Maroons miserly

Queensland motorists are becoming more fuel miserly, buying more fuel-efficient cars, catching public transport, cycling or walking, and offsetting carbon emissions.

Just as well, because the Australian Greenhouse Office estimates our cars will emit more than 40 million tonnes of carbon this year.

Mature-aged women living on the Sunshine Coast are leading the charge for greener cars.

Across the state, women are slightly more environmentally conscious with 42 per cent saying they had swapped to a fuel miser, compared with 38 per cent of men.

The older the motorist, the greener they get, according to the statistics.

The least environmentally conscious are motorists aged 25-34 years.

Up to age 24, 37 per cent are switching to smaller cars and over 45 it is 45 per cent.

The Sunshine Coast leads with 52 per cent choosing a greener car, compared with 32 per cent in Brisbane and 47 per cent on the Gold Coast.

When it comes to public transport, young Brisbane males are more active.

Across the state only one in five has deliberately chosen public transport over a car; 27 per cent males and 16 per cent females.

Almost half of those aged up to 24 are likely to take a bus or train, declining to 14 per cent in the 45-55 years age group.

In Brisbane it is 31 per cent, Gold Coast 23 per cent and Sunshine Coast only 10 in a hundred.

More women than men are cycling or walking more instead of driving.

Statewide the walking/cycling participation level is 40 per cent, made up of 42 per cent women.

Top walkers and cyclers are those aged 25-40, with older age groups not far behind, while the under 24s have only 17 per cent activity.

NRMA Insurance has also released figures which show that Queenslanders taking up its Carbonators offer had helped offset more than 19,700 tonnes of carbon emissions.

That is the same amount of pollution as more 4500 cars emit in a year, according to NRMA Insurance.

It uses a formula based on a conservative average of a car emitting 4.3 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year.

Using NRMA Insurance's online carbon calculator (climatehelp.com.au) that relates to a family car travelling about 20,000km a year.

Last year, Australians bought a record 1 million new cars which potentially means 3.4 million extra tonnes of carbon a year.

Private car use makes up 34 per cent of all Australian household greenhouse gas emissions, making it the worst contributor of CO2 emissions.