Nottingham car-free challenge starts amid 2028 carbon push

Morning Briefing: Friday, 1st May

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Nottingham City Council and Walk Wheel Cycle Trust are running a campaign this month to encourage people to reduce how often they use their cars. This comes as the Council are still pushing to be the first carbon neutral city in the UK by 2028.

The scheme, starting today, has a website where any journey can be logged so long as it was done by certain methods: walking, cycling (including e-bike), wheelchair, running, bus, tram, or train. The challenge says it is "focusing on reducing the level of single occupancy car trips", so it also includes car-share trips. The website shows how much CO₂ and money each logged journey has saved.

City Council have an objective to become carbon neutral by 2028. This means the amount of CO₂ released into the atmosphere from any source should match the amount that we're able to capture by taking it out of the air. Two key ways of doing this are reducing CO₂ emissions and increasing the amount of plant life, which naturally consumes CO₂.

45,000 trees were planted in the city in 2024, with a commitment of reaching 50,000 by 2028. Between 2020 and 2025, Nottinghamshire County Council planted 757,000, though of course their constituent area is far bigger.

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Morning BriefingShane P

This challenge focuses on reducing emissions by "leaving the car at home". An average UK car emits about 647g of CO₂ every five kilometres - roughly the mass of a dozen eggs. A modern car fares better, dropping under 500 grams for the same distance. Changing the transport behaviour of Nottingham's populace is a key factor towards reaching the Council's goal.

How are they doing so far? It's difficult to tell. In 2023, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero released figures ranking Nottingham quite well compared to the national average of emissions per person: Nottingham was 3.1 tonnes per person in 2023, compared with 3.9 for England. However, if Nottingham continues "business as usual" then it will not be possible.

If reaching climate safety, making the air we breathe safer, or getting healthier aren't motivation enough, then the Big Nottingham Travel Challenge also has prizes. The ten most active participants in the challenge are put into a draw for a table at Restaurant Sat Bains, an e-bike worth £550, Micro Scooters, and a number of other prizes are there as an incentive.

The challenge starts today and runs until the end of May. Sign-ups are available through the Big Nottingham Travel Challenge website.