Low-carbon travel? Well, about half of it

Yikes, that was quite a travel year. Since I was voted in as co-chair of the European Greens in December 2024, I’ve travelled a lot to meet in person with member parties, and where I can, I take the train, though there’s been a lot of flights as well. I’ve also travelled to speak at events relating to legislation that I worked on over my time as an MEP: the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive.

 

Around half my travel was ‘low carbon’ though, so that was a step in the right direction. 80,000 kilometres, 38,000 by train, and ferry. You can see some of my journeys from this map of where I snapped photos along the way. Still, it did involve 200 trains, 50 buses and taxis, and 45 flights. Oh, and did I mention tele-working? There were also about 250 online meetups. My travel carbon footprint? About 9.5 tonnes of CO2. I've made a stab at mapping the travel using the geo-tags from my photos on Google Images.

 

What take-away from all of this? Improve the onboard Wi-Fi on trains and make it easier to log on. Persuade Transport for Wales to allow trains departing from Holyhead to wait for up to ten minutes to facilitate ferry foot passengers. Reduce the security checks in Holyhead ferry terminal for foot passengers embarking by ferry, as they far exceed the checks for those who travel by car. Provide Fast-track disembarkation by bus for foot passengers arriving by ferry at Dublin and Holyhead Port. Show train departures from Holyhead in the Holyhead customs hall for foot passengers arriving by ferry and travelling onwards by train. Provide Wi-Fi, ferry information and announcements in Holyhead embarkation lounge for foot passengers boarding the ferry. Improve the pre-check-in toilet facilities at Holyhead. It is a long list, but achievable. My long list would include an overnight sleeper train between Holyhead and London, or a ‘sleeper bus’ with couchette seating that could take you all the way from Dublin to Paris or Brussels. 

 

Still though, a Sailrail ticket between Ireland and the UK is surprisingly good value. I generally top it up to Club Class which gives you video quality Wi-Fi across the Irish Sea, oh and they throw in a continental breakfast on board, and a free newspaper for that nostalgic feel. The price doesn’t increase before the departure date, unlike the Eurostar ticket which can sky-rocket in price unless you purchase a few weeks out. I absolutely appreciate that many people can’t contemplate a half day travelling from Dublin to Brussels, and for so many who are caring for children, parents or others it is well-nigh impossible. However, if you can afford the time, and if your job involves a lot of screen time, a train or ferry can give you time to think, to read, or to catch up on emails.

 

If you’re not a regular continental train user, be warned that German long-distance trains are notoriously late, Polish train food is delicious, and Belgian trains are pretty reliable. A full water flask is a must, and a warm coat and scarf for winter travel in case you’re stuck on a cold platform. Patience and sense of humour helps, and an understanding that front-line staff can’t work magic if you’re going to miss a connection. 

 

I wrote this post at Holyhead Port, where high winds cancelled the afternoon ferry, but the evening boat sailed. In the meantime, I got a good afternoon’s work done in the town library, housed in a wonderful old Markets building where the locals were friendly, the Wi-Fi free, and the staff called up a cafe for me to check it would be open for an evening meal. The joys of slow travel!

 

The upside to green living

Here's a piece from the Irish Times that I wrote in response to an article from Seán Byrne’s entitled “Green living may mean cold comfort for many”...

...Anyone who has spent time in a traffic jam might quibble with his suggestion that fewer car journeys imply a reduced quality of life. Similarly his view that a green lifestyle requires a loss of recreational showers is hardly that onerous. Showering with a friend is a time-honoured way of saving water, but installing a low-flow shower heads may suit those of a more puritanical leaning.


On a more serious note, a radical shift to reducing carbon emissions is crucial if we are to reduce the negative impact that our Western lifestyles are already imposing on developing countries. Climate change is already happening and it is the vulnerable in the developing world that are paying the price for our excessive consumption. There are many advantages to more careful consumption and travelling closer to home. A simple lesson from the Celtic Tiger years is that quality is worth more than quantity. Holidaying in Ireland can boost Ireland’s employment, and if you are travelling abroad, ‘slow travel’ by train and ferry can allow you to leave Dublin Port in the morning and arrive in Northern France by early evening without the stress of air travel. I highly recommend it. Communities that plan for walking and cycling generally have a higher quality of life than those built around the voracious needs of the private car. As an architect and town planner I know that we can design buildings and communities that require only a fraction of the energy that what was built over recent decades. There’s also significant scope for increased employment in retrofitting and upgrading existing buildings, and providing sustainable alternatives to increased car ownership and use.


Byrne suggests that driving may be more energy efficient than walking, but anyone concerned at rising hospital admissions due to obesity cannot ignore the importance of regular exercise as part of a healthy lifestyle. His extract from Timoney’s study is more appropriate to a school debate than a paper of record. His suggestion that wind energy requires ‘vast tracts of land’ ignores the fact that most of the land around wind-turbines apart from the turbine bases and access roads can be used for other uses such as grazing or food crops. Of course Government has to carefully approach the use of subsidies in the path towards a low-carbon economy. High subsidies for energy produced from photovoltaics may have distorted the energy market in Germany and Spain in recent years, but it did encourage investment in renewables in these countries. Proper life-cycle analysis is required of sustainable technologies, but the evidence shows that Government subsidies can speed up the adoption of experimental technologies into the mainstream. In the Irish context, the pay-back for solar water heating in new homes can be less than a decade. An easy-to-use calculator is available on the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland’s website.

