The latest report by the IPCC says that global emissions must peak by 2025 to stay below a global average temperature rise of 2 degrees celsius which would cause irreversible damage to the earth.
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The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), has published the Sixth Assessment Report of their Working Group I, which looks at the physical science behind climate change. The report is a "code red for humanity" according the U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, further adding that "The alarm bells are deafening. This report must sound a death knell for coal and fossil fuels, before they destroy our planet.". According to the report global emissions must peak by 2025 in order to stay below a global average temperature rise of 2 degrees celsius which would cause irreversible damage to the earth. A rise of 1.5C is generally seen as the most that humanity could cope with without suffering widespread economic and social upheaval.
For the full report please see here.
The report is published just three months before the UK hosts the U.N. COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he hoped the report would be "a wake-up call for the world to take action now, before we meet in Glasgow". Alok Sharma, the COP26 President, said "we need far more in terms of action" to control rising global temperatures. He said the G20 group of nations were "absolutely key" to meeting targets, as they produced 80% of global emissions. He was hosting a panel discussion in response to a UN report on the science of climate change, ahead of the Glasgow conference in November.
Transportation will have an essential role to play in reducing carbon emissions as it is responsible for around 24% of global emissions and it is the most polluting sector in the United Kingdom. The Department for Transport recently released it's Transport Decarbonisation Plan to which Sue Percy, Chief Executive, CIHT commented: "There are a lot of positives in the TDP and we are pleased to see it recognise that the challenge of Net Zero cannot be met by a technology-fix alone and that innovation will need to be accompanied by significant behavioural change.". Shortly after the Transport Decarbonisation Plan was published, Highways England published their Net Zero Highways strategy, setting out how they will achieve the 1.5°C reduction goal of the Paris Agreement and the UK’s commitment to be a net zero economy by 2050 amongst other things.
CIHT's Climate Change Advisor, Andrew Crudgington, who is leading CIHT's Route to Net Zero work, has written blogs about both the Highways England and Department for Transport climate change strategies which you can find here.
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A new future for transport - our carbon challenge
21 September 2020
This event looks at the major challenges that the highways and transportation sector will face working achieve 2050 net-zero carbon targets.
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Highway Schemes Carbon Assessment, City of Westminster
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