MPs sitting on the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Committee have urged the Government to bring its 2040 ban for new petrol and diesel car sales forward to 2032 – in light of the recent findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The Green Alliance has argued that an earlier phase-out for new diesel and petrol cars would affect the looming gap in the UK’s legally binding 2030 climate target. A 2030 deadline would cut the gap by 85%, or 98 million tonnes of CO2e, it claims.
Edie 19th Oct 2018 read more »
MPs have called for a ban on new petrol and diesel vehicles to be brought forward to 2032, calling current government plans “vague and unambitious”. Urging ministers to “get a grip”, the parliamentary business committee said the government must invest in new charging points and phase out high-polluting vehicles to encourage the switch to electric models. Transport is the biggest contributor to the nation’s climate-harming carbon emissions, and air pollution from cars has reached dangerous levels in many British cities. In response to these threats, the government has announced its intention to make all new cars and vans “effectively zero-emission” by 2040. However, the new report by the parliamentary business committee echoed many environmental groups in calling for a stricter and clearer deadline, in lines with several other nations. Norway has pledged to ban petrol and diesel vehicles by 2025, and India by 2030. Even the Scottish government has said it will outdo the UK by phasing them out by 2032.
Independent 19th Oct 2018 read more »
The government should ban sales of virtually all new petrol and diesel cars by 2032, a group of MPs say in a withering report that labels the current 2040 target “vague” and “unambitious”. Ministers wanted to phase out sales of “conventional” petrol and diesel cars by 2040, under a policy called the “Road to Zero”. But moving and hardening the target will help Britain meet its climate change targets, and assist the UK industry in developing technology it can export to the world, the business, energy and industrial strategy committee said on Friday. “Zero should mean zero,” the report stated. “We recommend that the government prioritise overarching policy goals on climate change and air quality over sectoral interests, and bring forwards a clear, precise target for new sales of cars and vans to be truly zero emission by 2032.
FT 19th Oct 2018 read more »