Chapter 10 - Protecting the environment CM 6234

Good transport is central to a prosperous economy, facilitating better access and greater mobility. But we must balance the increasing demand for travel against our goal of protecting the environment effectively and improving the quality of life for everyone - whether they are travelling or not.

The challenge

10.1 We have one of the richest and most diverse natural and built environments in the world. It makes a significant contribution in its own right to our national economy and to our quality of life. However, the negative impacts of transport on the environment affect all of us. These include emissions of greenhouse gases, air pollutants, noise, and damage to both the natural and built environments.

10.2 Dealing with the environmental pressures caused by the increasing demand for travel will mean striking the right balance between our environmental, economic, and social objectives now, and into the future. All three are key pillars of the UK's Strategy for Sustainable Development(1).

Climate change

10.3 Climate change is the most important challenge we face as a global community. The Energy White Paper(2) reaffirmed our commitment to the Kyoto Protocol, and to our target to reduce UK greenhouse gas emissions by 12.5 per cent, from 1990 levels, by 2008-12. We remain committed to our own, more challenging, national goal of a 20 per cent reduction in emissions of the main greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide (CO₂), by 2010 and to putting the UK on a path to reduce total carbon dioxide emissions by some 60 per cent by 2050, with real progress by 2020.

Climate change

Transport is currently responsible for about a quarter of total UK CO₂ emissions. This figure excludes international aviation as there is currently no international agreement on ways of allocating such emissions. In the short term, emissions of carbon from road transport are expected to grow by about 10 per cent from 2000 levels by 2010. (3)This is because increased levels of traffic will offset improvements in fuel efficiency. Emissions from other sectors are due to fall in the same time period, so transport's share of total emissions is likely to increase substantially. The trends change after 2010. Slower traffic growth and continued fuel efficiency improvements are expected to produce a fall in road traffic CO₂ emissions of around 5 per cent between 2010 and 2015, with further falls thereafter.

If UK aviation is defined as all domestic services plus all international departures from the UK(4), then the aviation sector currently contributes about 5.5 per cent of the UK's CO₂ emissions but, because of radiative forcing(5), 11 per cent of total UK climate change impact. This raises transport's current share of emissions to a third of total emissions. The future growth in air travel could mean that the aviation sector contributes about 33 per cent of total UK climate change impact by 2050(6), assuming all other sectors meet the targets set out in the Energy White Paper. For this reason, we are committed to ensuring that the aviation sector takes its share of responsibility for tackling this problem.

10.4 Transport is also the source of emissions of some of the other gases that contribute to climate change. These include methane and nitrous oxide, present in exhaust emissions, and also gaseous emissions from refrigerants used in air conditioning systems in cars. These gases all have high capacities to increase global warming and we will also consider how these emissions can be further reduced.

Air quality

10.5 Transport can also have an impact on air quality. Over the last decade air quality has improved significantly and our projections to 2015 suggest that these trends will continue. However, the downward trend in emissions of two of the pollutants, nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) and particles (PM10), is likely to level off and could start rising again after 2015 unless further action is taken. And there are parts of the UK where levels of NO₂ and PM10 remain above the limits set by the EU and in our Air Quality Strategy for 2010. These limits reflect the Government's aim to protect people's health and the environment. Our policies will help us to achieve the required improvements in many of these areas, but there will be a small number where, on the basis of current policies, levels will still be exceeded by 2010. If future road and air traffic flows exceed expectations, or emission control technologies fail to deliver anticipated reductions, the challenge we face will increase.

Where we want to be

10.6 Vehicles must continue to get cleaner, quieter and less harmful to the environment. The progress made over the last decade shows what can be achieved. This needs to continue in the future. We will ensure that technological progress goes hand in hand with better planning, better management and smarter ways of using our transport network.