Generally the private sector is better at choosing winners, but carrots are required as well as sticks, and pump-priming new areas of economic activity by the State can be worthwhile. The success of sustainable construction in recent years has resulted from a combination of European Directives; Irish Government regulation and grant-aid; and entrepreneurs prepared to put their money forward. I am proud of the role that the Green Party played during its time in Government to further environmental initiatives, despite the economic challenges that we also faced.


A greener lifestyle may involve less variety in food, but as I write I look out to a small urban garden where I grow vegetables such as artichokes and broad beans, and fruits including apples, plums and pears. Of course I eat imported food, but it’s worth bearing in mind fair trade, food miles, and carbon use when you purchase.


Tackling climate change is a deadly serious issue. Weather extremes of recent years have impacted most on poorer communities in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere. There is a growing consensus that climate change is contributing to this instability. We have a moral duty to reduce our environmental impact on the planet, and in doing so to assist the most vulnerable on the planet.

Ciarán Cuffe is a lecturer in Planning at Dublin Institute of Technology and a former Green Party Minister of State

Bound for Copenhagen

That's the Dún Laoghaire Greens giving me a send-off in the picture.

I'm headed for Copenhagen, and I set off on my 'slow travel' trip on Sunday lunchtime, after a coffee and a 'danish' in the Ferry Terminal in Dún Laoghaire. Tonight I'm in a hotel on the Euston Road, and tomorrow I'll travel by Eurostar to Brussels, then on to Cologne where I'll board a night-sleeper to the Danish capital, hopefully in time to hear Mary Robinson and Desmond Tutu address the United Nations Climate Change Conference. I'm also hoping to attend a session on family planning and climate change - a thorny subject, as well as workshops on planning and transportation

It'll be good to have some time to think, and to read on the journey, both of which seem to have become luxuries in the last few years.

I found my 1977 copy of Amory Lovin's "Soft Energy Paths" behind the washing machine the other night, and that's part of my reading material. I've also brought John Houghton's fourth edition of "Global Warming, the complete briefing". Herman Daly's "Beyond Growth" is also packed, along with David MacKay's "Sustainable Energy - Without the Hot Air". The Clerk from the Oireachtas Committee on Climate Change and Energy Security has also provided me with extensive briefing material, ranging from a Department of the Environment Heritage and Local Government summary, to the UN Review of Ireland's most recent submission, as well as the current US Senate position on Climate Change.

It's been a good week for tackling greenhouse gas emissions in Ireland. John Gormley delivered his third Carbon Budget, and published the framework for the Climate Change Bill 2010. Brian Lenihan's budget also introduced a carbon levy at €15 a tonne. That'll add around 5c to a litre of petrol. It won't change behaviour overnight, but it will send a market signal that we're beginning to take the issue seriously

The 1330 Dún Laoghaire-Holyhead ferry arrives into Holyhead just after the 1530 express train to Crewe leaves the platform. It's an annoying example of a lack of joined-up thinking, and helps explain why the sail-rail trip to London takes a similar amount of time as it did 100 years ago. Still, the trip was sociable: I ended up talking to a truck driver who was on his way back to Newport after delivering a second-hand driver unit to Holyhead for shipping to Ireland. There's great demand for them in Ireland in the last year or so, and apparently they sell for around £25,000 sterling- a bargain, or so I'm told.

The HSS ferry is scheduled to be withdrawn though from early January, and hopefully will be replaced with a decent alternative. Cheap air travel has sucked the passenger numbers off the ferries, partly because aviation has up to now been exempt from taxation. This is due to change though due to agreements hammered out at predecessors to the Copenhagen conference, so hopefully there'll shortly be a more level playing field between different types of travel that will take into account the carbon footprint. Interestingly the Arriva train down to Chester advertised its green credentials, as does the Virgin train service from there to London.

We may not get a binding political agreement in Copenhagen, but the presence of thousands of delegates (as well as protestors) shows that climate change has to be taken seriously.

Convention 2008

Just back from Dundalk. That's Minister Trevor Sargent, Cllr. Ciaran O'Brian who replaced Deirdre de Burca on Wicklow County Council,Kealin Ireland, myself, Martin Hogan, Claire McKeever, and Cllr. Shane Fitzgerald from Leixlip Town Council. We're sitting just outside the Convention Hall this morning. I've never been able to catch the sunshine, and listen to Convention speeches before. Cheating slightly, a bit like listening to Mass outside the church.

I was pleased with my 'Twelve Steps to reduce your carbon footprint' workshop yesterday, and I've put up a new blog with the twelve steps and some embedded video here. It still has teething problems with uploads that I'll tidy up over the next few days, but I'd welcome your comments and suggestions on it.

Had a good chat with Mick Fealty this morning about the theory and the reality of an all-Ireland Green Party. It's clear that we need to become clearer about what we can learn from, and give to each other on both sides of the border.

Last night was fascinating. I've never seen Political Correspondents hightail it out of the Conference hall during a leader's speech before, but obviously once the Chinese delegation upped and left halfway through John Gormley's speech, they knew there was a story. Hopefully that won't distract from the rest of what we were saying over the last few days.