Lighten carbon load and save lives on the road, urges RoSPA
December 15th 2009

RoSPA has a road safety challenge for Prime Minister Gordon Brown as he attends the Copenhagen summit – cut carbon emissions and save lives by putting the UK’s clocks forward.

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents has been calling for many years for the UK to move to a system called Single Double Summer Time (SDST), which would put the clocks one hour ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) in winter and two hours ahead of GMT in summer.

Although the life-saving potential of such a move has been well documented, the fact that there would also be significant environmental benefits is perhaps less well known.

According to a recent Cambridge University study, the move would cut carbon emissions by 450,000 tonnes each year. The energy saved would be equivalent to 85 per cent of all the power generated by wind, wave and solar renewable energy in England and enough to power every household in Edinburgh.

Tom Mullarkey, RoSPA chief executive, said: “Should Gordon Brown be challenged by other world leaders in Copenhagen on the UK’s climate change plans, it would be interesting to know how he explains why our country has not taken a simple step towards meeting our emission targets, by moving the clocks forward by one hour.

“It would also bring numerous other social, economic and safety benefits, at no cost. For example, the tourist industry would benefit from an injection of £2-3billion per annum, creating 18,000 jobs. At a time of economic recession, this would bring a major boost to the economy.

“Is it not time for Mr Brown to act on his own advice at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen? At the start of this month he wrote: ‘Inevitably, as with every great project of social and economic progress in the global and public interest, there will be vested interests who seek to oppose it. And so I will take on with evidence, argument and moral passion all the anti-science and anti-change environmental Luddites who seek to stand in the way of progress.’

“It is high time for the Government to practise what it preaches and take simple steps to protect our most vulnerable road users – we need a trial of SDST as soon as possible.”

A report published by the Public Accounts Committee a few days before the clocks went back in October stated that there was “substantial evidence” that fewer people would be killed and seriously injured on the roads if the clocks were put forward by one hour throughout the year. The report quoted figures also cited in two other publications - a Department for Transport consultation on the UK’s new road safety strategy, and a National Audit Office report called Improving Road Safety for Pedestrians and Cyclists in Great Britain.

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