The UK cannot rely on changes in vehicle technology to secure the cuts in road transport emissions needed for new, legally-binding targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by one-fifth by 2020, according to the Government’s recently-established Committee on Climate Change.
The committee said cuts of 23Mt of carbon emissions, almost one-quarter of the 110M total reduction necessary, could be achieved by promoting a switch to low-carbon surface transport, such as hybrid and electric vehicles.
However, this would require the widespread promotion of ‘smarter choices’ and policies to increase bus and rail travel by 50%, and the doubling of cycling kilometres, as well as improvements in electric vehicle technology.
Otherwise, ever-rising numbers of car trips and ever-lengthening car journeys ‘will more than offset’ expected reductions in emissions from the average vehicle from 200g of carbon per kilometre to 150g, according to the committee – generating 5Mt extra for cars.
The greater uptake of electric vehicles could secure emission cuts of 8.7Mt by 2020, at a cost to the public purse of up to £110 per tonne saved after the first 4Mt was saved, a price the committee said was worth paying.
This would include the cost of installing more on-street recharging points, as well as lost fuel duty revenue. There are currently only 200 in the UK, concentrated in London.
Other actions whicch could meet a ‘stretch target’ of 32Mt for surface transport include effective enforcement of the existing speed limit, and reducing 70mph limits to 60mph, something the committee recognised could have journey time disadvantages.
Lord Adair Turner, chair of the CCC, said that while the reductions could be achieved at a very low cost – 1% of GDP in 2020 – ‘the cost of not achieving the reductions would be far greater’.
The Government will study the recommendations, before setting each sector a carbon budget for each five-year period up to 2022.
Steve Hartridge, managing director of GoinGreen, a distributor of electric vehicles (EVs), welcomed the report, and urged local traffic authorities to follow Westminster City Council and introduce free parking for EVs to ‘make them more attractive for early adopters’. There are currently only around 1,000 in regular use in London. London mayor, Boris Johnson, this week pledged to ‘get as many of the Greater London Authority vehicles running on electricity as possible’ – and to buy one himself, once a family version was invented.
Building a low-carbon economy: The UK’s contribution to tackling climate change.
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