Call to bring forward UK total ban on petrol and diesel cars

The UK is committed to a total ban on the sale of all petrol and diesel cars by 2040, but, in its annual progress report to Parliament, the Committee on Climate Change has suggested that this is too late and should be imposed a decade earlier, in 2030.

Lord Deben, chairman of the Committee, is quoted in the press as saying that the current target is not ambitious enough and “it will be necessary to ensure that the cleaner cars come forward more quickly instead of being held back, while dirtier cars are sold by the industry.”

Lord Deben criticised the car industry, saying “it does not have a track record for straightforwardness” and he urged ministers to ensure that the industry does not try to avoid regulations on making cars cleaner.

In the UK, CO2 emissions fell last year by three per cent and emissions over the past decade have fallen by 43 per cent. During the same period, the UK economy grew by 70 per cent. While these figures are a step in the right direction, these reductions were achieved almost entirely by the power sector, said the Committee’s report, and they masked the “marked failure” to cut emissions from areas such as buildings, agriculture and transport.