The Department for Transport has today launched an advertising campaign aimed at reducing CO2 emissions from car use.
The TV advert – due to be aired from Saturday 7th November – highlights that by driving five miles less a week, any driver can help make a difference.
Developed as part of the cross-Government ACT ON CO2 campaign, the advert aims to raise awareness of the impact of car travel on CO2 emissions and ways in which drivers can play their part in reducing this.
Car travel is the single biggest source of household and individual CO2 emissions in the UK. If all UK drivers reduced their driving by 5 miles a week we could save 2.7 million tonnes of CO2 per year.
Transport Minister Sadiq Khan said: “This campaign asks people to think more carefully about the journeys they routinely take. In our daily lives we create over 40 per cent of the UK’s CO2 emissions, every action we can take to reduce this figure will make a difference.
“Our research has shown that driving five miles less a week is something people feel they can manage – for example, by combining journeys or walking and cycling a bit more for short trips.”
Advice on ways of reducing your mileage is available on the ACT ON CO2 website: http://actonCO2.direct.gov.uk/actonCO2/home/campaigns/drive-5-miles-less-a-week.html as well as tips on smarter driving and tools for accessing environmental performance when you are buying a car.
To view the new advert please use the following link: http://actonCO2.direct.gov.uk/actonCO2/home.html
This will make all the difference – wow
Comment by steven — November 7, 2009 @ 11:49 pm
I wish I had thought of this, my local council (paid for in part by my income tax) can turn the christmas lights on and not worry about the trees and fish and stuff and ice and C02 and s**t because I going to drive 5 miles less a week in my car that does 50mpg.
Comment by steven — November 7, 2009 @ 11:59 pm
I’m going to drive twice as much now, i may even go for a drive right now and sit at 7k rpm for a few miles for good measure.
Comment by michael andrews — November 8, 2009 @ 12:13 am
….err, no.
Stop trying to control people’s lives and let them get on with them!
I shall not be reducing my mileage, and yes I drive a car that will only ever get to 28mpg at a push; but wait, it’s done 220000 miles and doesn’t need replacing yet – manufacturing being the polluting part of this process.
Comment by S — November 8, 2009 @ 7:23 am
Could the Act on CO2 delusionists be any more dumb. If I drive 5 miles less, than I am 5 miles away from where I need to be.
Comment by Denise — November 9, 2009 @ 1:52 pm
I have already made the effort to buy an economical diesel car which importantly I also drive in an economical manner. Perhaps if we are to fund campaigns such as this, the Government would be better spending our money suggesting that people drive within and preferably slightly below the speed limits. This would save vastly greater amounts of fuel, CO2 (and lives). Coming from a Government that continually promotes air travel in every possibly way, this drive 5 miles less campaign is insulting to those of us who try to make a bit of an effort. (And no I do not fly abroad for my holidays.)
Comment by Graham — November 9, 2009 @ 4:42 pm
How ridiculous.
If I drove 5 miles less each week, I’d go to work on a Friday morning and I would be able to return home until Monday.
Comment by jon — December 7, 2009 @ 10:42 pm
If VIZ magazine did a “how to save the planet” skit they would say something like “drive 5 miles less a week”.
Now if you said drive 5mph slower for a week that would have more effect. As drag increases with the square of the velocity it would probably achieve far more than that.
Comment by Dave — December 13, 2009 @ 11:07 pm
This is THE most idiotic waste of money any Government has wasted on an advert. How on earth am I meant to drive less a week? Do they think I actually drive anyway that I dont need to? Do they think I drive around and think “I know, Ill drive an extra 5 miles I dont have to, just for the hell of it.”
In any case, the resulting savings on gases etc are a joke.
Money would be better spent trying to convince the Chinese that global warming actually exists.
Comment by Barry Glynn — December 14, 2009 @ 3:56 pm
How on earth are people supposed to drive five miles less a week? How? That advert was not thought through. How are we supposed to drive five miles less?
Comment by Richard — December 16, 2009 @ 10:29 pm
Yeah, I’ll drive 5 miles less per week so long as someone can move my office 5 miles nearer to my house!
Comment by Andy — December 17, 2009 @ 2:19 pm
The advert is terrible. It’s like it’s there just to inform you of what you already know about cars being a big contributor to CO2 emissions. That’s all it does. It offers this silly notion of driving five miles less a week. That’s never going to happen. People go where they need to go and they pay such a lot to run a car that they’re completely entitled to do so. Driving a defined number of miles per week less is just a silly gimmick, not really a sustainable idea. It’s not a solution to anything. If the advert was phrased better and made you think about some of your shorter journeys then it may have been a better advert.
Comment by Lee Holland — December 19, 2009 @ 9:55 pm
Funny how the figure being quoted by the Government is 5 ? Is that not the same number as the new Terminal at Heathrow they pushed thru ?? Sick to the back teeth of these preaching leeches telling us how to live our lives.
Comment by s baines — January 6, 2010 @ 5:29 pm
I live in a country area where the car is essential, at £1.15 a litre for diesel I can assure you I do as little mileage as possible. I take exception to this suggestion that I can save the world with my 5 mile reduction, in this country we have the combustion engine of all types being raced for “sport and fun” thats where the generating of CO2 can be massively reduced, so don’t pick on me, go for the biggest offenders!
Comment by Denis Hall — January 14, 2010 @ 12:27 pm
This is an absolute, patronising insult. Given that we have to pay a totally unreasonable amount of tax simply for owning a car (the VED)whether its used or not then surely that is the single biggest influence on whether you drive or not, ie, if I have paid excessive tax then I am jolly well going to use the car. I did actually used to deliberately walk to my local shops to “do my bit” but since this campaign I have rebelled and will now drive. Not to mention that waste of taxpayers money…..If the Govt is going to put effort into public information films then choose a subject where benefits can be had, such as how to merge when two lanes become one and when to use fog lights.
Comment by Ian Hazeldine — February 11, 2010 @ 2:55 pm
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