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Home > Press releases > Archived press releases > 2006 > Department for Transport failing on climate change
2 August 2006
Government transport policies are failing to tackle climate change and carbon dioxide emissions from surface transport will continue to rise unless there is a radical change in approach, a new report [1] published by a coalition of environmental groups today reveals [2]. The report, written by consultants Steer Davies Gleave, concludes that DfT does not know the full impact of its decisions on climate change, and is pinning its hopes for meeting climate targets on policies which already look set to fail.
Today's report finds that:The Department for Transport does not have a clear picture of the effects of its policies and proposals on climate change. There are no data on carbon dioxide emissions for over half of the road-building schemes in the Government's Targeted Programme of Improvements, which consists of agreed major improvements to the trunk road and motorways network [3].
The potential environmental cost of carbon emissions from transport to 2025 is £30.9 billion. This figure could rise by up to a further £10.5 billion if Government policies are not as effective as estimated [4].
The effectiveness of measures to reduce transport emissions set out in the 2006 UK Climate Change Programme is questionable: the voluntary agreement on the fuel efficiency of new cars is almost certain to miss its target [5]; the fuel duty escalator has been withdrawn and so will generate no further savings; and the decreasing cost of motoring compared to public transport is inhibiting modal shift from car to bus and train. This means that the Government's forecasts of increases in carbon dioxide emissions from road transport may not be relied on and are likely to significantly underestimate actual increases.
Measures such as enforcing or reducing speed limits and `smarter choices' would bring major reductions in carbon emissions [6].
The Government's estimate of the increase in carbon emissions from its road-building programme of 0.1MtC by 2010 is a top-down estimate and no guide at all to the actual likely increase [7].
The report concludes that the Department for Transport must develop a more robust and more transparent approach to monitoring the carbon impacts of its policies and proposals, particularly major road-building proposals. The environmental groups are calling for the Department for Transport to play a full and active part in reducing carbon emissions and to make climate change its number one priority.
Tony Bosworth, Friends of the Earth's Senior Transport Campaigner, said:
"The Department for Transport is losing the battle against climate change, and unless it changes its policies, it will continue to fail. Transport Secretary Douglas Alexander must make action on global warming his main priority. And the Government must back growing calls for a climate law to make successive governments responsible for annual cuts in carbon dioxide.
Stephen Joseph, Executive Director of Transport 2000 said:"Transport's contribution to climate change is growing but this report shows that the Department for Transport is not tackling it with any urgency or priority. It is pinning its hope on policies which look set to fail. The Government must now find the political will to put in place policies to change how we travel"
Rebecca Lush, co-ordinator of Road Block said:"The Government is pressing ahead with a massive road-building programme despite not knowing the climate change impact of many of the roads. Road-building is fuelling the traffic growth that is increasing CO2 emissions. It is not the answer to our transport problems or to tackling climate change"
Don Mathew Policy Advisor at Sustrans said"We don't need large-scale schemes to cut transport's contribution to climate change. Sustrans is demonstrating all the time that small, smart, cheap interventions that encourage people to cycle, walk and use public transport more reduce car travel and bring the corresponding benefits of reduced CO2 and congestion, and increased levels of healthy active travel."
Melanie Edmunds, Transport Policy Officer at RSPB said:"Climate change will have a huge impact on wildlife in Britain and around the world. If we want to avoid the worst impacts, then the Department for Transport has to raise its game significantly and do a lot more to cut emissions."
Emissions of carbon dioxide from road transport have risen by over 9% since 1990.
Traffic levels have risen under Labour, despite a promise by Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, to reduce them. Traffic levels are now about 11 per cent higher than 1997.
Earlier this year Government figures revealed that motoring costs fell by nine per cent in real terms between 1997 and the end of 2005. Over the same period the cost of traveling by bus (15%) and train (5 %) rose.
[1] Driving up carbon dioxide emissions from road transport: an analysis of current Government projections'. Copies of the report are available from Friends of the Earth's website at www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefings/driving_up_co2_emissions.pdf (PDF)
[2] The report was commissioned by Friends of the Earth, Road Block, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Sustrans and Transport 2000.
[3] This is based on analysis of data supplied in responses to Parliamentary Questions. Government guidance states that the climate impact of road proposals does not need to be assessed until after the decision in principle to build the road has been taken.
[4] This figure is based on figures used by DEFRA for the economic value of carbon dioxide emissions, discounted back to the base year of 2002 at a rate of 3.5% per annum, in accordance with current Treasury practice.
[5] The European Union reached a voluntary agreement with car manufacturers in the 1990s to reduce average emissions from new cars sold to 140 grammes of carbon dioxide per kilometre (g/km CO2). However latest figures show that average emissions for new cars sold in the UK in 2005 were 169.4 g/km CO2 and that, at current rates of progress, the 2008 target will not be reached until the early 2020s.
[6] Information from a Department for Transport model analysing the impact of changes in vehicle speeds on emissions shows that rigorous enforcement of the 70mph speed limit would reduce carbon emissions from road transport by 1MtC a year.
[7] The estimate of 0.1MtC was made by Lords Transport spokesman Lord Davies in March 2005. The 2004 White Paper `The Future of Transport' planned an extra 1400 lane km of roadspace on Highways Agency roads by 2010, an increase of 900 lane km from the 2000 Plan.
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