The Carbon Cost of Christmas Transport

Carbon Cost of Christmas Series: Part Three

By Michael Hines

One of our favorite things in the weeks leading up to Christmas and the New Year is to get together with friends and family over festive meals, drinks, and gift exchanges. It’s all part of what fills the season with love and fun.

It’s also a time of year that is busy with travel.  Young people come home from a term at uni.  Grandchildren make their way to their Nan’s house.  Some families even make a great escape from the UK to enjoy the holidays abroad, seeking culture, Christmas markets, or sunshine in the process.

Of course, all of that extra travel comes with a Carbon Cost to the planet.  The Carbon Cost for some choices, like food, depends heavily on production lines. For other choices, like travel, the Carbon Cost of our decisions comes from greenhouse gas emissions measured in carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e).  Those emissions get created when we take planes, trains, and automobiles to get from point A to point B. 

How can a climate-conscious consumer make the best transportation choices for Christmas and the New Year to limit their Carbon Cost on the planet? 

Understanding Carbon Cost and Travel

Transport is a biggie when it comes to greenhouse gasses, generating 21% of all global emissions. That’s quite a bit more than the 8% of emissions from fashion that we discussed in our previous post.  Transport emissions are even higher in rich countries like the UK because of all the driving and flying we do.

Cherwell Collective knows that understanding Carbon Cost can be confusing, though.  What exactly does it mean when our choices create an extra kg of CO2e?  What should our goals be for our personal emissions?

Here in the UK, the average person’s yearly estimated emissions footprint or the Carbon Cost of a year of our lives is roughly 12,600 kg of CO2e. Carbon Costs build up from what we eat, buy, use in heat and electricity, and from the transportation we take. Each of us contributes to a big chunk of emissions, more than three times the global average of 4,000 kg of CO2e per person per year. 

It can help our understanding to consider what activities it takes to produce your yearly carbon footprint (12,600kg of CO2e).  It’s the same as:

• Driving an ordinary petrol car 46,000 miles.
• Making 4,600 beef burgers.
• Burning about 5,400 liters of petrol

_{^{Sources for UK Carbon Footprint: CAIT Climate Data Explorer via Climate Watch as presented by Our World in Data, and https://www.carbonindependent.org/111.html}}

However, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says we need to get to “net zero” emissions by 2050 to avoid the most catastrophic effects of climate change.  We’ve got a lot of emissions to cut! By making thoughtful transport choices this Christmas (and year-round), we can start reducing the Carbon Cost of our lifestyles. 

Not all Transportation is Equal

To help us keep the Carbon Cost of travel down, Our World in Data has created this graphic that illustrates the CO2e from traveling one km using various modes of transport.

Transport that relies on carbon-based fossil fuels (petrol, diesel, coal, oil, jet fuel) creates the most emissions.  Flights tend to be particularly bad because they have to use a lot of fuel to lift all the weight of the airplane and its fuel into the air.

Driving ordinary petrol or diesel cars also generates substantial emissions.  Driving alone accounts for 15% of all global emissions, so every alternative to driving goes a long way to cutting our personal Carbon Cost.  On the other hand, all use of rail worldwide is just 0.2% of emissions.  That’s an efficient and climate-friendly choice!

Yes, electric cars and plug-in EVs are also better for the climate than ordinary cars, and they are getting better all the time. That’s because, in the UK, more and more of our electricity comes from non-carbon-based sources. In 2010, only 20% of UK electricity production was carbon-free, but as of 2022, 50% was, according to National Grid.  However, taking buses and trains is still better than driving in an EV.

Let’s consider some travel scenarios and how you can choose the most climate-friendly travel options:

A Festive Trip from Oxford to London

If you are going a short distance in the UK, let’s say from Oxford to London, you’re probably likely to choose between driving or taking the national rail.  The trip is about 60 miles.  Let’s look at the kilograms of emissions produced from each transportation choice, the equivalent emissions of driving an ordinary car, and the equivalent emissions from consuming beef burgers.

