WHAT IS SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORT?

Information about vehicles and fuel technologies, which could deliver an 80-90 per cent reduction in vehicle emissions, will be presented by Professor Julia King at a Lunar Society lecture at Aston University on Thursday September 17th.

Birmingham, the motor city of the past, could revitalise a key sector of the city's economy by leading in the design and manufacture of new low-carbon cars.

Birmingham Airport hit the local news headlines this week, when an Airbus A380 arrived from Dubai. The C0₂ emissions from this aircraft are claimed to be less than the emissions from British trains, per kilometre travelled.

Low-carbon cars, and three storey aircraft, may satisfy politicians as a way of achieving C0₂ reductions, and gain profits for businesses, but are they a sustainable solution for travel in the twenty-first century? Will our great-grand-children be able to drive to work from leafy suburbs and be able to fly to Dubai, to have exotic holidays on unspoilt beaches?

Electric cars, and three storey aircraft, have a lower impact on scarce resources, and lower emissions to speed up global warming, than fossil fuel cars and Concorde, but are they really a sustainable solution?

The Government's Planning Policy Guidance PPG13, back in 1994, advocated that we should be trying to reduce the need for travel.

If you have not yet watched the film "Wake up, freak out, then get a grip." I recommend that you take a 12 minute break now.