10.7 Good quality transport infrastructure should complement or enhance the character of its local area, as do the Second Severn Crossing and the Millennium Bridge linking Newcastle and Gateshead. Transport schemes, such as bypasses round towns and villages, should improve the quality of life for local communities but need to be designed in ways that offer environmental gains, reduce community severance and improve air quality wherever possible.

What we have achieved

10.8 We have made considerable progress in reducing harmful emissions from new road vehicles, through the European Union adopting higher standards of manufacture, and implementing our Powering Future Vehicles strategy (see box).

Powering future vehicles strategy

We launched the Powering Future Vehicles Strategy in July 2002. The objectives of the strategy are to:

• promote the development, introduction and uptake of clean, low carbon vehicles and fuels; and
• ensure the full involvement of the UK automotive industry in the new technologies.

A number of measures are in place to achieve these objectives, including:

• fiscal and grant incentives for consumer and business take-up of cleaner, more efficient vehicles and fuels; and
• research, development and demonstration funding for new technologies, including the Ultra Low Carbon Car Challenge to develop ultra-efficient family vehicles, capable of mass production, and the Low Carbon Bus Programme to prove the in-service viability of efficient bus technologies.

It also sets challenging Government targets that by 2012:

• 10 per cent of new cars sold in the UK will be low-carbon vehicles, defined as 100 or fewer grams of CO₂ per km at the tailpipe (compared with the current new car average of 178gm); and
• 600 new buses joining the fleet yearly (around 20 per cent) will also be low-carbon.

10.9 In recent years, the fuel efficiency of new cars in the UK has been improving by around 1 to 2 per cent a year. This is good for the motorist, and good for the environment. Voluntary Agreements between the European Commission and the automotive industry commit car manufacturers to improve fuel efficiency of new cars sold in the EU by 25 per cent between 1995 and 2008-09.

UK average CO₂ emissions from new cars

10.10 We have also introduced a package of financial and tax incentives that is delivering cleaner vehicles and fuels. Company car tax and vehicle excise duty have been reformed and linked to vehicle CO₂ emissions. And TransportEnergy Grants are available for consumers and businesses towards the purchase cost of vehicles and pollution-reduction equipment.

10.11 We have introduced fuel duty differentials to promote new, cleaner fuels. This includes a fuel duty incentive for biodiesel, now guaranteed for three years. Sales of biodiesel are already some two million litres per month. This currently represents a very small percentage of total fuel sales, but one which is set to increase significantly over the next few years. And the same incentive will apply to bioethanol from January 2005, helping to support the development of the UK biofuels market.

Towards A UK Strategy For Biofuels - Public Consultation

Biofuels are liquid transport fuels produced for the most part from plant material or recycled vegetable oils. Because the crops used to make the fuel take in CO₂ when they grow, biofuels can help reduce the transport sector's contribution to climate change. They also help conserve our reserves of fossil fuels and contribute to diversity and security of energy supply. Biodiesel is already available in some parts of the UK as a 5 per cent blend with conventional diesel, which allows it to be used in all standard diesel vehicles. Bioethanol (a petrol substitute) may become available in the UK from 2005, as a result of the fuel duty incentives we have introduced.

We recently launched a consultation on the UK's plans for supporting biofuels in the transport sector, including our proposals for implementing the EU Biofuels Directive that came into force in May 2003. We are seeking views on the extent to which further support for biofuels is justified, and on what forms that further support might take. As part of this, we are seeking views on whether the UK should introduce a 'renewable transport fuels obligation' which would require the road transport fuel industry to source an increasing percentage of its fuel sales from renewable sources including biofuels.

10.12 Emissions of key air pollutants from road transport have been reduced by about 50 per cent over the last decade, despite increases in traffic, and should reduce by a further 25 per cent over the next decade. As the diagram below shows, this is largely due to a progressive tightening of European emissions standards, which have helped force improvements to vehicle engineering and design.

10.13

EU emissions standards for cars

Notes
1. Emissions of oxides of nitrogen and particulate matter remain generally higher for diesel vehicles than for petrol vehicles.
2. Until 1992 NOx limits for petrol and diesel cars were based on a combined limit for both NOx and Hydrocarbons.

