BP fuels carbon neutral motoring

BP has launched targetneutral, a non-profit making partnership initiative that is the UK's first mainstream scheme to "neutralise" the CO2 emissions caused by driving.

Road transport accounts for 22 per cent of UK CO₂ emissions. The scheme enables drivers to take direct action to reduce their individual impact on climate change by funding CO₂ reductions generated from environmental projects.

The targetneutral website allows a driver to calculate and pay for the cost of the annual CO₂ reduction required to make their vehicle CO₂ neutral. An average car, driven 10,000 miles in a year, generates approximately four tonnes of CO₂. To neutralise this amount of carbon emissions via the initiative will cost around £20 a year.

targetneutral features what BP dubs a "reduce, replace, neutralise" framework. Drivers are encouraged to reduce emissions by using less fuel, replace vehicle consumables such as fuel and tyres with more efficient products and neutralise CO₂ missions by donating through targetneutral.

The money generated by targetneutral goes to a portfolio of CO₂reduction projects including alternative and renewable energy. Initially there are five projects, including a biomass energy plant in Himachal Pradesh, a wind farm in Karnataka, India and an animal waste management and methane capture program in Mexico. As targetneutral grows, more projects will be added.

The scheme follows procedures modelled on those created by the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) for emissions reduction projects developed under the Kyoto Protocol.