The need for a policy roadmap

Claire Haigh, Managing Director, Zemo Partnership

It was encouraging that the latest international climate conference (COP29) ended in agreement in Baku, even if there are widely differing opinions about the likely impact and effectiveness of the final text. Climate change is, of course, a global challenge so it’s vital we tackle it is through international processes such as these UNFCCC climate conferences.

The new UK Government has made it clear that Britain aims to be a leader on climate change. Indeed, ‘Make Britain a clean energy superpower’ is one of the Government’s guiding principles (its ‘five missions’). The Prime Minister backed this up in Baku, announcing an enhanced UK target of an 81% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2035. The Government clearly intends for Britain to lead on climate action and sees the economic and business opportunities associated with the transition to be linked with its mission for Britain to achieve the highest sustained growth in the G7.

While the high-level ambition is clearly there, it needs to be backed up by effective domestic policy. With the transport sector perhaps the most challenging and complex to decarbonize, and responsible for approaching a quarter of all UK emissions, it represents a very significant part of the overall task.
Having reaffirmed the commitment to end the sale of standard ICE cars by 2030, it has been under pressure in recent weeks from elements of the motor industry who would like to see some of the ZEV Mandate conditions eased. (The Mandate obliges manufacturers to sell an increasing proportion of zero emission cars each year, until 2035.)

While the last Government strengthened policy on the supply side (through the ZEV Mandate) it was widely criticized for undermining the demand side by pushing the end-of-sale deadline back to 2035. It appears that the current Government is under pressure to do the opposite.

One of the key features of a successful industrial policy – and one that businesses will always call for - is policy stability. However, that’s much easier said than done.

This is one of the reasons why we need a policy roadmap that has buy-in from the widest range of stakeholders in the decarbonisation transition. The greater the level of agreement around the guiding principles and the more detail we can agree on the delivery measures needed, the more chance we have of achieving a stable policy environment that will allow businesses to plan and grow in the future.

That’s why Zemo Partnership will be publishing our first iteration of a Delivery Roadmap for Net Zero Transport in early December. Watch this space for more!