10.14 We are also working to reduce harmful emissions from public transport. We have made up to £3 million of funding available to support demonstrations of up to 150 low carbon buses. These grants will help cover the additional initial costs of manufacturing, maintaining and operating such buses while the market is growing. We have also set a target in our Powering Future Vehicles Strategy (see text box) to ensure that, by 2012, at least 600 new buses coming into operation each year will be clean, low-carbon vehicles, with fuel efficiency about one third better than an average bus today.

10.15 Air travel is a large and growing source of CO₂ emissions and air pollution. Progress has been made on mitigating the impacts of air travel. The fuel efficiency of aircraft has been improving by around 1.7 per cent a year and today's aircraft are typically 75 per cent quieter than jets in the 1960s. We are actively pursuing measures to tackle aviation's greenhouse gas emissions with the incorporation of aviation into the EU emissions trading scheme a priority. We have been actively involved in International Civil Aviation Authority (ICAO) negotiations to agree more stringent standards for NOx emissions for new aircraft from 2008. And we will only support the development of a third runway at Heathrow if we can be confident that local air quality limits can be complied with. The Air Transport White Paper sets out what more we will be doing over the next 30 years.

10.16 Shipping is recognised as a sustainable, safe and relatively environmentally friendly mode of transport. Nonetheless, it is clear that further improvements can be made to reduce air and marine pollution emitted from ships.

What we are going to do next

Climate change

10.17 To ensure that transport makes its full contribution to reducing CO₂ emissions cost effectively, we will need to broaden the debate on the:

• value we attach to the movement of people and goods;
• overall price of transport; and
• costs of reducing carbon emissions across all sectors of the economy.

10.18 Current evidence suggests that the most cost effective ways of reducing total CO₂ emissions from the transport sector are measures affecting the cost of fuel, the cost of energy inefficient vehicles, or the efficiency of road haulage. When the Government's Energy White Paper was published, illustrative figures showed that other transport options tended to be less cost effective than carbon-saving measures in other sectors - including, for example, domestic energy efficiency. The review of the Climate Change Programme later this year will re-examine the evidence and consider how carbon savings can best be delivered both from transport and across other sectors.

10.19 If the UK is to achieve the deep cuts in carbon emissions from the transport sector that may be necessary to help us meet our long-term goals to reduce CO₂ emissions, we are likely to have to move beyond today's vehicle and fuel technologies to radically different alternatives. These might include vehicles powered by hydrogen fuel cells, or fuels produced entirely from energy crops or other forms of biomass.

Hydrogen

In the longer term, it is possible that hydrogen will play a key role in delivering clean, low carbon transport. If used in highly efficient fuel cell vehicles, the only emission from the tailpipe is pure water. Hydrogen can be generated from a wide variety of different sources, which could reduce reliance on imports of mineral oil. If produced using renewable electricity such as that from wind and waves, or from biomass material such as crops or organic wastes, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles offer the prospect of zero-carbon, pollution-free motoring. This would mean improved local air quality and reduced impacts on climate change, with the additional benefits of improved diversity and security of energy supply.

The Government has already put in place a number of measures to support the development of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. We are supporting research into fuel cells, and funding the trialling of hydrogen-powered vehicles. We have also pledged to exempt hydrogen from fuel duty for a limited period in the future to encourage its early development and uptake.

CUTE hydrogen bus
Clean Urban Transport for Europe (CUTE) is an EU project for the demonstration of hydrogen fuel cell bus fleets in major cities across Europe. The project is mainly EU-funded, but we have also provided significant funding through the TransportEnergy New Vehicle Technology Fund.

London is one of the cities taking part, and three buses entered service in January 2004 for the start of a two-year trial. The buses operate on a public route in central London. They offer a very smooth, quiet and comfortable ride and, to date, they have proved very successful, with some passengers even letting standard diesel buses go by in order to wait for a fuel cell bus.

