The Climate Change Committee (CCC) has issued an initial response
to the Government’s Transport Decarbonisation Plan and ‘Jet Zero’
consultation. The plan, promised for some time, sets out how the
UK Government proposes to tackle emissions from the most
polluting sector of the economy on the path to delivering a Net
Zero UK by 2050.
Mike Thompson, the CCC’s Chief Economist, said:
“We’re pleased to see another step forward in the Government’s
commitment to deliver a Net Zero UK. The Transport
Decarbonisation Plan and aviation consultation are two of seven
key strategies that we highlighted in our recent progress report
as overdue. The overall ambition, including phasing out the sale
of diesel trucks by 2040 and Net Zero aviation by 2050, looks in
line with our recommendations. We are particularly pleased to see
proposals for a Zero Emission Vehicle mandate, which we’ve
recommended as key to reducing emissions from UK transport since
the Net Zero target was set. Meeting Net Zero will require action
on demand for transport as well as its supply. As ever, the devil
will be in the detail and we look forward to scrutinising the
Government’s proposals fully and carefully while we await
delivery of other key roadmaps on heating, hydrogen, food,
biomass, the Treasury’s Net Zero Review, and the Government’s
overall Net Zero Strategy.”
Notes to editors
1. The Transport Decarbonisation Plan was published by the
Department for Transport on Wednesday 14 July. It is available on
the UK Government's website here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-publishes-worlds-first-greenprint-to-decarbonise-all-modes-of-domestic-transport-by-2050
2. The plan includes a raft of policies including measures to ban
the sale of new large diesel trucks weighing more than 26 tonnes
by 2040, with smaller diesel trucks banned from 2035. The Plan
also includes new public consultations on initiatives to reduce
emissions from transport, including on the ‘ZEV’ (or zero
emissions vehicles) mandate - which would see car makers having
to produce a minimum number of electric vehicles for sale.
3. Surface transport is currently the largest emitting sector of
the UK economy, making up 23% of total UK territorial emissions
in 2019 or 113 MtCO2e. Emissions from this sector have
been broadly flat over the past decade, falling just 1% between
2009 and 2019. They need to fall by 90% by 2050 to meet the
economy-wide Net Zero target.
4. The CCC set out its view of progress in decarbonising the
transport sector in its recent 2021 Progress Report to
Parliament, available here: https://www.theccc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Progress-in-reducing-emissions-2021-Report-to-Parliament.pdf
