The Government’s plan to “decarbonise the transport fleet”


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Click for The Carbon Plan 2011

Following a Transport Committee oral evidence session on Low Carbon Vehicles, I have received a letter from the Minister, Norman Baker MP (no relation). It’s not necessary to reproduce the lot, but I do wonder if car enthusiasts, or indeed drivers generally, realise that:

… the Carbon Plan 2011 showed that we need to virtually decarbonise the car fleet by 2050 and new cars by 2040 to meet our 2050 80% GHG reduction target. To have a reasonable chance of meeting this target we need new car CO2 emissions to be between 50 and 70g in 2030. This is only a little over 15 years, or 3 product cycles, away.

This is apparently why the Government has “developed a comprehensive range of measures to stimulate the early market”. So there we have it:

  • An assumption of state collectivism in property (“the car fleet”),
  • Carbon emissions legitimising central planning (“the Carbon Plan“),
  • Fantastic targets (the unexciting 1.0 litre Toyota IQ produces 99 g/km),
  • Extensive intervention in motor manufacturing.

I feel sure that the implications of the Climate Change Act 2008 have not yet been fully realised by either politicians or the public but I wonder why so many environmentalists seem to conduct debate as if they had lost the argument.

In the meantime, I see energy bills are due to soar. Anyone blaming that on free markets is offering little but propaganda.

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Comments & Responses

3 Responses so far.

  1. Nick Heath says:

    Absolute madness.

  2. David C says:

    We’ve known all along that all this greenery is back door communism. Is Tim Yeo an actual communist, or is it that he isn’t he clever enough to realise the implications of the policies he advances?

  3. That Act, and Harman’s dire Equality Act were the death throes of the most incompetent government it has been my misfortune to be governed by. Mind you the runes for the current lot don’t make encouraging reading.