Transport vs Climate Change
The UK Department for Transport (DfT) is under fire from a committee of MPs for their “fatalistic” attitude towards cutting emissions caused by increased travel.
The House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) was formed nearly 9 years ago and consists of 16 MPs, mostly from the Labour Party.
The EAC today released their Ninth Report, welcoming the recent introduction of variable Vehicle Excise Duty, which means that the lowest-carbon cars pay no road tax, while gas-guzzling 4×4s pay an increased rate of £210.
However, the report is not all good - Transport is the only part of the economy whose contribution to climate change consistently rose in the fourteen years since 1990. Emissions due to aviation alone has doubled in that time.
The report points to various other countries’ exemplar schemes, such as Sweden’s local bus fleets which use sustainable biofuels, and Holland’s cycling infrastructure.
Committee chairman Tim Yeo said: “Unless the Department for Transport raises its game, transport will go on rising so fast - and particularly aircraft - that almost anything else we do is going to be really useless.”
He also said that pollution from road vehicles was relatively easy to tackle by penalising drivers of gas guzzling cars and rewarding people who use low polluting cars, but was not sure the measure would be as effective as the MPs thought since many people with “gas guzzling” cars already seem prepared to pay thousands of pounds for extra fuel.