Tony Bosworth (FoE) circulated a paper on a proposed action plan for the group.
Malcolm Ferguson, Institute for European Environment Policy, gave his response to the paper. He said it was encouraging that the Department for Transport now included carbon dioxide reduction targets as did Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs and it would be good for TAR to keep up pressure on carbon dioxide reduction.
He warned we should guard against the notion that the Fuel Cell will solve emission problems and that oil insecurity will greatly influence transport issues, especially since the UK will become a net importer of energy for the first time in history by 2010 — North Sea oil will run out in 10 years.
The Government’s 10 year plan for transport fails to recognise these issues and it was noted the Department for Transport planning for traffic growth was based on the flawed
-assumption that oil- -would be priced at 20p/barrel even though the oil industry think we will never see such low prices again.
The only transport sector currently growing carbon dioxide emissions was aviation. Road transport emissions are static in spite of traffic growth due to technological advances but this situation will not be sustained without restraint on traffic growth. In any case, road traffic emissions are already far too high and it is worrying that the Department for Transport regard reductions of transport carbon dioxide contributions as too difficult and expensive — this is an important area for TAR to focus
on. Targets for year on year carbon dioxide reductions must be a campaign priority.
Land use planning and reducing the need to travel will be an important part of such a campaign as the Government was not addressing this issue at present but Malcolm Ferguson warned we must get our facts right.
It was suggested, and agreed, that we should set up a working party to produce a series of 10 point Myths & Facts leaflets on transport and the environment. These would be variously aimed at the Department for Transport and other Government Departments, Regional and local Government (LW’s), the media and the general public.
It was also agreed that Road User Charging schemes should focus on climate change and not just congestion.
On Whitehall matters Stephen Joseph said the Department for Transport still did not know how much its budgets would be
Ross Scott from CfIT will attend the next meeting on 16 November 2004.
Finally it was noted there would be a conference on Global Warming in Cambridge on 12 September 2005.
Malcolm Ferguson, Institute for European Environment Policy, gave his response to the paper. He said it was encouraging that the Department for Transport now included carbon dioxide reduction targets as did Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs and it would be good for TAR to keep up pressure on carbon dioxide reduction.
He warned we should guard against the notion that the Fuel Cell will solve emission problems and that oil insecurity will greatly influence transport issues, especially since the UK will become a net importer of energy for the first time in history by 2010 — North Sea oil will run out in 10 years.
The Government’s 10 year plan for transport fails to recognise these issues and it was noted the Department for Transport planning for traffic growth was based on the flawed
-assumption that oil- -would be priced at 20p/barrel even though the oil industry think we will never see such low prices again.
The only transport sector currently growing carbon dioxide emissions was aviation. Road transport emissions are static in spite of traffic growth due to technological advances but this situation will not be sustained without restraint on traffic growth. In any case, road traffic emissions are already far too high and it is worrying that the Department for Transport regard reductions of transport carbon dioxide contributions as too difficult and expensive — this is an important area for TAR to focus
on. Targets for year on year carbon dioxide reductions must be a campaign priority.
Land use planning and reducing the need to travel will be an important part of such a campaign as the Government was not addressing this issue at present but Malcolm Ferguson warned we must get our facts right.
It was suggested, and agreed, that we should set up a working party to produce a series of 10 point Myths & Facts leaflets on transport and the environment. These would be variously aimed at the Department for Transport and other Government Departments, Regional and local Government (LW’s), the media and the general public.
It was also agreed that Road User Charging schemes should focus on climate change and not just congestion.
On Whitehall matters Stephen Joseph said the Department for Transport still did not know how much its budgets would be
Ross Scott from CfIT will attend the next meeting on 16 November 2004.
Finally it was noted there would be a conference on Global Warming in Cambridge on 12 September 2005.