The Zemo Partnership has assembled a new Council for Net Zero Transport in an effort to accelerate the UK transport’s decarbonisation strategy.
Former chair of the Climate Change Committee Lord Deben will take on the role of chair for the new council, tasked with engaging senior figures from government, industry, and academia and using their knowledge to devise a clear, strategic direction for road transport decarbonisation.
Lord Deben said: “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 publishing of a new Zemo Partnership report, titled Delivering Net Zero in a Changing World, coincided with launch of the council, outlining key recommendations for fast-tracking the rollout of net zero emission vehicles.
Zemo Partnership executive director Claire Haigh said: “The policy prescriptions needed to do this are complex, nuanced and cross-sectoral, and achieving a successful outcome will be of huge benefit to the UK’s environment, society and economy”.
“This is too vital a task for us to be distracted by over-simplifications and the short-term vagaries of our political system.”
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Zemo Partnership also announced a new Welsh Commercial Vehicle Decarbonisation programme, for which it worked closely with the Welsh Government to develop a regional strategy covering heavy and light-duty commercial vehicles with a focus on sustainable fuels, electrification, and hydrogen.
A report by consumer brand Which? – also published today – claims more than two-thirds of electric (EV) and plug-in hybrid (PHEV) vehicle owners are unhappy with the UK’s public charging network, based on a survey of over 1,000 EV and PHEV drivers.
Three-quarters claimed to have experienced a faulty public charger at least once in the last 12 months and 37% claimed it was difficult to find a working charger at all, with the number and location of charge points also being a major issue for drivers.
The launch of the new Council for Net Zero Transport and Which? research come just a day after new government data revealed that more than 16,600 public EV chargers were installed in 2023, representing a 45% increase year-on-year.