Data will be collected on the buses' performance under London operating conditions. This will feed into a final report on the overall project.

10.20 These technologies could, potentially, deliver huge reductions in emissions of carbon from the transport sector in the long term. In theory, significant use of renewably produced hydrogen or biofuels as transport fuels could reduce carbon emissions from the transport sector to near-zero levels by 2050. (7)In practice, however, there are a large number of technical and economic hurdles that would need to be overcome before this could happen. The costs of delivering these new technologies are likely to be significant. And the technologies are not yet proven at a commercial scale.

10.21 We have been considering these and other questions since the publication of the Energy White Paper last year, and we will be publishing an assessment of the long term impacts of renewable hydrogen and biofuels on the UK's wider energy policies as a follow-up to this White Paper. The assessment addresses key questions such as how much hydrogen or biomass would be needed to power the whole of UK road transport and how it might be produced. We are committed to facilitating the development of these and other promising alternative technologies, as a potentially cost effective way of achieving carbon savings from road transport in the future.

10.22 Although the prospect of a transport system powered substantially by biofuels or hydrogen is some years away, we will introduce measures in the short term to put ourselves on the path to a low carbon transport system, including:

• funding research, design and demonstration projects for low carbon vehicles (such as the New Vehicle Technology Fund);
• ensuring that the right tax incentives are in place to encourage the early uptake of new vehicles and fuel technologies;
• pressing the European Commission to finalise a new round of Voluntary Agreements on new car fuel efficiency with the automotive industry;
• promoting more widespread development and use of biofuels (see text box);
• providing people with the choice to use public transport or other alternatives to the car, and encouraging a change in travel behaviour - for example, through measures such as travel planning;
• taking forward measures that improve the management and use of the road network, including exploring the use of carpool lanes and the potential of road pricing;
• introducing new measures to support the development of an efficient and cost effective freight logistics sector as part of our sustainable distribution strategy;
• working towards the introduction of a UK new car CO₂ labelling scheme, drawing on advice from the Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership;
• supporting the intent of a proposed European Regulation to minimise the release of fluorinated gases used in car air-conditioning systems; and
• considering the scope for including surface transport in the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme.

The TransportEnergy New Vehicle Technology Fund

The fund was set up in 2002 to develop and demonstrate environmentally friendly vehicle technologies and bring them closer to commercial production. One of the demonstrations it has helped fund this year is the HyTrans project at the Ford plant in Southampton. The HyTrans will demonstrate an innovative 'stop-start' engine system for the Ford Transit range, which will allow the engine to switch off rather than idle while at traffic lights or while deliveries are being made. This offers fuel savings of up to 20 per cent for urban delivery cycles.

10.23 As outlined in the Air Transport White Paper, we are actively pursuing the inclusion of intra-EU aviation in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme and will make this a priority for the UK presidency of the EU in 2005. We are also pressing for the development and implementation, through the ICAO, of a well-designed international emissions trading regime. We will also continue to explore the scope for the use of other economic instruments to tackle aviation emissions.(8)

10.24 It will also be important that airports, airlines and air traffic controllers adopt working practices that minimise their impact on climate change and continue to invest in the research and development of new technologies. We have endorsed a target adopted by the Advisory Council on Aeronautics Research in Europe which outlines a 50 per cent reduction in CO₂ emissions from new aircraft by 2020.

The changing climate: impact on transport

Earlier in 2004 the Department for Transport concluded a far reaching review of the impact of climate change on transport. We now have a good idea of what our climate will be like in 2020 and beyond. Whilst we are actively promoting global action to reduce the impact we have on the climate, it is inevitable that there will be some change. The study concluded that the main impacts of these changes on the transport sector are likely to be increased flooding during winter and more extreme heat in summer. In response, we are now taking forward a number of the report's recommendations, ensuring that these are consistent with the Foresight Flood and Coastal Project, published earlier this year by the Office of Science and Technology.

