Ministers Suggest New Speed Limits to Lower Carbon Footprint

It now seems that many ministers in the UK are campaigning to reduce the national speed limit to 55 miles per hour. This is all in an attempt to help reduce the UK’s transport carbon footprint. The overall motion is being driven by Labor MP Colin Challen who is arguing that the government should start implementing these kinds of measures to crack down on transport carbon emissions now rather than later.

Colin Challen went on to say that the speed limit would reduce the carbon footprint and would, in time, lead to even further savings for the driver. He said that it is not necessarily beyond the scope of a modern nation to do this. In fact, the United States reduced their speed limits during the 1970’s oil shock. He went on to say that he thinks that it is something worth looking into and that it has to be the kind of collective thing only the government can do.

Of course, Colin Challen did not stop there. He also suggested that funding currently being injected into boosting the economy should be invested in green policies instead. According to the Independent committee on Climate Change, a national speed limit of 55 miles per hour would reduce 1.4 million tones of CO2 from being emitted into the air every year.

This is big news since transport currently accounts for about a quarter of the UK’s total carbon output. Thus, starting to reduce transportation’s carbon footprint could help get the ball moving in other areas as well. However, it is something that the government would have to do, but at least ministers have now started campaigning for it.