No reputable researcher today questions the fact that man-made climate change is a sad reality. Since the late 19th century, the Earth's average temperature has risen by around 1.1 degrees Celsius. This is mainly due to increased emissions of greenhouse gases caused by human activities.

It's getting increasingly unpleasant on our planet! To mitigate these developments, the Paris Climate Agreement of 2015 set the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. To achieve this, annual CO2 emissions per person would have to be reduced to 2-3 tons!

At present, however, the average annual CO2 emissions per person in Austria are around 7.3 tons (2022). The transport sector accounts for a significant proportion, namely around a quarter, of these CO2 emissions. 60% of this quarter is accounted for by the use of a car for private transport.

Depending on the vehicle type and driving style, a petrol engine emits around 140g of CO2 per kilometer. With a diesel it is approx. 120g CO2 per kilometer.

The commute between Innsbruck and Schwaz, for example, is around 34 kilometers. The distance to get to work from Schwaz to Innsbruck is roughly 230 working days, there and back, a total of 15,640 kilometers.

This means that a person who commutes daily from Schwaz to Innsbruck in a petrol car emits approx. 2,188 kilograms of CO2 per year (a diesel car would therefore emit 1,880 kilograms per year)!

You can see immediately: With the limit of 2-3 tons of CO2 emissions per person, per year, it could be difficult in this way. Assuming 3 tons of CO2 per person per year as the absolute maximum, this commute alone accounts for around 72% of the available "CO2 budget" (with a diesel "only" 62%).

If you then add the CO2 emissions from other important areas of life - heating: approx. 1,500 kg p.p./year, diet: meat-based approx. 1,800 kg p.p./year (vegan diet in contrast only approx. 400 kg p.p./year) or a flight on vacation, for example the Frankfurt - New York route: approx. 2,000 kg p.p./year - you can see quite quickly: this doesn't add up!

The answer is actually obvious: Leave the car at home more often! For example, the CO2 emissions per person when using buses are around 80 g per kilometer, and only around 45 g per person per kilometer when taking the train. In other words: if we take our example of the commute from Schwaz to Innsbruck again, the bus produces just over half the CO2 emissions per person per year compared to the car, while the train only produces almost a third.

With the bicycle you are even at practically zero emissions! Of course, the production of an e-bike battery is also harmful. If you can't do without a car at all, for example because you live very remotely, you could consider whether carpooling is an option for you, the CO2 emissions per car are of course divided by the number of people who travel with you.

As you can see, giving up your car is a good way to significantly reduce your personal CO2 emissions in an area that contributes significantly to man-made climate change.

As we, the Silberregion Karwendel Tourism Association, are very concerned about sustainability, we have decided to set a good example as part of the International Mobility Week and conduct this experiment of consciously giving up the car and switching to alternative means of transportation.

We will share our experiences and reflections in this blog to highlight the benefits as well as the challenges, perhaps to provide some inspiration and encouragement so that you too might consider leaving the car behind more often.