Setting the challenge for decarbonising the transport network

Thursday 8th October 2020

In March 2020, the Department for Transport (DfT) published their policy paper ‘Decarbonising transport: setting the challenge’. The document set out six priority areas around which a national transport decarbonisation plan could be focussed and how government intended to work with others to develop that plan.

Although no formal consultation was launched, views from businesses, organisations and the public were invited and a series of workshops, engaging specialists, innovators, researchers, businesses and NGO’s, were held over the summer of 2020.

Transport for the North (TfN) provided appropriate representation and engagement on each of the workshops aligned to all six of the strategic priorities.

The North’s net-zero ambition is more stretching than currently committed to at the national level, with a number of TfN’s Partners having declared Climate Emergencies and net-zero targets of as early as 2030. Additionally, the Strategic Transport Plan commits to the scoping and development of a ‘Decarbonisation Pathway to 2050’ and through the Northern Transport Charter, our Partners have been clear that reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the transport network, at a pan-Northern and a local level, is a key priority.

Given this, TfN engaged with Partners on a comprehensive response to the Setting the Challenge paper, which was sent to DfT in late August.

Our Key Messages on decarbonising transport

Our key messages to government within our response included:

• The need for a quantified national pathway to net zero for transport by 2050, and a clear functional policy framework.
• The need for certainty on the role of national and local government, as well as Strategic Transport Bodies (STBs) and the private sector.
• The need for a clear decision on road user charging for all roads.
• The need to develop an inclusive decarbonised transport solution for those living in dispersed communities.
• That government must utilise the evidence base being prepared by TfN and other STBs.
• That the North is awarded an equitable share of any funding for the trialling and development of emerging technologies.

Additional themes in our response included:

• The role spatial planning could and should play in revising the traditional mobility framework.
• The need to focus on transactional, physical and data interoperability in the development of EV networks.
• In the short term, to consider options for the incentivisation of retrofitting low carbon solutions in existing road vehicles.
• The need to provide industry with a secure outlook on what the rail network will look like, in terms of traction power, over the next 20 to 30 years.
• Support of the recognition of the importance of decarbonising ‘last-mile’ deliveries.
• The need for certainty around future policies on fuel for the freight sector and increased focus on the potential of hydrogen for the sector.
• DfT’s Transport Appraisal Guidance needs to take a more systemic view on carbon and consider carefully how changes in policy fit with the ambitions of the TDP.

The Need for Inclusivity and Support for Place Based Solutions

A significant part of the challenge is not only decarbonising our transport system, but to do this inclusively and equitably. To this end, TfN welcomed the inclusion of ‘Place Based Solutions’ as a strategic priority and it will be imperative that government utilises the knowledge within, and evidence bases built up by, sub-regional transport bodies and local authorities.

TfN is well placed to provide a regional evidence base; support local partners and government in identifying a place based approach by sharing intelligence from our data and models, and work with the NP11 to promote the North as a test bed for trialling innovative solutions at a micro and macro level.

What is Transport for the North’s role?

TfN operates at a geographical and institutional level that would allow us to effectively assume a facilitator role, taking any national decarbonisation policy framework and applying it, with our Partners, at a place-based level.

Within our response we identified some specific actions that could increase the speed and effectiveness of regional transport decarbonisation, including:

• Supporting the development of a pan-northern data platform with open data capabilities.
• Supporting trials and implementation of Future Transport measures, and effective transition to implementation and mass role out.

In addition, TfN’s TAME team is able to provide Partners with enhanced place-based evidence to inform placed based strategies, including the development of pan-northern decarbonisation pathways responding to a number of future transport scenarios.

The governments Transport Decarbonisation Plan is expected to be published later in 2020.