During recent years the road to achieving a zero-carbon society has become a key focus across the world.
In May 2019, the UK Government legislated a NetZero greenhouse gas emissions target to be achieved by 2050, which was closely followed by similar commitments across Northern authorities.
At Transport for the North, we believe zero-carbon transport must be at the heart of public policies and investment decisions, which is why we have developed our ‘Decarbonisation Pathway to 2050‘ plan.
For this Insights Article, we’ll touch on our own decarbonisation plan, as well as a key partnership in place with DecarboN8, which will allow the North to become the test bed for future innovation projects and accelerate us towards the goal of zero-carbon transport.
Our role at Transport for the North has always been to help the region secure the investment needed to help the Northern economy thrive.
Through our Decarbonisation Pathway to 2050 plan, we aim to work with partners to agree policy positions on decarbonisation, which will be used to provide advice to central government. Additionally, we want to push forward pilot projects and thought leadership on key issues.
Many of the North’s key regions have already begun to determine how they can decarbonise the transport sector. In particular Leeds City Region and Manchester have both set a deadline of 2038 to become net zero carbon, with Liverpool also confirming a target to be zero carbon by 2040.
Councillor Susan Hinchcliffe, Chair of the West Yorkshire Combined Authority and Leader of Bradford Council, said: “Decarbonising our transport system is arguably one of the biggest challenges we face in realising our ambition to be a net zero carbon City Region by 2038 at the latest.
“This project will begin with a wide-ranging review of all our existing transport strategies and will then produce a timeline of actions needed in order to create a zero carbon transport system which works for everyone, regardless of where they live.”
Simon Pringle, Chair of the Combined Authority’s Green Economy Panel, said: “The North & West Yorkshire Emission Reduction Pathway is a really important programme which will help inform the decisions we need to take in order to rapidly reduce future emissions across the City Region as a whole.
“Not only will it focus on practical ways we can decarbonise our transport, housing and industrial sectors but it will also look at how we can improve air quality and address noise pollution which can have a really negative impact on peoples’ lives.”
We work as an advisory board member of DecarboN8, which is a unique research network supported by eight of the most research-intensive northern universities who are exploring placed based decarbonisation of transport.
DecarboN8’s mission is to develop the North of England as a test bed for cutting edge research on place-based solutions for decarbonising transport. One of our main roles on the advisory board is to provide advice about the current and future policy and implementation environment which DecarboN8 is engaging with. However, we also work to identify potential overlaps, synergies and opportunities for collaboration to advance decarbonisation of transport.
A spokesperson from DecarbonN8 said: “We have been working closely with Transport for the North and other partners in the transport sector to develop evidence-based approaches to carbon accounting and embodied emissions, which will support local, regional, and national authorities in setting carbon budgets and measuring progress.
“Along with the Centre for Research into Energy Demand Solutions, we have just launched a series of seven Decarbonising Transport policy briefings, which we developed for the Local Government Association with input from local authorities themselves.
“These bite-sized evidence-based briefings outline the policy options available to local authorities to decarbonise transport as rapidly as the climate emergency demands, in place-appropriate ways.
“Our aims for the second year include continuing to work with Transport for the North and partners to ensure the North is recognised as nationally leading on the carbon reduction agenda.
“The network will commission new research with local partners and industry to tackle the climate grand challenge and we are always open to discuss how we can help.
“We will continue to influence the Transport Decarbonisation Plan and build towards COP26 with an aim of supporting the development of major new decarbonisation trials and policy uptake.”
The DecarboN8 project will help to show why the North should be selected for future transport innovation projects.
The relationship that we hold with both the Department for Transport and DecarboN8 puts us in unique position to promote this exchange and work with our wider partners to identify the most appropriate test beds for future research and development activities.