I like the Dutch approach to road junction design as it stems from their Sustainable Safety approach. Perhaps the most exotic and lesser known junctions is the wonderfully named “voorrangsplein”, which translates as “priority square”. It’s for use in situations where there are quieter side roads which need connecting to busier main roads where the use of traffic signals and roundabouts are avoided.

The freeze in fuel duty since 2010 means the UK’s CO2 emissions are as much as 5% higher than they would have been, Carbon Brief analysis shows.

The analysis comes amid widespread lobbying and speculation over the future of fuel duty in the UK’s next budget, due to be announced by the new chancellor Rishi Sunak on 11 March.
Fuel duty is currently applied to petrol and diesel sales in the UK at a rate of 58 pence per litre, plus VAT. Instead of rising with inflation, this rate has been frozen since 2010, meaning motorists have enjoyed a large price cut in real terms, even as public transport fares have risen faster than inflation.
If fuel duty had increased each year as planned in the June budget 2010, then pump prices would have been a fifth higher than they are today. Higher prices would have cut CO2 in 2019 by 2-18 million tonnes of CO2 (MtCO2), some 0.5-5.0% of overall UK carbon emissions, Carbon Brief analysis shows.

By Roger Harrabin BBC environment analyst
The world will heat by more than 1.5C unless nations produce tougher policies, a global stocktake has confirmed.
Governments must halve emissions by 2030 if they intend the Earth to stay within the 1.5C “safe” threshold.
But the latest set of national policies submitted to the UN shows emissions will merely be stabilised by 2030.
The UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, called it a red alert for our planet.
He said: “It shows governments are nowhere close to the level of ambition needed to limit climate change to 1.5 degrees and meet the goals of the Paris (Climate) Agreement.
“The major emitters must step up with much more ambitious emissions reductions targets.”

Gloucestershire lost out on funding in the latest round of DfT active travel grants. Instead of wasting everyone’s time appealing the decision, they should reflect on why.
So the Department for Transport (DfT) have been delivering on their promise to withdraw funding from any council-led active travel projects that don’t meet minimum design standards. Gloucestershire County Council (GCC) are reportedly appealing against one such decision. But the DfT were absolutely right to turn Glos down, and GCC should instead try to learn why. Let’s have a go at that together — there might be something we can all learn from their experience.

The world has only a few months to prevent the energy industry’s carbon emissions from surpassing pre-pandemic levels this year as economies begin to rebound from Covid-19 restrictions, according to the International Energy Agency.
New figures from the global energy watchdog found that fossil fuel emissions climbed steadily over the second half of the year as major economies began to recover. By December 2020, carbon emissions were 2% higher than in the same month the year before.
The return of rising emissions began only months after Covid-19 triggered the deepest slump in carbon dioxide output since the end of the second world war, and threatens to dash hopes that the world’s emissions might have peaked in 2019.