Feature: How your carbon footprint is made up

Environmentally, it doesn't really matter where the car was made in respect to delivering it.

According to a study carried out for Camden Council in 2006 by Ecolane into a car's total energy footprint, 'less than 1% of energy use and emissions are associated with distribution and disposal'.

That makes sense. Shipping is a relatively green method of transporting, compared with flying or road transport. Lorries aren't great, emitting around 1248g/km for an average HGV (compared to 104g/km for a Toyota Prius), but divided by the six or so cars it's carrying that's not bad.

Anyway, it's likely your car won't have come that far. Of the 46m passenger cars produced globally every year, 38% are manufactured in the EU.