CCC: Government’s Road to Zero Strategy falls short

11 Jul 2018 11:58 AM

Transportation accounts for a higher overall share of greenhouse gas emissions than any other sector of the economy. This must change if the UK is to meet its legally-binding commitment to reduce greenhouse emissions by at least 80% in 2050, compared to 1990 levels.

The Government’s Road to Zero Strategy, published by the Department for Transport recently, increases Government ambition to see more ultra-low emission cars on UK roads by 2030 – up from 30%-70% of sales to 50%-70% by 2030. However, it leaves the ambition for new vans, at up to 40% of sales in 2030, at too low a level.

It also commits to improving the availability of charging infrastructure for electric vehicles (EVs), ensuring that new build homes are EV-ready and installing charging infrastructure in new lamp posts in areas with on-road parking – a welcome step.

Road to Zero confirms that the Government intends to end the sale of new conventional petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2040. The Government expects the majority of new cars and vans sold in the UK will be zero emission by 2040 and that all new cars and vans will then have significant zero emission capability. However, it does not clarify what this means and falls short of the Committee’s recommendation to set a minimum zero emission range for plug-in hybrids by 2035.

The CCC commends Road to Zero for:

Road to Zero falls short in a number of areas including:

The Committee will produce an in-depth analysis of the Road to Zero Strategy later this year.

Lord Deben, Chairman of the Committee on Climate Change, said: “Overall, Road to Zero falls short of our expectations. The Committee had hoped for a ground-breaking Strategy to tackle emissions from transport – now the most polluting sector of the UK economy. Road to Zero has not risen to the task. We commend the ambition to ramp up the number of electric vehicles on our roads by 2030, and the new charging infrastructure in homes and streets, but there are plenty of missed opportunities too. Relying on the private sector to effect the shift to zero emission vehicles by 2040 is risky – we had hoped for greater clarity on Government actions to back this up and to ensure plug-in hybrids sold in the UK travel further in electric mode on a single charge.”