More than 4000 Km in 4 days

The ambassadors of Europe on Track are in their 4^th day of travelling and they have already travelled more than 4 000 km around Europe.

In order to reduce the environmental impact of their travel, the ambassadors are not only trying to use the sustainable means of transport, but also measuring their carbon footprint.

But what is Carbon Footprint?

In a nutshell, Carbon Footprint is the shorthand to describe the best estimate that we can get of the full climate change impact of something. That something could be anything – an activity, an item, a lifestyle, a company, a country or even the whole world.

As we know, climate change is one of the greatest challenges of the modern age and reducing the carbon emissions is one of the main solutions for this issue.

In the EU, transport is responsible for 25% of the total greenhouse gases emissions (GHG). Reducing the emissions from the transport sector will represent also a considerable reduction in the overall emissions.

The European Commission has recently published a new Eurobarometer on climate change. The results show tha that for the Europeans, climate change is perceived to be the third most serious issue facing the world, behind poverty, hunger and lack of drinking water, and the economic situation. Nevertheless, only one in four Europeans (25%) think they have a personal responsibility for tackling climate change.

The ambassadors of Europe on Track are taking this opportunity of travelling around Europe to also raise the awareness of the importance of the choices that each indivudual make in relation to the mean of transport used.

They have been trying to reduce their impact in the environment by using more sustainable means of transport. For the interurban travel, the ambassadors have been using trains instead of planes. This simple choice has reduced their emission in 70% when compared to the travel by plane.

For the urban travel, the ambassadors have given preference for walking and cycling (53%), followed by public transport (44%) and car (3%). If the choice of the ambassadors would have been the car for all the urban trips, their emissions would have increased 85%.

The Carbon Footprint of both Teams has been updated! Check it out in our Carbon Footprint Calculator at www.y4pt.org/eot-carbon-footprint! If you want to know more about Carbon Footprint and Sustainable Transport, follow us in our blog and our Facebook page.