Free pass rescinded - Transport and Climate Change
Speech to the Highway Authorities and Utilities Committee, 19th May 2022
Thanks for the chance to make a
contribution.
In the Welsh Government transport now
sits in the broader Climate Change portfolio. Our First Minister has crafted
one large Ministry that is bringing together the principal drivers of carbon
emissions to give us the best chance of delivering on our legal commitment to
reach NetZero by 2050.
Under the leadership of two Ministers
for Climate Change Transport sits alongside planning, housing, energy, the
environment, and regeneration to help us to align our policies.
It’s a big portfolio; meeting NetZero
is an even bigger challenge.
Transport has until now been given a
free pass when it comes to emissions reductions on the grounds that it is a key
economic driver.
The UN Panel on Climate Change is
pretty unequivocal in its analysis that if we don’t get emissions under control
our economy faces catastrophic damage. Al Gore called it an ‘inconvenient
truth’, and he wasn’t wrong.
We’ve now declared a Climate
Emergency. Every country in the world has pledged to do it’s bit to hit the
tougher target of NetZero emissions within the next 30 years. It is the only
way to avoid temperature rises that will destroy the ability of our eco-systems
to support our society. Inconvenient, but the truth.
Since 1990, the base year, we’ve
managed to cut our carbon emissions from waste by 64%, industry and business have
brought down their emissions by 36%, the same in the energy sector; from
buildings we’ve reduced emissions by a quarter, even in agriculture we’ve cut
emissions by 10%. But transport has decreased the least – just 6% since 1990.
If we repeat that over the next 30
years we will fail. 17% of our carbon emissions in this country come from
transport, and transport must play its part in getting us onto a low carbon
trajectory.
I am under no illusions about how
difficult this is to do. But I am also certain that it is do-able. And we must
all confront the consequences of our failing to do this.
Like the UK Government, the Welsh
Government gets independent advice from the UK Committee on Climate Change on
how to put ourselves on a ‘balanced pathway’ to NetZero by 2050.
They tell us that in the next 10
years we have to make deeper cuts in carbon emissions that we have managed over
the course of the last 30 years - Faster progress in the next decade than the
whole of the last three decades.
That is going to be very tough.
The good news is, it is do-able. And
the UK Committee on Climate Change have set out a way it can be done.
If there’s only one thing you take
from this speech please let it be this: we cannot rely on electric vehicles
alone to achieve NetZero.
Decarbonising our fleet of car is
necessary to hit our targets. But it is not sufficient.
The UK Committee on Climate Change
say that in addition to switching to all electric vehicles, we also need to
reduce the miles we travel and the number of journeys we make.
We need modal shift.
And that means re-thinking the
approach to transport that has guided us over the last 70 years.
In Wales we are starting to confront
what that means.
A year ago we published a transport strategy that for the first time puts modal shift at the heart of our policy.
We’ve set a target of 45% of trips
made by sustainable modes by 2040 – that compares to 32% now.
And we’ve committed to a 10%
reduction in car mileage.
We’ve said we don’t want people returning
to the morning commute after Covid, we want to maintain 30% of people workingremotely on an ongoing basis.
We are in the middle of developing
one of the most ambitious infrastructure projects in Wales in modern times in
the form of the south Wales Metro – a circa £1 Billion programme to create a
turn-up-and-go public transport system.
We’ve just published the most far
reaching bus reform programme in the UK. Our ambition is captured in the title
of our White Paper: ‘One Network, One Timetable, One Ticket’
We are investing record sums in
active travel and have the world’s first piece of legislation requiring Highway
Authorities to plan and develop a network of routes for walking and cycling –
the Active Travel Act.
Next year the default speed limit on restricted roads in Wales will be 20mph.
And we’re empowering Councils to
crack-down on pavement parking.
This all requires a shift in funding
to sustainable transport and we have frozen all new road development and have
set up a Roads Review Panel to examine each one - 55 schemes – to test whether
they are consistent with our new transport strategy.
We’re not saying we won’t build any
more roads but we are saying they cannot be the default answer to transport
problems.
I’ve asked the Roads Review Panel to
come up with criteria for when new roads can be justified. And I want them to
identify savings that will allow us to improve sustainable transport, as well
as to better maintain the roads we have – and to reallocate roadspace as we go.
None of this is easy. I am prepared
to be unpopular because, frankly, the science terrifies me. And I want to look
my grandchildren in the eye and tell them I tried my best to take action when
presented with the evidence.
This is the biggest challenge of our
generation. Each of us faces a choice to be part of the solution, or part of
the problem.
If we get this right the changes we
make will bring benefits to our communities. Investment in sustainable
transport infrastructure will create jobs; improvements in buses will help
tackle poverty; mainstreaming active travel will clean our air, improve health
and raise the quality of life.
I understand the three core themes of
your convention are “Collaboration, Connectivity and Climate”. Let us work
together to devise solutions to the profound challenges we face. We can connect
people in a way that improves communities and tackles the climate challenge. To
do that we must collaborate. The members of the Highway Authorities and
Utilities Committee are part of the solution – we cannot do it without your
help, your skill and your commitment.
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