Environmentally friendly travel

[Thebookswereherfriends]

I wonder if anyone can help with a question I have about travelling to Jersey?
I really want to stop flying to holidays destinations. We’ve only ever taken one trip a year, usually the Balearics. I don’t want to do that anymore. I feel that I can’t ignore the impact flying has on the planet.
I want to visit jersey, but my partner disagrees that the ferry there is anymore environmentally friendly than the small Flybe plane that goes. I’ve tried googling, but not really found an answer. Can anyone answer the question? Which is better? Thanks.

I can calculate your carbon footprint for each method. I just need the following information:

Your car year, make and model, and # km from your home to ferry port
Name of ferry port and company you plan to use

For flying, need airport and # km to airport from your home.

I can then calculate the #kg of CO2 in emissions either way.

(The reason I need you car year, make and model is because the kg of CO2 per km varies by car. )

In my response, I’ll share the calculations and sources so you can do this for yourself for future trips.

When I compared flying to northern France vs ferry it's less than half the emissions for the ferry.

Oh and that was before I had even added on the journey to the airport

Ok, thanks.

Nissan almera, 10 years old. 185km to ferry port, condor ferries.

Exeter airport, Flybe.

Airport is 30km from home.

Here you go.
TAKE FERRY TO JERSEY

185km to ferry port, Nissan Almera (used average) @ 179g/km
179*185=33,115g

High speed ferries to Jersey 13.8g/mile per passenger
(from carbonindependent.org based on 1.03kg/mile with avg 74.7 passengers)

Ferry port to jersey= 179 miles
179213.8g=4,940g

Total CO2 each way if take Ferry=38,055g

FLY to JERSEY
Exeter airport, Flybe.30km
Nissan Almera (used average)@ 179g/km
179*30=5,370g

Exeter to Jersey 328km
Honestly a Very green Aircraft Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 (used seat guru to look up aircraft by airline and route) @ 81g/passenger/km
812328=53,136g

Total CO2 each way if fly= 5,370+53,136=58,506g

Save 20,000g (20kg) CO2 by taking ferry. Equivalent to driving 69miles in your car.

So depending upon how much you drive your car on Jersey after the ferry versus if you fly & use public transport.....it could be the same total for the holiday

Cheers xxx

Btw- the high speed ferry, Condor Liberation uses three 20cylinder MTU Diesel 374litre engines. So if you broaden scope to NOX and emissions other than CO2, it might change overall picture. They did get an environmentally friendly overhaul in 2015. But the ship itself is younger than your car! (Put in service in 2010) so it is using a very fuel efficient engine.

OMG, Doomsday I think I love you!
OP I am so relieved and grateful that more of us are starting to review travelling choices in the light of the climate breakdown, so thought I'd come along and cheer you on. Thank you! I'm now down to visiting family in my (European) home country every 5 years or so, and people look at me as if I've got two heads when I say it's for environmental reasons . Enjoy Jersey! and telling your DP you were right

Thank you so much - that’s incredibly useful and not something I would ever have been able to work out.
It’s useful to be able to present to my dp, although I think his tendency to seasickness may colour his argument as well.

@OP
Honestly, if seasickness is a problem, the Flybe plane they use is actually one of the greenest technologically available right now. It has around 40% lower emissions than earlier similar sized planes. I would not feel guilty flying instead of the ferry because you can look at other things you do to save CO2 by driving fewer miles for example. I think flying + using public transport on Jersey instead of driving your car would most probably result in equal CO2 to taking the ferry and driving your car all over the island...assuming you are there for a week at least.