Transport & Environment (T&E) UK

⚡"EV appeal is really charging up" ⚡- Ralph Palmer, our Electric Vehicle and Fleets Officer. With the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) and New AutoMotive figures for August out, the picture is now clear - #EVs are becoming more and more exciting for drivers and the #ZEV mandate is working. In August, #electricvehicles accounted for almost a quarter of all new #vehicle registrations. This is fantastic #news and will help #manufacturers reach their overall targets for the year. The yearly sales figures now stand at 17.5% as the #market share for EVs. You may still hear a lot of naysaying about how it will be impossible for manufacturers to reach their targets for this year. BUT, flexibilities built into the zero emission vehicle #mandate mean that the overall target for the year is actually closer to 18% than the more widely discussed target of 22%. Anna Krajinska Oliver Lord Matt Finch Jonathan Hood Alexander Killeen Transport & Environment (T&E) #cars #transport #ev #electriccars #batteries #roads #netzero #climatechange #climatecrisis #lithiumbatteries #lithium #lithiumionbatteries #green #greentransport #petrol #diesel #fuel https://lnkd.in/eRXkyDek

In 2022 fuel duty was cut by 5p. Last week the RAC called for that cut to be scrapped. It's costing the Treasury £2bn as it's lining fuel providers' pockets instead of ordinary working people's - that's the right call. The #taxpayer is being hit by this cut and ordinary working people aren't reaping the #benefits. Both of those groups have been struggling for years now - the #energy crisis, the #costofliving crisis, record #inflation. All of that has been making their lives more difficult. And yet #fuel providers, including #supermarkets and #oilandgas companies, continue to fleece those people. That has to stop. In its stead, the government seriously need to consider how to get a wider variety of people into #electric vehicles, including those on the lowest #incomes. One equitable way of doing that would be through #socialleasing, an affordable #rental scheme for those on low incomes that are dependent on their cars. We also need to focus on #infrastructure and other support measures. How we can not only roll out more #charging infrastructure but how we can ensure people can charge at home and are equipped with strong knowledge of the ins and outs of EVs like #battery health and #maintenance. This wil help more people reap the benfits of #EVs, running their #cars more cheaply and helping the country reach its #climate goals. Anna Krajinska Oliver Lord Ralph Palmer Matt Finch Jonathan Hood Alexander Killeen Transport & Environment (T&E)

Some brilliant climate-related news in the past couple of days. First up, yesterday morning a decarbonised power system took a step forward yesterday via #AR6. 131 projects won contracts at £50-£59 / MWh at 2012 prices, or £70-£82 in today's money (which is about the same level as the current spot price, for any climate deniers out there about to start banging on about #subsidies). Then this morning New AutoMotive released the monthly #ElectricVehicle sales stats for #August. Even though both the media and the industry have said that, at 22%, current EV targets are impossible to meet, they were, um, met. EV sales are up 10% compared to August 2023, and accounted for 23% of the market. Within that, different manufacturers are faring differently, but special mention should go to BMW Group - a third of the cars it sold over the last year have been electric. It's not perfect though. In powerland, about the same amount of capacity was not successful in the auction (h/tip Maf Smith for this info) - meaning there is pent up demand out there that will have to wait a year before trying again. That's a year closer to the new #CleanPower #2030 deadline, and a year more of gas being burnt in its place instead. Equally, August is never the biggest sales month in carland: most potential buyers are out enjoying the sunshine instead. September will be the month that makes or breaks the targets. Most worryingly though, whilst clearly EV car sales could have been higher (August EV sales in #Norway were 94%!), electric #van and #HGV sales were desperately poor. Just 21 new eHGVs hit the UKs roads in August, and that's less than half of the comparable month in 2023. So, still some work to do, Ed Miliband and Louise Haigh MP - but this week is definitely one to smile about. Fintan Slye Chris Stark Graeme Cooper MBA FEI Harps Nandhra Matt Black Lilian Greenwood Mike Hawes Konstanze Scharring Bob Moran Rosalind Marshall James Vickery Zemo Partnership Claire Haigh Thomas McLennan Quentin Willson Ben Nelmes William Rennicks Warren Ryan Philips Adam Vaughan Victoria Seabrook Emma Gatten Sarah Jones Sarah Taaffe-Maguire Department for Transport (DfT), United Kingdom Department for Energy Security and Net Zero Clean Power projects: https://lnkd.in/dhckjjQS New Automotive stats: https://newautomotive.org/ Norway EV Sales: https://lnkd.in/d-dXKFGs

