The Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, in his speech on Wednesday (20 September), said he was confident that the UK will still meet its international obligations and achieve net zero by 2050. This was in the context of several previous pledges for net zero being delayed: a key one of which was a five-year delay in the ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars.

In response to the announcements, the Climate Change Committee’s Chief Executive Chris Stark remarked that ‘I think the government needs to look again at the policies. We need to do more. There’s no real question of that’. 

CIHT has been focusing on the significance of action required to achieve net zero within the transport sector. Surface transport is the single biggest source of green house gas emissions in the UK – responsible for 26% of emissions in 2021. 

The Climate Change Committee (CCC), the government’s independent advisor, has found that to stay on track to reach Net Zero by 2050, the UK’s emissions must fall by 63% against their 2019 levels by 2035 – this is just over 10 years away.  Earlier this year, the CCC warned that the UK's efforts to meet its net zero commitments were already "worryingly slow".

To make reductions of this scale and at this pace the UK will need to identify quickly what works and if it can be copied in other locations.

When it comes to longer-term changes within the transport sector it is important to have certainty to gear-up and deliver changes required. In response to the Prime Minister’s announcement, some commentators have expressed a  concern that the delay to the ban on petrol and diesel vehicles would impact on investment in and sales of electric vehicles. Additionally, the investment required to ensure a sufficient charging network in place for EVs could also be delayed.

Given the scale of the challenge, CIHT would urge that action is taken to decarbonise the transport sector as quickly as possible, whilst aiming to achieve a just transition.

CIHT President, Karen McShane said:

"To attempt to mitigate the impact of climate change, we have to achieve the levels of transport not dissimilar to those experienced during the covid pandemic and this requires immediate action. It is imperative that we act as quickly as we can if we want to slow down the impact of climate change.

“It is disappointing that Government has pushed back some of the short term targets as there had already started to be some  progression into alternative fuels and  the way we design new communities to be more sustainable.”

“We would not want the momentum that has already been gathered to stall as a result of these announcements. To achieve the reduction in emissions from transportation it is essential that we all have an attitudinal change in how and why we travel."