Green Alliance’s response to the prime minister’s announcement this morning that the government will bring the ban on new petrol and diesel vehicles forward from 2040 to 2035

Green Alliance says: The new date should be 2030, not 2035

This announcement to shift the petrol and diesel vehicles sales ban forward five years is a move in the right direction, but it isn’t nearly ambitious enough, when the government is so far off track in meeting its carbon targets. The new date should be 2030, not 2035. 

The government needs to cut an additional 313 MtCO2e from the UK’s economy by 2032 to meet its own net zero by 2050 goal. 

This new proposal would save 57 MtCO2e by 2032 (the end of the government’s fifth carbon budget period).  A 2030 ban by contrast would save 98 MtCO2e, an additional 41 MtCO2e.

It would also be cheaper in the long run for consumers to stimulate the electric vehicle market sooner, reducing air pollution by 68% by 2030, from 2016 levels. 

Chaitanya Kumar, Green Alliance’s head of climate and energy, said:

“The PM has a clear public mandate to act on this. Bringing forward the ban on petrol and diesel cars and vans is a good move, but the year should undoubtedly be 2030, not 2035. 

“The government needs to make clear how much carbon it believes this 2035 ban will save. It should also guarantee any target it sets in law. 

“Moving the UK's 2040 ban on fossil fuelled vehicles forward to 2030 is a no-brainer: compared with a 2035 ban it would save the carbon equivalent to removing almost two million vehicles with internal combustion engines off the roads. It would also be cheaper for consumers, and would get the UK a quarter of the way to being on track to its net zero goal. 

As Boris Johnson has rightly pointed out, the UK has world leading targets and a clear public mandate to achieve them. But now we need the policies to deliver on those goals."