Haven't posted on here for a while - so here's a little feature I wrote about sustainable fuels and why they're key to the future growth of aviation. https://lnkd.in/ef-t8RHu

"At the moment, they’re a luxury industry, dumping their pollution on society and being allowed to get away with it.” - Jonathan Hood, our Sustainable Shipping Manager. While the #shipping sector gets given enormous #tax breaks around the world, their #fuel going completely untaxed in the UK along with a large part of their emission, at least the cargo sector is moving essential #goods. The #cruise #ship #industry is a #luxury for the few and it's getting away with emitting boatloads of #pollution. As Transport & Environment (T&E) found back in early August there are now 515 cruise ships across the world compared to the 21 there were in 1970. On top of that, the average ship is now five times the size of the Titanic. Simply, #technology is letting them build the ships bigger and bigger by maximising #efficiency and incubating #demand. And these cruise ships are a huge problem in the #cities they dock in. In the UK, #Southampton is the busiest UK cruise ship port. And when docked, these behemoths regularly continue to burn fuel in order to power their ships. Southampton does have #shore #side #electricity theoretically meaning the ships could plug in and switch off. But since 2022, when shore side was installed in Southampton just one in 10 cruise ships have plugged in. That means the people of Southampton are being exposed to #air pollution #emissions multitudes higher than those coming from the all of the surrounding local authority's #cars. This is not helped by the fact that shore #power is twice the price of using #marine #gas #oil. We need to improve #infrastructure, #grid strength and properly charge pollution to ensure that ships are plugging in wherever possible. But the cruise ship industry has instead elected to run their ships on liquiefied natural gas (LNG) a so-called "clean fuel" that emits fewer pollutants and carbon dioxide. But the flipside is, that this is total greenwash. LNG produces methane, a much more potent greenhouse gas than CO2. The UK in 2022 was meant to publish its updated Clean Maritime Plan but it never made an appearance. It still hasn't. The faster it does, the faster we can get a grip on spiralling emissions from the shipping industry - and the sooner those more well off polluters can start paying properly for the damage they are causing. Anna Krajinska Oliver Lord Matt Finch Ralph Palmer Alexander Killeen #climate #climatechange #airpollution #fossilfuels #hydrogen #hydrogenfuel #targets #shipping #shippingindustry #routes #tax #fuelduty #finance #climatefinance #health #cleanair #clean #green https://lnkd.in/eXs4Ay9W

"Whoever coined that phrase [Sustainable Aviation Fuel] at the beginning, it's either a masterclass in marketing or a masterclass in greenwash" - Matt Finch on Times Radio with Alexis Conran. They talked about the Advertising Standards Authority's #greenwashing decision over Virgin Atlantic's 100% sustainable aviation fuel ads. Here Matt outlines that the future of #flying does involve #SAF but also a transition to #battery #planes and zero-emission #fuels as quickly as possible. The ads were banned because SAF still produces significant #emissions and that people that saw the #ad could come away with the impression that the flight was 100% sustainable which is not the case. People will always want to fly - that's not the problem. The problem is that efforts to #decarbonise are being stymied by an industry that would rather #profit and #pollute now, rather than #prosper and #protect the industry and the #planet for the future. Currently airlines pay no #tax on the fuel they burn to power their planes. This effectively means they're not paying for their own pollution. If we made them pay, we could channel those #funds into developing the power-to-liquid fuels of the future and the infrastructure to support their use. Anna Krajinska Oliver Lord Jonathan Hood Ralph Palmer Alexander Killeen Transport & Environment (T&E)

