Our Head of Decarbonisation, Peter Cole, looks at the need to take clear and comprehensive action to decarbonise surface transport, and the wider social and economic benefits that can bring to all areas of the North.
We’re all facing an immediate climate change emergency and despite the gravity of the crisis we are nowhere near the scale and pace of change needed.
This year Net Zero Week followed the week after the UK’s Climate Change Committee (CCC) presented its annual progress report to Parliament on 28 June 2023. According to the Committee, its confidence in the UK’s ability to meet its 2050 commitments has “materially reduced over the last year”.
Net zero means no longer adding to the total amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere – Greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane. CO2 is released when oil, gas and coal are burned in homes, factories and to power transport. Methane is produced through farming and landfill.
It was always going to be an interesting progress report after the publication of the Government’s Carbon Budget Delivery Plan (CBDP), and perhaps the main conclusions won’t have been a surprise for many working in this sector.
Whilst the increased transparency afforded by the CBDP was welcomed, it laid bare the lack of progress in terms of the development of credible policy frameworks. This, combined with a still slow pace of delivery, means the CCC finds its confidence in the UK meeting its medium-term targets have decreased in the past year.
Emissions from surface transport remain the highest, by sector, by some way. Rather worryingly for those of us working in the transport sector – surface transport is now becoming the pariah of decarbonisation, with the detail within the CBDP revealing a pegging back of Government ambition, from its Net Zero Strategy, principally around surface transport.
This downgrade of ambition in our sector appears, in large part, to be down to a reluctance to develop policy around measures to encourage modal shift and managing private vehicle demand.
Transport for the North‘s (TfN) research into Transport Related Social Exclusion (TRSE) tells us that a transport decarbonisation approach that focuses on technology (electric vehicles) and allows, or even worsens, current levels of car dominance, poses a significant threat to the over 20% of people in the North who live in areas of existing high risk of TRSE.
At the same time, a decarbonisation approach that focuses on what is needed to achieve modal shift and improve the quality and affordability of sustainable travel options is likely to deliver increased inclusivity.
Simply put, the Government’s current decarbonisation strategy is at risk of missing a massive opportunity to take a fundamentally important step that will increase connectivity across our communities, reducing exclusion and increasing the productivity of our region off the back of this.
Perhaps the most important message to take from the latest progress report is the level of risk now associated with the Government’s decarbonisation pathways.
For surface transport, the CCC have calculated that only 38% of the required emissions reductions for Carbon Budget 6 are covered by credible plans with the remaining emissions covered by plans and policies with significant levels of risk attached (or no plans at all).
TfN and our partners in the North do not accept this high level of risk. TfN is targeting close to absolute zero emissions from surface transport, as we believe that any offsetting needs to be reserved for ‘hard to abate’ sectors like agriculture and aviation.
Together with our partners we think that an acceleration in investment that enables a zero-carbon transport system, is one of those priorities and must be at the heart of public policy making and decision making.
Our ambition for the North is to inject pace and maximise the clean growth opportunities that decarbonisation can provide for the North.
Our Transport Decarbonisation Strategy set an ambitious target of a regional near-zero carbon surface transport network by 2045 and this is in turn reflected in our revised Strategic Transport Plan.
Moreover, we can’t ignore the huge opportunity that transport decarbonisation, done correctly, provides for stimulating economic productivity and increasing social inclusion in the North.
Ultimately, future generations will look back on the action we take now to embed sustainable transport policies. We must, take clear and comprehensive action to decarbonise surface transport over the coming years.
Read our plan to decarbonise transport by clicking the cover below:
