Andrew Crudgington, Climate Change Associate, CIHT

Every June the Climate Change Committee (CCC), the independent body that advises the government on emissions reduction, makes an annual progress report to parliament. The headline message from this year’s report, is “our confidence in the UK meeting its goals from 2030 onwards is now markedly less that it was in our previous assessment a year ago”. In other words, the scale and pace of change is falling well short of what is needed to respond to the climate crisis – and meet our national and international legal commitments.  

The CCC’s analysis also throws up some big challenges for transportation professionals, not least the stress it places on tackling demand. CIHT’s recently updated CPD guidelines includes an expectation that members dedicate some of their annual professional development effort to decarbonisation topics, and anyone looking for a suitable focus could do worse than think about the knowledge and skills they need to use their role to influence demand for travel by car.

On this topic, the committee can’t hide its disappointment at what it sees as a lack of ambition in the government’s recent Carbon Budget Delivery Plan noting that “most policies that aim to support and incentivise the public to choose lower-carbon modes of transport have been removed from the quantified pathway (to interim targets in 2035)”. This is interpreted as a lack of commitment to modal shift and demand reduction and a sign that government will rely on unspecified action in other sectors or “speculative technological advances” to meet the subsequent shortfall in emissions reduction.  

Unsurprisingly, the CCC wants government to clarify (and quantify) the role of reductions in car travel to a credible pathway to Net Zero transport and ensure that key enablers, including decisions on road building are aligned to this view.  

Intriguingly, the report also suggests that as various road building schemes have been pushed back due to financial headwinds, government should take the opportunity to launch a more strategic review of their compatibility its environmental goals, on the model of the Wales Roads Review.

Personally, I think there is a lot to said for this proposal, not only to demonstrate that any significant capacity expansion is compatible with achieving Net Zero but also to ensure that schemes consuming significant chunks of the roads investment budget can actually secure consent. That second goal however suggests the any strategic review needs to take a wider perspective and consider all the factors currently affecting the viability and acceptability of road schemes. A good starting point for the terms of reference for such a review would be the recent paper by the Roads Investment Scrutiny Panel, chaired by CIHT Vice President Professor Glenn Lyons and discussed in this CIHT podcast).

In the meantime, it is clear that as transport professionals we all need to step up and play our part in accelerating emission reductions across the transport system. If you are looking for help, there is a wealth of insight and learning materials gathered in our new Transport Decarbonisation Pathway. We are always looking to improve this resource, so please do contact me with any comments or contributions.