Eurostar cranks up carbon target

Eurostar is to upgrade its carbon emission reduction target because it has met its goal two years ahead of schedule.

Increased passenger numbers and a switch of electricity supply for the Channel Tunnel link means that the company has already met its objective of reducing emissions by a quarter by 2012.

The company's first sustainability report following the 2007 launch of its Tread Lightly initiative, confirmed emissions per passenger had been cut by 31 per cent against its 2007 baseline.

This was largely as a result of rail infrastructure companies' wider use of nuclear power and a greater than expected increase in passenger numbers.

Eurostar now aim to cut emissions 35 per cent per passenger journey by 2012, through wider use of green energy and a series of on-train energy efficiency measures, including changes to heating and lighting and improved driving techniques.

Eurostar chief executive Richard Brown said that meeting the new target would be tough as the company expected much of the reduction in emissions to come in the first two years of the Tread Lightly programme.

In addition, the company predicts that emissions per passenger are likely to rise slightly this year due to a drop in passenger numbers caused by the recession.

However, Brown insisted that Eurostar would continue to invest "significant resources" to achieve the "harder-to-win savings" that needed to be realised over the next three years.

The report also featured the results of a new survey of over 1,500 travellers in the UK, France and Belgium, which suggested that demand for high-speed rail links will continue to rise.

More than 60 per cent of respondents regard the environment as a priority when making purchasing decisions, while 40 per cent claim it is a factor in making travel decisions.

"There is a clear appetite among consumers to find ways of reducing the carbon emissions from their holiday travel, and an expectation that the industry should help them do this," said Brown.

"It is time to harness consumer pressure and business creativity into a virtuous circle of actions to tackle climate change, that will help travellers cut the overall emissions generated by their holiday travel."

According to the latest research commissioned by the company, a journey on Eurostar generates just one-tenth of the carbon dioxide emissions of an equivalent flight. A return Eurostar journey between London and Paris generates 6.6kg of CO2 per passenger compared with 102.8kg per passenger by air.

The company estimates travellers who have switched from plane to train have reduced the emissions from their journeys by an estimated 40,000 tonnes of carbon.