UK’s transport decarbonisation plan delayed again
The UK government’s long-awaited transport decarbonisation plan has been delayed after it lacked the ‘ambition’ to meet targets, including the 2030 ban on new diesel and petrol vehicles.
The plan was originally due to be published before the end of 2020 and was then pushed back to spring 2021.
It will now miss its latest deadline of Spring 2021 after transport minister, Rachel Maclean, told MPs in Westminster she was not happy with the draft plan, and that she was unable to give a new publication date.
The plan is the first time the UK will lay out its approach to decarbonising every form of transport and is an essential part of achieving the legal requirement for net zero emissions by 2050 and the Climate Change Committee’s sixth carbon budget.
Maclean said: “I am not satisfied with the draft because it does not meet the ambition we need in order to reach those incredibly challenging targets.”
As reported in fleetnews.co.uk, the transport minister told Westminster the government is developing three key policy documents over the course of 2021.
Maclean said: “The first is a delivery plan that will set out key government commitments, funding and milestones… for the 2030 and 2035 phase-out dates. It will deal with the question whether we will have a zero-emission vehicle mandate.”
An infrastructure strategy will set out the “vision and action plan” for the charging infrastructure roll-out that is needed to achieve the phase-out date successfully and accelerate the transition to zero emission transport.
Maclean said: “As part of this strategy we are working with local authorities, charge point operators and other stakeholders to ensure that our future charging infrastructure is practical, accessible, reliable and achievable, alongside outlining all the key roles and responsibilities for all actors in the EV charging sectors. It is clear that we need more charge points everywhere and this government will set out how that will take place.”
It will also bring forward the Green Paper on the UK future CO2 emissions regulatory framework, which will set out how the UK will support the interim carbon budgets and phase out petrol and diesel cars and vans.
This will include consulting on which vehicles exactly can be sold between 2030 and 2035.
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