MPs are urging the government to offer financial incentives to companies who choose to move their freight by water, instead of by road or rail. According to the environment, food and rural affairs select committee CO2 emissions from inland and coastal shipping are 80% lower than road haulage, but unfortunately only 1% of UK freight is transported this way. In 2000 British Waterways had promised to double the amount of goods carried on rivers and canals by 2010, but at the halfway point in 2005 figures had actually dropped from 4.3m tonnes to 3.4m tonnes. The general consensus is that this form of haulage is uneconomical, therefore incentives from the government would be one way to turn this around.
[via The Guardian]
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