Climate Change Committee assigns major role to transport in meeting climate targets
Tue 02 December 2008
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The Committee on Climate Change - which has been set up to oversee the UK's progress towards fulfilling the requirements of the Climate Change Act - says that the UK must cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 34% on 1990 levels by 2020. In its first report, the Committee says that the UK target for 2020 should be 42% below 1990 levels if a successor to the Kyoto Protocol is agreed.
The report recommends UK carbon budgets for the three periods 2008-12, 2013-17 and 2018-22. The carbon budgets for each period are calculated against the overall Climate Change Act target of an 80% cut in emissions by 2050.
A central recommendation of the report is the development of a low carbon energy infrastructure, which will provide the foundations for significant carbon savings through the application of clean electricity.
The report states that transport emissions cuts through introduction of new technologies will be required. It says that the carbon efficiency of vehicles using fossil fuels can be increased by 30-40% but there are absolute physical limits to what can be achieved through these improvements. Given underlying demand growth, efficiency improvements of conventional vehicles will not themselves be sufficient to reduce carbon emissions to the extent needed.
A key role is assigned to the emergence of electric vehicles which, combined with the decarbonisation of electricity generation, could lead to a dramatic reduction in emissions from cars and light vans. The Committee says that investments in recharging infrastructure, and improvements in battery technologies are, however, required to unlock this potential. It says that further innovation will also be necessary before this technology can be applied to more challenging transport segments such as heavy goods vehicles.
By 2020, said Lord Turner, the Committee's Chairman: "we project that a significant proportion - about 40% - of vehicles sold would be plug-in hybrids or fully electric cars."
The report states that hydrogen could become a feasible source of energy for some transport modes and could play a major role if improvements in battery technology are slow. But hydrogen vehicles are not as close to commercial deployment as electric, it says, with significant challenges remaining in relation to hydrogen infrastructure, storage, and safety, and the durability and cost of fuel cells.
Biofuels are also accorded priority in the report which states that they have a potentially important role in reducing transport emissions. However, the extent to which this will be the case in practice is currently unclear, given uncertainties over quantities of sustainable biofuels that will be available. Once sustainability safeguards and new generations of biofuels are developed, the Committee says, a clearer picture will emerge.
The Government says it will use the Climate Change Committee's recommendations when setting its first legally-binding five-year carbon budget under the newly adopted climate change legislation.
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