Well, I’ve made my New Year resolution and you won’t be surprised to hear that it’s all about cutting my carbon footprint - in a serious way.
My big plans revolve around making my home a carbon neutral one. Replacing my gas central heating with a wood-burning stove and a solar-heated water system will give me year-round warmth and then switching to an 100 per cent renewable electricity supplier will be the icing on the cake and mean reduced emissions and bills as well as an easier conscience.
All it will take is a few thousand pounds! That, of course, is the snag for anyone looking to seriously reduce the carbon their homes are responsible for. I’ve done the simple things. My home had already got loft and exterior wall insulation, draught excluders and double glazing when I moved in and I’ve got low-energy lights and appliances so doing any more involves serious money.
Fitting a stove, solar panels and new hot water cylinder will cost in the region of £8,000 but there is not a lot in grant aid out there - £400 in my case or a measly five per cent. Politicians are talking about introducing incentives for people to make their homes carbon neutral but they all seem to be rewards once the work has been done like money of council tax bills or stamp duty.
At a time of rising mortgages and utility bills, getting the money together in the first place will prove difficult and dissuade keen greens, let alone the not-so-keen ones, and seriously dent Government hopes of restricting emissions.
So, in the absence of a win on the premium bonds, I could borrow when I remortgage this spring to get it done or let out a room to boost my income and enable me to start on the project next year. In the meantime that is many kilogrammes of CO2 that I could be avoiding.
After housing, transport is another big contributor to climate change and I’ve already begun to cut my emissions by cutting down on the use of my car. I have also tried to reduce the amount of fossil carbon I put back into the atmosphere by running my diesel car on a part vegetable oil mix. It is doing well on about ten per cent at the moment and I aim to increase it to 50 per cent - saving 30-40p for each litre.
But that’s just a short-term solution as the amount of bio-diesel and ethanol needed to fuel the world’s cars would mean there wouldn’t be much land left to grow crops for everyone.
I’m also trying to reduce my food miles by buying locally-produced meat, dairy, fruit and vegetables but you realise how transport dependent our country has become when it is difficult to source Yorkshire apples or pears. The bread may be baked in the town but the wheat to make the flour has probably been transported hundreds of miles by truck.
It may be that replacing the fuels that power our vehicles may be a lot easier than weaning ourselves off the just-in-time and central distribution system that is our crutch now and which is so vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

Green or Obscene – the mileage counter

Miles by car: -450
Miles being driven: -31
Miles by train: +622
Miles on foot: +156
Miles by bike: +0
Miles by bus: +5
Total: +302 (running total: -1202)