurance, mostly due to motorists not shopping around at the time of renewal.
So what can we do to keep the costs down?
The first lesson is to always shop around when your car insurance is due and remember if you buy online you are more likely to save money. Other ways include ensuring your car is as secure as possible by using an alarm or immobilizer, parking on a drive or in a garage to minimize the risk of an accident whilst your car is parked in the road and not paying for unnecessary insurance add ons like cover for driving abroad.
There are lots of other ways to get cheap car insurance quote. Sky Money, MSN and Swiftcover.com have all published articles recently with their top tips.
If you are looking at buying a new car it is worth considering buying a hybrid car like the Honda Civic, Honda Insight or Lexus RX. Many insurance companies offer a discount on these cars so not only would you be saving yourself some money, you would also be doing your bit for the environment.
February 28th, 2008
As of today, Eurostar started offering carbon neutral journeys. ‘Carbon neutral’ is a phrase we read a lot about and - without wishing to teach the eco warriors amongst you to suck organic eggs - in simple terms it means reducing and offsetting the total calculated CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions you cause. In the case of Eurostar they are doing this by buying ‘carbon credits’ in specially chosen projects that will reduce an equivalent amount of CO2 to the amount created giving a net balance of zero.
Now, not only is it good for the planet, it is also a very potent marketing message to give to customers - “take a green train, rather than a damaging flight” - and one that they make good capital of on their website, pointing out that travelling by Eurostar to their ‘core destinations’ (Paris, Brussels) emits ten times less CO2 than flying.
It’s a persuasive message - and for short-haul trips it might be an easy choice to make especially if the fares are good, the journey more convenient not to mention global warming concerns. If however. you are planning a long-haul flight this winter to some warmer clime, getting a train may not be an option, and the airline you book with may not offer a carbon offsetting programme.
So, what to do? Well, one thing to do could be to take care of your own ‘carbon footprint’ yourself. and one place you can do this is via the Carbon Neutral website. Amongst its many offerings are Carbon Flights where you can quickly and easily choose to support a project that is helping to reduce carbon dioxide levels. The cost of this, from around £4 for a short-haul flight to around £50 for a long-haul flight.
Offsetting before you go off-jetting is a great way to reduce the environmental damage but leaving it to us individuals may not see many people taking the initiative and paying up. That Eurostar have taken the lead and done the job for each passenger - and without ostensibly increasing prices - is to be commended.
We’ll update future posts with other green travel news - but please do let us know your views on this subject.
November 14th, 2007
The government has recently announced that they are going to roll out the use of the hard-shoulder on motorways at peak driving times. After a year of testing on the M42 the scheme is going to be soon extended to other motorways including the M1, M4, M6, M25 and M40.
The announcement raises a few questions
including whether the use of these previously empty lanes will hinder the work of the emergency services (although The Highways Agency insists it won’t) and, as claimed by Friends of the Earth, whether this “motorway widening by stealth” will simply attract more cars and cause even more carbon dioxide emissions.
Can the two battles - one against gridlock, the other against environmental damage - both be won? And will lives be lost if, say, ambulances or helicopters aren’t able to reach an accident scene because of a blocked hard shoulder.
Whatever the government’s priorities one thing is for sure: allowing us to use the hard shoulder is a less expensive option than stumping up the money to add an extra new lane….
November 2nd, 2007
This week the Campaign for Better Transport highlighted figures from the Department of Transport which predicted by 2031 there will be some 5.7m more cars on the road than there are now. That’s 21% more or, apparently, enough cars parked end-to-end to fill a 52 lane motorway between London and Edinburgh. That’s quite a traffic jam…
…and it’s quite an apposite image because other forecasts predict that traffic overall will actually increase at an even greater rate, rising by 31% by 2025 alone.
If you’ve not heard of the Campaign for Better Transport, you won’t be too surprised to learn that it is a campaigning organisation that aims to not just improve public transport, but also reduce traffic and tackle climate change. You can read more about their campaigns on their site . It may seem odd that Swiftcover.com would promote these given that more drivers might mean more car insurance policies, but since it also follows that more cars and more traffic also mean more jams, longer journeys, more stress and more environmental damage, you can’t really quibble with their aims. Indeed, you might want to support them!
You may also like to visit www.travelometer.co.uk - a simple website powered by Swiftcover.com which will help you discover whether or not depending on where you live, you really could give up your car and rely on the public transport in your area. It might seem fanciful to leave the car at home for some journeys, but of course it can be quicker and less stressful sometimes to do so.
September 12th, 2007
They say you should never judge a book by its cover. I don’t know about never, though. I mean, what happens if you find yourself judging a book-cover contest?
Anyway, less tricky might be judging people by the car they drive - especially if you are armed with new research from from Swiftcover.com. The ‘Rich Car List 2007′-picks out the cars that high-earners are more - and also less - likely to drive.
Whilst it is no surprise perhaps to see that top of the Rich Car List are the likes of Porsche, Jaguar and Mercedes, what is interesting is that rich people are more likely to drive a Skoda than an MG or a Volvo. What’s more the wee Smart car has broken into the Top 10 for the first time, perhaps showing that - for some people at least - a big wallet doesn’t necessarily dictate having a big flashy car.
At the other end of the scale, the data - which was based on 2.7m recent car insurance quotes issued by Swiftcover.com last year - showed that a Proton was the least likely marque to be driven by the rich, with Daewoo, a close second bottom of the list. Somewhat surprisingly, Mini finished third bottom of the ‘least likely’ on the Rich List 2007, below marques such as Kia and Nissan and representing a dramatic reversal in fortunes from last year when it was sixth ‘most likely’ to be chosen by the rich. With green issues becoming a lifestyle choice for many - it will be interesting to see the gas-guzzlers get on next year, and whether more modest green-machines might make it on to the list of must-haves for the have-it-all generation.
September 3rd, 2007
An interesting report has just been published. Unveiled at the Royal Geographical Society, in a conference session on Transport and Sustainability, the research from the University of Exeter claims that we - as a nation - are addicted to cheap flights and confused about whether or not to undertake air travel.
When we open the newspapers we see, on one page, stories about the environmental damage caused by aviation, and then on the next page we see full-page advertisements offering cheaper flights to suit our lifestyle. The study reckons that even those living ‘generally green lives’ are reluctant to fly less and bargain flights are one thing they are reluctant to give up. Of course, one could suggest that at least all these flights heading off to sunnier climes are warming up the country for those who can’t afford to go jetting off abroad, meaning that in the long term, we’ll all need to take less flights abroad in search of the sun…but it’s a cheap gag really. The big question is, can the combined efforts of the scientific community and the Government change our attitudes further so as to encourage more responsible travel?
Equally important, how long will it be before there really is public appetite to break our cheap flight addiction? Right now, it seems only die-hard environmentalists are willing to reduce their short haul travel, and as the report concludes, even they do it reluctantly.
August 31st, 2007
