Then (and only then) can we start preaching to others what they should be doing, if we can be bothered.
Preaching to others is one thing. Demanding that our government gives us the CO2 neutral infrastructure to make sensible choices is an entirely different equation.
Just taking me to the closest airport is 130km round trip, the closest mainline train station is a 160km round trip and the nearest main hub airport is 400km round tip. We have a bus. It goes to one large town, 3 days a week, two departures per day.
Fortunately our central heating is from renewable wood forests managed in country. However we're going to have to move to pellets and this has a slightly higher impact. Although, again, the electricity for in country produced pellets is mainly CO2 neutral. We will, however, use less pellets than we use logs and there is a production cost with the wood we burn in transport, cutting etc.
The house, originally with no insulation or double glazing at all, is now a sealed and insulated home. Which means we’re burning less wood than would have been the case. But the CO2 benefits are negligible given that the source fuel we are using for heating is a carbon sink in the first place.
My changes to get my water heated by the pellet CH will not be driven by CO2 concerns as the electricity is Nuclear anyway, it will be driven by cost. Ditto when I finally put in Solar (although I may need to get planning permission for that, being on the route coeur de lion and very close to a church which is under a preservation order.
We are also not in the rat race for vehicles either. Our chosen vehicle is no longer made and they are both near the 10 year mark although the engines are Euro4 as PSA were well ahead of the game with emissions even then. So we are not in the high emissions bracket for changing our vehicle every 2-3 years.
I’d love to make more changes but my working life and the choices I have to change that, don’t allow. For me ditching the bikes and getting something like the Lit Motors C-1 would be absolutely perfect. I have been watching it for years but it remains stubbornly vapourwear. Still it would only replace the bikes. The car I need to shift the Apartment and for the family we need a similar car for the shifting we need to do there. For the small runs we have a Citroen C3 (hand down, 12 years old), which does 62mpg (imperial). However that is in our garage waiting for the replacement wing and door from where a local flatbed van (never reported), trashed the side of it.
On another point, our town, of 4,200 people, has two (yes exactly TWO), EV charging stations……
Options! The most important thing for me today.