Air quality

10.25 We will work towards meeting the European limits of key air pollutants. The feasibility study on road pricing (described in Chapter 3) suggests that improving air quality could, in some circumstances, be a factor in the design of any road pricing scheme.

10.26 Many transport policies, outlined above, which aim to reduce congestion or CO₂ emissions, will also help improve air quality. At a national scale we will also:

• work with our European partners to develop tighter standards for both vehicles and fuels;
• increase public awareness and improve driver training, for example for truck drivers, which can help reduce emissions;
• facilitate the preparation of Airport Surface Access Strategies to be reflected in Regional Transport Strategies; and
• co-ordinate national and international work to identify technological and operational means to control emissions at airports.

10.27 Some improvements, for example to local air quality hot spots, can only be delivered locally. To that end, we will work closely with local authorities to ensure that:

• Air Quality Action Plans are properly integrated into second-round Local Transport Plans in areas where transport has a significant impact on the local air quality;
• they promote better traffic management, which can help to reduce emissions by keeping traffic moving, in the next round of Local Transport Plans;
• air quality comes to the fore in discussions on delivering shared priorities with local authorities; and
• there are more local targets on air quality.

New development

10.28 The 1998 Integrated Transport White Paper set out the Government's commitment to a presumption against transport schemes that damage landscapes, townscapes, biodiversity and the aquatic environment. This strategy reaffirms that commitment.

Solar powered highway infrastructure

The Highways Agency has launched a pilot project on the M27 which will test the use of solar panels as the source of power for lights and gantries on England's motorways. The solar panels will be fixed on the south facing noise reduction fences. The performance of the panels in all weathers will be assessed over the next year with a view to expanding the programme if it is successful.

10.29 In designing and constructing new projects we will work with statutory bodies and others to ensure that:

• there continues to be a strong presumption against schemes that would significantly affect environmentally sensitive sites, or important species or habitats;
• the impact of schemes on the environment and communities is monitored;
• design standards take account of environmental concerns and the impacts of any new development are kept to a minimum, with mitigation measures implemented to a high standard;
• poor planning does not sever communities;
• the amount of greenfield land taken for development is kept to a minimum;
• biodiversity is respected and, wherever possible, enhanced, in our planning, decision making, delivery and network management processes;
• the marine environment in coastal waters is protected from shipping;
• all groundwater and surface waters are protected by controlling pollution from sources such as roads and airport runways; and
• noise impacts from transport are reduced and mitigated, for example around airports.

Conclusion

10.30 This document reaffirms our commitment to a measured and balanced approach ensuring that transport delivers the economic and social benefits that underpin our prosperity and welfare, and makes a positive contribution towards our environmental objectives. More needs to be done to reduce and mitigate the environmental impact of travel and we will continue to look for new solutions and actions that deliver improvements.

(1) The Strategy is currently being reviewed and a new UK Sustainable Development Strategy document is due for launch in spring 2005.
(2) Our Energy Future - creating a low carbon economy Cm 576, February 2003, DTI, Defra, DfT, available at www.dti.gov.uk/energy/whitepaper
(3) The surface transport figures come from DTI's energy projections.
(4) International aviation emissions do not currently count in the national inventories of greenhouse gas emissions as there is no international agreement yet on ways of allocating such emissions.
(5) Radiative forcing results from the specific effects of aircraft emissions at altitude.
(6) From DfT paper, Aviation and Global Warming which includes both domestic and international aviation. The forecasts are based on an assumption of three new runways in the South East and do not reflect any impact of economic instruments - hence represent a slight over-estimation.
(7) Liquid biofuels and renewable hydrogen to 2050, Department for Transport, July 2004. The report is available for download at www.dti.gov.uk/energy/sepn/futuretransport.shtml
(8)  Building on the work in the March 2003 report Aviation and the Environment: using economic instruments, joint DfT and HMT publication.