Petrol vs electric car: carbon footprint calculator | Pawprint- Your Eco Companion

Originally published at https://www.pawprint.eco on October 9, 2020.

If we ever needed more of a reason to pull up our socks and start cleaning our skies, this year’s it.

According to Harvard biostatistics professor Francesca Dominici, breathing in polluted air when you have COVID is akin to ‘putting gasoline on a fire’. The importance of achieving our net zero goal is now irrefutable.

The UK Government’s Road to Zero plan looks to phase out the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2040. But in 2018, only 0.5% of licensed vehicles in the UK were ultra-low emission vehicles. (Office for national statistics)

If we’re going to reach net zero by 2050, we need to see a big reduction in road transport emissions in the coming years. If going electric is something you’re able to do, do it. To quote carbon expert, Mike Berners-Lee, ‘Almost nobody who goes electric regrets doing it’. (How Bad Are Bananas, 2020)

Benefits of driving an electric vehicle:

• You’ll reduce your maintenance and running costs enormously. ‘On average, you’ll pay around three times more to drive 100 miles in a petrol or diesel car than in an electric vehicle.’ Energy Saving Trust
• You’ll reduce your carbon footprint, and help the UK reach its net zero target.
• You’ll be the change you want to see in the world. As Katie Leggett, sustainability manager at innocent drinks says, ‘We vote for the world we live in with the products we buy’. Buying an electric car will signal to the government and businesses that you’re behind the green revolution.
• You could get money off your purchase through government grants.

Lockdown gave us a glimpse of what the world will look like when we start using it sustainably. It also sent us a sobering message about what our future holds if we don’t.

If you want to learn more about reducing your carbon footprint, check out Pawprint. Pawprint is an online tool that helps you measure, understand and reduce your carbon footprint from the palm of your hand.

Petrol vs electric car carbon emissions calculator

Using numbers validated by said carbon expert (Mike) we’ve created a calculator that tells you exactly how much carbon you’d prevent from entering the atmosphere by swapping to an electric vehicle. To try the calculator for yourself head over to our original blog.

Originally published at https://www.pawprint.eco on October 9, 2020.