“When you look at some of the stats around it, it is a bit of an eye opener,” said Deputy Lindsay de Sausmarez. 

"We have an incredibly high number of vehicles per person,and indeed, per square mile in this island.We've got an incredible rate of car use compared with other places.” 

Rollo de Sausmarez led the Chamber event at the OGH, and explained that to hit some of the targets within the Paris Agreement people would need to overhaul their approach to transportation and evolve into1/3 using electric vehicles, 1/3 using public transport, and 1/3 utilising more active transportation 

“It is the quickest and easiest way to decarbonise,” continued Deputy de Sausmarez 

“The quickest way to decarbonise transport is to give people more low carbon, or non motorised options.” 

Pictured: The Chamber of Commerce event was held at the OGH. 

Deputy de Sausmarez went on to explain that one of the biggest areas of focus for E&I at the moment is the Better Transport Plan for the north of the island. 

The next five or so years will bring a lot of new development to the north of the island, with the gears starting to turn on the Leales Yard development among many others. More homes means more people, and more people means more need for travel within the north 

“[The Better Transport Plan] is something that’ll really give people a lot more choice in how they get around – we want to try and give people many more viable options. And it will hopefully improve people's lives. 

"This is something I'm evangelical about. It's a very big scary leap for many people, understandably, who were used to getting around by car to think about comparing different alternatives like walking and riding a bike or even getting a bus.” 

The concept of car sharing was discussed at length, something Deputy de Sausmarez is fully behind. 

"It uses something that we're already very comfortable with but it just makes a much more efficient use of an existing resource.  

“There's an absolutely phenomenal stat from an organisation that looks at car sharing... every shared vehicle reduces or negates the need for 20 privately owned vehicles.” 

The panel was comprised of Deputy de Sausmarez and Stephanie Glover, Head of Strategy and Sustainable Finance at Guernsey Finance, who said that the government has a key role to play in laying out the tone of conversation. 

“The tone from governments is so powerful... having governments around the world and our own governments sign the Paris Agreement sets such a clear direction for our businesses.” 

The Chamber of Commerce events are held every month and you can find out more information about the next event ONLINE.