The Government has reaffirmed its commitment to paving the way for almost all cars and vans in the UK to be zero emission by 2050.
Speaking at the Paris COP21 international climate conference, the Government says it wants to continue ‘to lead global efforts to cut vehicle emissions’.
The UK joined the newly-formed Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) Alliance in September and was one of 13 international members to sign a commitment to promote cleaner motoring and slash transport emissions, alongside three other European nations: Germany, Holland and Norway.
In 2014, the Government announced that it wanted to “lead by example” with electric cars, through a project to provide funding to introduce plug-in cars and vans across its car fleets.
However, a survey published in June 2015 by the DfT into public attitudes towards electric vehicles found that just 5% of respondents said that they were thinking about buying an electric car or van.
Andrew Jones, transport minister, said: “The UK already has the largest market for ultra-low emission vehicles in the EU, and the fourth largest in the world and today’s pledge reaffirms our commitment to ensuring almost every car and van is a zero emission vehicle by 2050.
“Electric cars are greener and cheaper to run and we are making them more affordable, spending more than £600m between 2015 and 2020 to support the uptake and manufacturing of ultra-low emission vehicles here in the UK.
“By leading international efforts on this issue, we are playing our part in helping achieve greenhouse gas emission reductions of more than 1 billion tonnes per year across the world by 2050.”
I agree with Paul, and wonder if anyone else saw a recent report pointing out that only a few tens of thousands electric cars would absorb the entire output of a major power station? And as most of us know, power station capacity is already on a knife-edge for this coming winter, with huge numbers of diesel generators parked in fields across the country to try to keep our lights on!
Idris Francis Fight Back With Facts Petersfield
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Presumably they refer to ‘tailpipe emissions’ as electric car emissions are merely transferred to the power source that generates the electricity. 2050 isn’t really that far away and there doesn’t seem to be any clear or costed plan for the way transport is powered can be turned on its head. Most manufacturers seem to be leaning towards hydrogen fuel cells rather than short range plug-in electric cars that are of limited viability. But what about the long distance bulk transport like lorries? Really we’re hoping for new technology that we don’t yet have.
Paul Biggs, Tamworth
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