A new body has been created to help shape the strategy of road transport decarbonisation in the UK.
The Council for Net Zero Transport will engage with senior figures in government, business, industry and academia, and will be chaired by Lord Deben.
Our generation faces no greater challenge than that of tackling climate change. “With transport responsible for over a quarter of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions, if we’re going to solve this problem, we have to effectively decarbonise transport.
“We must do this for our environment, and we will reap rewards both politically and economically from doing so.”
The Council for Net Zero Transport was convened by Zemo Partnership, a non-profit body with the aim of accelerating transport to zero emissions in the UK. Its executive director, Claire Haigh, says that decarbonising UK transport is one of the most challenging aspects of the UK’s legally binding net zero targets.
“Achieving a successful outcome will be of huge benefit to the UK’s environment, society and economy,” Haigh said. “This is too vital a task for us to be distracted by over-simplifications and the short-term vagaries of our political system.
“We have some world-leading targets but we’re at a key moment in the transition and what we need now is a laser-like focus on delivery. To achieve this, we’ll need the full participation of government, nationally and locally – to the level of each town and parish council, industry, consumers and operators.”
Lord Deben (John Gummer) is a former environment secretary and chair of the Climate Change Committee.
