Comment: There’s rarely a dull day in decarbonisation!

Claire Haigh, Managing Director, Zemo Partnership, gives an update on the latest happenings in the world of transport decarbonisation

December’s flurry of policy announcements and consultations (around the ZEV Mandate, future of the RTFO, kerbside chargepoint standards and more) was closely followed in the new year by the Chancellor’s ‘growth’ speech, in which net zero was prominent. Indeed, Rachel Reeves described net zero in her speech as the industrial opportunity of the 21st Century. We can look forward to seeing it front and central, then, in the Government’s much-anticipated industrial strategy, for which the consultation has recently closed.

So the Government is making it clear that it remains committed to the net zero agenda and is now accelerating into full policy development mode to identify and implement the policies needed to make our decarbonisation transition a reality.

There’s a clear opportunity to help shape the policies that will be introduced in the coming year and more.

After extensive consultation with our members and stakeholders, Zemo published the Delivery Roadmap for Net Zero Transport in December. This provided a high-level framework for the policies that will be needed for the next phase of the transition.  

To help inform the policy process at this critical time and to further develop ideas introduced in the Delivery Roadmap, Zemo has been commissioned by the European Climate Foundation (ECF) to prepare a Map of Missing Policies needed to accelerate progress.

The project will identify the most important gaps in the policies of the four nations of the UK and will make proposals for addressing them as soon as possible.

All Zemo members will have opportunities to provide their thoughts and input to the project which will finalise recommendations in the Spring.  Proposals will be developed with grass-roots input and could cover any areas across the spectrum of road transport.

If you’re already a member of Zemo, keep a look out for the opportunities to participate that are coming up soon. If you’re not yet a member, there’s still time to sign up and get involved, find more information here.)