London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Cutting fuel duty and scrapping the fuel duty escalator will be bad for the nation’s health and bad for the global environment, say researchers at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

Britain is addicted to motorized transport and fuel price rises help to wean people out of their cars, getting them walking and cycling again, according to Professor Ian Roberts, author of the book Energy Glut: The politics of fatness in an overheating world.

Data from the Department for Transport demonstrates that the real cost of motoring has fallen since 1999. The reduction in motoring costs has been accompanied by a large growth in unsustainable car use. This in turn has caused the increase in population fatness that now threatens the viability of the NHS.

Stimulating the economy by subsidizing petrol prices does not add up, says Roberts. It means more war for oil, more obesity, road danger and climate change. Promoting safe walking and cycling in our towns and cities will reduce oil dependence, reduce population fatness, improve health and limit the atmospheric carbon dioxide pollution that is causing global warming. The health benefits from safe walking and cycling are immediate: lower risks of road traffic injury, a leaner and happier population with lower rates of many diseases including diabetes, heart attacks and cancer, and cleaner air.

“Even as Britain’s armed forces are getting embroiled in yet another expensive oil war - this time in Libya – the Chancellor is encouraging oil addiction. Resuscitating a carbon based economy is a short term fix that can only fail. As soon as the economy starts growing and the demand for oil increases, oil price rises will choke it back into recession. Decarbonisation of transport is not a path to austerity – it is the only long term way to avoid it,” says Roberts.