The frustration of the authors is tangible throughout the update’s 600 pages. The report is also the first outing for A New traffic-light progress reporting system, which is flashing far too much amber and red for comfort when set against the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s latest summary of the dire consequences of unchecked warming.

To be positive for a moment, some elements of the transition to a Net Zero transport system are reported as being in decent shape, for example the shift to electric vehicles and the roll out of the supporting infrastructure. In this area progress is being made both with the policy framework and real change on the ground. Even here however there are negatives. The committee is looking for a significant increase in the pace of the roll out of charging infrastructure and more action to ensure that that access to charge points is spread more uniformly across the UK.

There is also a warning that government needs to start a serious debate with motorists as soon as possible about options for road user charging. This not only to fill the hole left by the inexorable decline in fuel duty but also to avoid a situation where drivers become accustomed to the idea that electric vehicles are tax-free – or worse, that government is seen to have allowed them to be tax-free when they are being used mainly by the better-off but not when they become the default for everyone.

The Committee’s biggest concerns are however on progress, or lack of it, around demand reduction. Its message over many years has been that electric vehicles must not be the sole focus and that there is no pathway to Net Zero that does not include significant modal shift and reductions in the demand for travel.

On demand reduction the message to Ministers in Westminster is crystal clear:

Fundamentally, the Government must set out measurable targets for the contribution that reducing car travel will play in delivering the Net Zero pathway. Realising this can be simplified by ensuring that the upcoming Planning Bill and the Transport Appraisal Guidance both reflect these aims and take an integrated, whole-system approach to transport development.

And this message is rammed home via praise for action in other parts of the union:

The Scottish Government has committed to reducing overall car mileage by 20% by 2030. It has begun taking steps to enable this, through focus on 20-minute neighbourhoods within its revised National Planning Policy Framework, extending free bus travel to those under 22, and guaranteeing funding for active travel.

And

The Welsh Government has also recently committed to reducing the car miles driven per person by 10% by 2030, to be achieved through increasing modal shift to active travel and public transport.

The Committee’s report also poses a big intellectual and practical challenge to professionals in the transport sector be they involved in planning, construction, maintenance or operations activities.

In this context, DfT and National Highways are singled out for criticism for not acknowledging in their scoping document for Roads Investment Strategy 3 (RIS), the role that expanding the network will have in inducing further demand – at a time when a majority of the vehicle fleet will not have transitioned to EVs.

The Scottish and Welsh governments in contrast are praised for their commitment to stop investing in projects, “to cater for unconstrained increases in traffic volume”.  Elsewhere in the report government, manufacturers and the construction industry are all warned against assuming that Net Zero can be achieved by simply assuming an ever-increasing role for Carbon Capture and Storage or other forms of engineering removals that are currently more theoretical than real.

Taken together this all points to a need for planners and engineers and the organisations they work for to be planning for a world in which maintaining the existing network and adapting it for different uses (as highlighted in CIHT’s Improving Local Highways) takes precedence over its expansion. This is a world where network operators across all modes will need to collaborate with the construction supply chain to deliver the benefits of mobility and connectivity within strict carbon budgets. It’s also a world in which COVID generated behaviour changes around home working and digital as a mode will need to be locked in, with all the additional benefits for clean air, safety and quality of life they can bring.

Are clients all bought into this? Can civil engineering and construction orientate themselves quickly enough? Coincidentally the British Standards Institute is currently consulting on a revision to Publicly Available Standard 2080 (PAS 2080) Carbon Management in Buildings and Infrastructure which, judging by recent CIHT events such as our The Road to Zero Carbon conference is seen by many in the industry as absolutely key to making this transition.  

A quick search on-line does reveal widespread use of the carbon management hierarchy at the heart of PAS2080 in ambitious highways decarbonisation strategies, such as the one recently put in place by, Lancashire County Council (see below).

The key questions now are whether we can close the gap between strategy and delivery – and do it – and do it quickly enough, whether procurement and deliver models are fit for purpose, if engineers and planners are really bought into change – and if they can successfully make the case for change to decision makers and the wider public.

The key questions now are whether we can close the gap between strategy and delivery quickly enough, whether procurement and deliver models are fit for purpose, if engineers and planners are really bought into change – and if they can successfully make the case to decision makers and the wider public.

Words by Andrew Crudgington, Climate Change Associate at CIHT