Department for Transport publishes a framework for delivering low carbon transport system
Tue 30 October 2007
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The Department for Transport proposes, for the first time, to set explicit goals for delivering both CO2 reduction and economic growth from the transport sector. In a document responding to the Stern Review and the Eddington Transport Study, the Department says that these twin objectives are 'both essential and mutually consistent'.
'Towards a Sustainable Transport System' is, according to the DfT, 'the first stage of a consultation process to deliver a transport system that meets the key objectives of supporting the country's economic competitiveness and helping address climate change'.
The document argues that forcing the pace of technological improvements and removing the obstacles to behavioural change will be key to making sure that transport makes a substantial contribution to the goal of at least a 60% reduction of CO2 by 2050. It 'begins the development of a robust plan for cutting transport's carbon footprint and will ensure that attention is focused where the most benefit can be gained'.
The publication introduces the idea that a new approach to planning will be underpinned by long-term funding based on the guidelines to 2019 laid out in the recent Comprehensive Spending Review. The DfT notes that spending on transport will be double what it was twenty years previously.
Ruth Kelly, the Transport Secretary said: "Our aim is to support people's desire for mobility whilst ensuring that transport contributes to the overall reduction in carbon emissions. This framework document will help us deliver a transport system that meets that aim and dispels the myth that, as an economy, we face the false choice of being 'poor and green' or 'rich and dirty. It gives us the opportunity to deliver, for the first time, a 'pro-green/pro-growth' agenda for transport in the short and medium term".
The LowCVP has been calling for a road transport-specific CO2 target for some time. A stakeholder survey carried out by the LowCVP earlier this year showed strong support for such a target. (See associated link.)
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