Insight

It’s building up to be quite a moment for transport! If the rumblings are correct, we’re only days or even hours, away from learning what’s in the Government’s decarbonisation plan for the sector. It will need to be radical. It will have to enter areas of policy that haven’t been touched, or were deemed too…

The pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 78% by 2035 puts the UK at the forefront of international ambition.  However, in its recent progress report the Committee on Climate Change highlights the gaping chasm between climate change rhetoric and policy.  “This defining year for the UK’s climate credentials has been marred by uncertainty and…

Public support for devolution is growing at precisely the moment that enthusiasm appears to be waning in Number 10. This is extremely concerning as greater devolution will be critical for levelling up and decarbonisation. Speaking at a Net Zero APPG meeting last week, Mayor Andy Burnham described the recent local elections as the ‘devolution election’.…

If we are going to hit our 2040 rail decarbonisation and 2050 net-zero targets, we need to get on with electrifying more of our railway now. As well as meeting its legally binding commitment to Net Zero by 2050, the Government plans to phase out all diesel-only trains by 2040. Most of our trains, over…

With the target of achieving net zero by 2050, the rail industry has a lot of work to do. As TOCs prepare for the return of normal services, is there an opportunity to accelerate decarbonisation programmes at the same time? One year on since the publication of the Government’s policy paper on decarbonising UK transport,…

We stand at a crossroads on UK roads policy. The more we incentivise the take up of electric vehicles the more it costs in government grants and the less revenue the Treasury collects in fuel duty.  We are facing a black hole of around £40 billion in our public finances when the fleet is fully…

The climate crisis is already hitting worst case scenario levels that if left unchecked will lead to the collapse of entire ecosystems. Our thinking needs to change if we are to rise to the scale of the challenge. Transport is the fastest growing source of global greenhouse gas emissions and the UK’s biggest polluting sector.…

I’m a metal-head. I understand it can be good to start an article like that – to connect with your base. Especially if my fellow metal-heads felt I might be looking to encroach on their/our beloved music (asking them to tone and turn it down, or worse still subjecting them to Radio 1). In fact,…

I have only once in my professional life been described as an eternal optimist (by the then Transport Secretary Alistair Darling, as it happens, and I think a hint of sarcasm may have been in play), but in thinking about the prospects for the development of ultra-efficient, affordable, long-range, long-lived batteries for car and light…

Options for removing carbon from the atmosphere are limited so, for most sectors of the economy, net zero means absolute zero. For surface transport, absolute zero means that all remaining vehicles must be zero-carbon in their use, their manufacture and their disposal. Those are not my opinions; they are statements of fact, but in stating…

In 2018 -19 road vehicles raised approximately £40bn in taxation (6.3% of total government revenue). This was made up of £28bn Fuel duty, £5.7bn VAT on fuel and £6.5bn VED (Vehicle Excise Duty). This is equivalent to £1000 per licensed vehicle per year or 12p per mile. With government’s decision to end the sale of…

Now ‘low’ is no longer enough, so today LowCVP becomes Zemo Partnership to accelerate the transition in transport to zero emissions. Twenty years ago, with the Kyoto Protocol ink still wet, the UK Government took early initiatives to lead the way on climate change. With road transport then just 22% of the nation’s overall greenhouse…