Mode of Transportation	Kg of CO2e Produced	Carbon Cost (Equivalent Miles Driven in UK standard car)	Equivalent Beef Burgers Eaten
Ordinary Car	17 kg	60 miles	6 beef burgers
EV Car	4.7 kg	28 miles	2.8 beef burgers
National Rail	3.5 kg	21 miles	2.1 beef burgers

You might wonder why we share an equivalent in beef burgers.  

The point is – if you drive 60 miles, you can cut your emissions by an equivalent amount by forgoing six 100g servings of beef, or roughly 6 beef burgers.   

We use beef because it is one of the highest Carbon Cost foods. We’ll discuss the Carbon Cost of food more in our upcoming posts.  Thinking about the relative impact of all your choices, whether in fashion, food, or transportation, is what Carbon Cost is all about.

Going “Home for the Holidays” From London to Edinburgh

What if you live in London, but Scotland is where you go home for Christmas this year?  Your choices might include flying a domestic flight from Gatwick to Edinburgh, taking the national rail, riding a coach, or driving an ordinary car or an EV car.  The trip is about 357 miles flying directly or 400 miles by car, bus, and national rail.

Mode of Transportation	Kg of CO2e	Carbon Cost (Equivalent Miles Driven in UK standard car)	Equivalent Beef Burgers Eaten
Domestic Flight	138 kg	452 miles	45 beef burgers
Ordinary Car	109 kg	400 miles	40 beef burgers
EV Car	30 kg	109 miles	11 beef burgers
National Rail	22.4 kg	82 miles	8 beef burgers
Coach (Bus)	17.2 kg	63.5 miles	6 beef burgers

As we mentioned, rail transport carries lots of passengers and is low in per passenger emissions, especially those on Britain’s electrified East Coast Mainline. Still, even diesel trains are better than cars. Long-distance coaches are also great options for the climate because the bus pools together many people in the same vehicle.

Family Getaway to the South of France

Sometimes, you might be looking to go a bit further afield for the holidays.  To consider that, let’s look at the Carbon Cost of someone traveling from London to Nice, France.  The main choices available are to fly some 651 miles directly or take a combination of the Eurostar and TGV trains via the Chunnel, which is about 866 miles. In some cases you might take a ferry or cruise, but this time of year that’s not typical. 

The fully electric high-speed rail lines are very efficient and low-carbon, producing only a few grams of CO2e per passenger km.  On the other hand, short-haul flying creates 151 grams of CO2e per km–more if you travel in business class because your seat takes up more space.

Mode of Transportation	Kg of CO2e	Equivalent Miles Driven (ordinary car)	Equivalent beef burgers Eaten
Short-haul international flight (economy class)	157 kg	574 miles	57 beef burgers
EuroStar and TGV High-speed Rail	4.83 kg	10 miles	1.2 beef burgers

As you can see, the longer the distance, the more critical considering Carbon Cost becomes. The difference between flying and taking the train is HUGE over long distances.  Flying can be faster to get to someplace like the South of France, but consider what impact that has on the planet and if you are willing to forgo eating 35 servings of beef or to skip driving 564 miles this year to make up for the added carbon cost of flying compared to the train.  That’s the kind of Carbon Cost thinking that will help you make smart choices for the environment.

Making such choices is also a matter of mindset.  You can weigh the other benefits of a leisurely, low-carbon train journey compared to the faster, carbon-heavy air option, whether you’re headed from London to Edinburgh or London to Nice:

• Enjoy more space on the train and varied scenery 
• Able to walk around
• Access to many meal choices and cafe cars
• Mobile phone and Internet service on the journey
• Bypass the busy airport and security process
• City Centre to City Centre
• Less often delayed

Wherever you are traveling for your upcoming holidays, we wish you a safe journey and a low-carbon one as well! For more information about the Carbon Cost of Christmas, you can read part four of this series. It discuss the Carbon Cost of Food and in particular food waste at Christmas.