Reducing carbon emissions from transport, EAC

The (UK Parliament) House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) published a report 'Reducing Carbon Emissions from Transport' on August 7 2006.

Key findings

 * Between 1990 and 2004, overall UK carbon emissions declined by 5.6%, from 161.5MtC to 152.5MtC. But emissions from transport within the UK increased by 10%, from 39.2MtC to 43.1MtC.
 * Emissions from road transport rose by 10%
 * CO2 from international flights departing the UK went up by 111%, from 4.3MtC to 9.1MtC.
 * Altogether (taking transport within the UK together with international air and shipping departures), transport accounted for 33% of UK carbon emissions in 2004, up from 27% in 1990.

Cars

 * Progress in encouraging sales of the lowest carbon cars in Band A (£0) has been microscopic. Sales in 2005 were 467 (approximately 0.02% of the 2.5 million new cars sold that year), down from 481 the year before.

Planes

 * Under current Government plans, even under the Government’s most optimistic projections every other sector of the economy would have to cut its share of UK emissions, while that of aviation would be assisted to almost quintuple. And this is likely to be a very substantial understatement of the actual figure.

Buses

 * From 2001 to 2005, bus use increased significantly in London but declined in every other region of England.

Recommendations
Among the Committee's recommendations are that the Government should:
 * make public transport use more affordable compared to cars (para 26)
 * introduce £300 gaps between VED (road tax) bandings (para 52)
 * take measures to curb the amount that people drive (para 63)
 * seriously reconsider the case for annual increases in fuel duty (para 71)
 * make clear that road user charging will be used to tackle climate change as well as congestion (para 77)
 * properly enforce or lower the 70mph speed limit on motorways (para 82)
 * more stringently appraise road building proposals compared to lower carbon alternatives such as public transport improvements and demand management measures (para 89)
 * fundamentally rethink its airport expansion policy (para 113)
 * consider alternatives to emissions trading for tackling carbon emissions from aviation (para 125)
 * raise Air Passenger Duty (para 130)
 * increase taxes on domestic flights (para 132)