DO YOU get chauffeured to school in mum or dad’s massive lump of four-wheel-drive urban assault vehicle? There’s a fair possibility as Aberdeen is stuffed with such vehicles. Or is the mode of transportation more responsible – a small hatchback perhaps? It seems blindly obvious, but the best way to reduce emissions in the short term is a “drastic downscaling of both size and weight’ of conventional petrol and diesel cars”, according to an Oxford University study.
The research suggests that we should not rely on manufacturers producing hydrogen or battery-powered vehicles in the next decade.
It finds that electric and hydrogen vehicles are likely to remain niche products for many years because of limited battery life and the high cost of platinum, which is needed for the catalysts in hydrogen-fuelled cars.
The study editor, Sir David King, and lead author Dr Oliver Inderwildi urge the British Government to impose higher taxes on drivers of large, inefficient vehicles and reinvest the money in better public transport and measures to get more people cycling and walking.
Dr Inderwildi says: “There is ample opportunity for emissions reductions by further improvements of currently available technology combined with a change in user habits.”
Rather than rely on the manufacturers to provide the “silver bullet” solution to cut transport emissions, the report recommends behavioural change, urging consumers to influence manufacturers through their buying power.
Manufacturers are more likely to produce smaller vehicles if customers opt not to buy larger, heavier vehicles with higher carbon emissions.
So tell mum and dad to get rid of the gas guzzler posing in the driveway.