Turns out great #ElectricVehicle reports are like London buses! Two turn up within a few days of each other. Firstly, Onward's Ellie Craven and Ned Hammond published their report "Electric Feel", based on More in Common polling. The good news from their polling is that the majority of British drivers think their next car will be electric or hybrid. But it's not all good news. The polling also revealed some potentially deep potholes: 66% of drivers think fossil cars are better value for money, the same amount think they are more reliable (!!), and just over half think they offer a better driving experience. Obvs driving experience is subjective, but it's hard to argue with dirt cheap running costs and almost no moving parts that can break. Looks like media disinformation has won hands down here. Still, doesn't seem to be a problem if future purchasing intentions are anything to go by. And that's good news for the nation's #EnergySecurity and #CollectiveWallet, as outlined by IPPR's Joshua Emden. Sounds obvious to those in the know, but the far cheaper running costs of EVs will eventually equal billions of pounds left in our bank accounts, instead of the bank accounts of multinational oil companies. And the really good news is that future EV drivers will be buying #British electrons, rather than foreign oil. IPPR's recommendation is simple: speed up the transition, and we'll be better off in the short and long term. Onward's recommendations were how to.... speed up the transition. Both papers should be read by Government, and by you, dear reader. There's some good stuff in both. Reports are here: https://lnkd.in/eyGhFR3z https://lnkd.in/ed93dQ_i Louise Haigh MP Lilian Greenwood Richard Bruce Caroline Low CBE Abdul Chowdhury Bob Moran James Vickery James Court Quentin Willson Abigayle André Neil Lancefield Victoria Seabrook Nicholas Hellen Adam Vaughan Ben Clatworthy Milo Boyd Stephen Frost Maya Singer Hobbs Adam Hawksbee Sebastian Payne

Giving London City Airport permission to expand its passenger numbers is a really worrying signal to see this early on in this government. Ignoring the advice of the Climate Change Committee on not allowing any further #airport #expansion is going to be detrimental to tackling a significant source of emissions in the UK. Because this decision not only impacts London, its residents, and our emissions targets, it could very well be a signal as to how this government takes airport expansion decision in the future. Let's not forget that airports all across the country are trying to expand their operations - Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton, the list goes on. Higher passenger number, higher numbers of #flights, higher numbers of #runways; however these airports plan to achieve this means #emissions from the aviation industry will continue to spiral and spiral. Aviation accounts for 8% of all of the UK's emissions compared to 2.5% globally. Decisions like these will only increase #demand for flights and embed inequitable #polluting behaviours. Did you know that if you have filled up a #car with #fuel in the UK, you've paid more tax on that fuel than the aviation industry ever has? A government that is serious about #climate action, and serious about tackling #transport sector #emissions, cannot afford to encourage the unlimited growth of the aviation industry. The answer is to start making polluters pay. Matt Finch Anna Krajinska Oliver Lord Jonathan Hood Ralph Palmer Alexander Killeen Transport & Environment (T&E) https://lnkd.in/eu3nFECT

It's not just Paris that has this problem! 🚙 🚙 🚙 Last year in the UK, SUV sales increased by more than one fifth. In a single year! 2023 saw SUV break the 1M mark, up 23% from 2022. But sales have been increasing steadily for years. Back in 2021 sales were 50% of all new vehicle registrations; last year that figure rose to 60%. But why does this matter for carbon budgets? Well the majority of SUVs being sold that are wholly or partly powered by fossil fuels make up a whopping 86% of all sales. That means we’re embedding a culture of large, polluting vehicles, a culture that will become self-sustaining. This could imperil carbon budgets because those highly-polluting cars will be staying on our roads for 15 years. SUVs are becoming the dominant presence on our roads. Battery electric SUV sales are up in every size category, even the biggest of SUVs. That’s staggering. Not only for road safety but for smart deployment of critical battery materials and road wear. We need to take action on SUVs before large, luxury vehicles become the norm. That means car companies prioritising smaller, more affordable electric cars, weight-based taxes on the purchase of the heaviest new cars, and a strict vehicle width limit. See our website for more information: https://lnkd.in/gpdxE7Fz Ralph Palmer Anna Krajinska Matt Finch Jonathan Hood Oliver Lord Alexander Killeen Transport & Environment (T&E) #autobesity #suvs #suv #bigcar #cars #transport #evs #electricvehicles #electriccars #batteries #cycling #walking #safety #roadspace #roads #netzero #climatechange #climatecrisis #lithiumbatteries #lithium #lithiumionbatteries #green #greentransport #petrol #diesel #fuel

E-fuels in cars are super inefficient. Travelling the same distance with e-fuels requires more than 3x the amount of energy than direct electrification. Have you seen our 2024 State of Transport? Explore the Energy page for more about how we can move away from a transport system that relies on burning fossil fuels ➡️ https://lnkd.in/e3yze8BD #Transport #Decarbonisation #Efuels #ElectricVehicles