Sustainable travel projects designed to cut carbon and grow the British economy will benefit from £15m of Government funding.

Although very much focussed towards benefitting cyclists, the extra cash highlights the Government’s positive attitude towards reducing Britain’s carbon footprint and comes on top of the £560m Local Sustainable Transport Fund announced at the start of last year.

More than half of the £15m will go to UK transport charity Sustrans to enhance England’s cycle routes while £7m will help improve integration between cycle and rail at stations.

Safer and more convenient cycle racks, additional cycle parking and storage, and better access for cyclists should also materialise from the investment.

Local Transport Minister Norman Baker announced the funding, saying: “If we are serious about reducing carbon, then we need to get more people walking and cycling. But we must do it in a way that boosts the economy.

“I want this fund to support projects that create growth and tackle climate change by cutting our carbon emissions.

“I look forward to seeing the projects put forward by Sustrans and the Cycle Rail Working Group and working with them to deliver transport that is greener, healthier and improves quality of life in our communities.”

Both organisations have until March to work up the specific projects they wish to fund.

Following today’s announcement that the UK Government is to introduce a grant of up to £5000 for the purchase of a qualifying electric vehicle or plug-in hybrid vehicle beginning in 2011 TheGreenCarWebsite.co.uk has dug a little deeper to find out what type of cars could well qualify under the terms of the scheme.

Here’s what the Government is currently proposing:

• The scheme is focused solely around passenger cars and only cars confirmed as “M1” by European Whole Vehicle Type Approval process will qualify.
• The car needs to be powered at least in part by electricity. In reality this will mean powered solely by an electric drivetrain, or by the next generation plug-in hybrids that use small internal combustion engines to top up the charge of the battery on longer runs. It is not known whether this scheme will extend to plug-in hybrids that use the engine to entirely take over after a certain distance/speed.
• Tailpipe emissions for solely electric cars should be 0g/km CO2 and for plug-in hybrid cars 75g/km or less.
• Solely electric powered car should have a driving range of more than 70 miles on a single charge. Plug-in hybrid cars should have a range of more than 10 miles while running solely on electric power – without the conventional combustion engine topping up the battery.
• The vehicle must have a maximum speed of more than 60mph.
• The vehicle must be safe. The current guidelines state that is must meet EC whole vehicle type approval, or crash tested to acceptable international standards.
• The car’s electrical components be thoroughly tested and be compliant with UN-ECE Reg 100.
• The vehicle must have mass market potential. At the moment this could mean that eligible cars will be price capped according to the number of seats.
• The car’s warranty is a minimum of 3 years/60,000 miles for conventional components and a minimum of 3 years/60,000 miles (extended to 5 years at the request of the consumer) for the battery/electric drivetrain components.

The Government will be canvassing opinion in firming up this criteria over the coming months – so it is very much a watching brief as to what the final scheme will look like.

UPDATE: There are a couple of minor changes to the criteria since it was first published in 2009 – these changes are highlighted in bold.

As always at TheGreenCarWebsite.co.uk we welcome your thoughts – is this scheme good news for the promotion and take up of electric cars in the UK? Does the scheme go far enough? Do you agree with the proposed criteria outlined above? Let us know in the comments box below.

More than half of Britons believe that we should limit our car use for the sake of the environment, a survey by the Department for Transport (DfT) reveals.

The report ‘Public attitudes towards climate change and the impact of transport’ shows that in 2009 just under 60 per cent thought that reducing their car use was  important for the environment, in the survey of just over a 1,000 people living in Great Britain.

The survey, run annually shows that last year, 76 per cent of adults were very or fairly concerned about climate change. While most think that climate change will have little or no impact on them personally (around 60 per cent), most believed that the UK and the rest of the world would be affected, but that it would be future generations who would feel the effect the most (around 85 per cent).

When asked about the causes of climate change, of those who felt that they knew something of the subject (89 per cent), the most commonly mentioned cause was road transport emissions as a leading cause of climate change, mentioned by 65 per cent. This was followed by emissions from planes, mentioned by around 40 per cent. Emissions from power stations, ‘other CO2 emissions’, and the burning of fossil fuels for energy were each selected by around 30 per cent of respondents.

But the proportion naming road transport emissions as a contributor has fallen from 72 per cent in 2006. Those mentioning natural causes fluctuated over the time period – 10 per cent in 2006, 16 per cent in 2007, 14 per cent in 2008 and 11 per cent in 2009.

In tackling climate change, support for policies on ‘soft’ measures to encourage alternative travel modes, such as improved public transport, was far higher than measures that would increase the cost of car travel. Support for both increasing tax on petrol and higher taxes on less environmentally friendly cars (the most popular pricing measure chosen by 37 per cent of adults) decreased between 2006 and 2009.

The vast majority of adults supported the Government persuading people to purchase less environmentally damaging vehicles, although the proportion supporting has reduced over time from 87 per cent in 2006 to 81 per cent in 2009.

In the next twelve months, three-quarters (77 per cent) said that they would undertake at least one activity which would reduce their car journeys, most often walking some short journeys or reducing the number of non-essential journeys. The activity that was most commonly mentioned was recycling, by around nine in ten.

Nearly half (45 per cent) of adults also believed ‘Air travel should be limited for the sake of the environment’.

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

England’s bus fleet will be helped to go green thanks to a new £30 million fund to encourage the purchase of low carbon buses.

The fund is part of the Department for Transport’s wider strategy to encourage a radical shift to low carbon transport and improve air quality in our cities.

Bus operators and councils will be able to bid for the money which they can then use towards the additional up front cost of buying low carbon buses. 

As more low carbon buses are produced and sold, costs will reduce.  This will encourage bus technology and will stimulate the market for low carbon buses, an industry in which the UK is a world leader.

Transport Secretary Andrew Adonis said;

“CO₂ emissions from buses have increased significantly over the last 10 years.  For the sake of our environment and the air quality in our towns and cities it’s important to encourage the industry to move towards low carbon models.

“I’m delighted that this is an industry where UK manufacturers are leading the field. Therefore these companies and their employees are well placed to benefit from this initiative.

“Over the next two years we expect this fund to support the purchase of several hundred low carbon buses and, just as importantly, help to stimulate the development of a new green technology industry and help to safeguard up to 900 jobs in bus manufacturing.” 

Low carbon buses use at least 30 per cent less fuel and emit nearly a third less carbon than an equivalent conventional bus.  They therefore have the potential to significantly reduce the impact of road transport on climate change.  They will also meet the most stringent air quality emission standards to help improve air quality. 

At present, low carbon buses make up just 0.2 per cent of buses on the road today .The fund is intended to put low carbon buses within the reach of as many operators and local authorities as possible throughout England.