Act on CO2         when travelling How can we travel in the most energy efficient way with the least amount of CO2 emitted?

There are many factors to consider when choosing a car - and the real financial and environmental cost across the whole life of the car. The list below are areas to think about:

Government figures suggest that personal car journeys account for more than one-tenth of the UK's total carbon emissions

1) Fuel - how efficient is the fuel consumption of the car? Since Sept 2005 car manufactures and imports will show a label based on an A-F scale that show the CO2 emissions of the car. Just like white goods you choose how efficient you want your car to be.

The bands match the Vehicle Tax bands and the labels also show you how much Vehicle Tax you would have to pay each year - the more fuel efficient the car the less tax you pay. See chart at the end of this page for details.

2) Maintenance - Maintaining your vehicle is essential to help ensure that it is roadworthy, safe to drive or ride, fuel efficient, less polluting and not a danger to passengers, pedestrians and other road users. Vehicle maintenance ranges from cleaning your vehicle and conducting weekly checks through to full servicing and repair. Depending on the type of car you buy think about if it can be serviced and repaired locally? Will parts needed be manufactured and flown in from abroad and historically what areas the ares of the car that wear out the quickest?

Fuel economy and car tax bands - charts below:

All fuel duty rate changes will take effect from 1 October 2007

Graduated Vehicle Excise Duty for Private Vehicles (registered from March 2001)

*for new cars registered from 23 March 2006