SC(3) CR-T5
Sustainability Committee
Inquiry into Carbon Reduction in Wales: Carbon Reduction by Transport
Response from Countryside Council for Wales
Transport Emissions
Question 4
'Do the current transport policies of the Welsh Assembly Government give sufficient emphasis to carbon reduction?’
Looking at the WAG’s transport policies it is clear that while they do mention the need to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, it cannot be said that they place emphasise on this as a policy priority. This could stem from the fact that some of the guidance relating to current plans, such as that for Local Transport Plans dates from 1999, and so has not been updated in recent years to reflect the higher priority climate change has received more recently.
This also applies to the Transport Framework for Wales, 2001, which only picks up climate change as one of nine issues local authorities are required to consider under the Road Traffic Reduction Acts. Mention is also made of climate change in an annex to the Transport Framework where it is stated that Climate Change Wales - Learning to live differently, 2001, sets out how the Assembly is contributing to UK targets on different sectors, including transport. However Climate Change Wales merely states that local authorities, through Local Transport Plans, should 'take forward action on climate change’. It does not set out any specific guidance, nor was the LTP guidance or LTPs updated to reflect this higher priority.
The replacements for the Transport Framework and the LTP guidance, the Transport Strategy and Regional Transport Plan Guidance, do reflect the higher priority given to climate change, but still lack any targets or framework for reducing CO2 emissions. The Regional Transport Plan Guidance, 2007, states that such plans need to bear in mind that issues like climate change will be more important in the future, but the guidance does not prioritise the issue in current plans, nor does it set out guidance on steps to consider reducing emissions.
The Wales Transport Strategy has as one of its objectives to 'work to ensure that transport plays its part in reducing greenhouse gas emissions’, page 35. However this is only one of 27 optional 'measures’ set out at the end of Chapter 4 and plan makers are free to ignore this if they feel it is not relevant to their plan.
What is needed is a climate change strategy to set the context and targets for sectors such as energy and transport. The WAG draft climate change plan, 'Responding to our changing climate’, was, however, prepared after the Transport Strategy and so could not direct its content with regard to carbon reduction. Responding to our changing climate states that the Wales Transport Strategy requires transport plans and projects to consider the impact of climate change. However as stated above, this is not the case, as consideration of carbon emissions is optional, it being left to the plan maker to decide which measures are relevant in to their plan.
Responding to our changing climate is limited to considering adaptation matters, rather than measures to mitigate climate change, this explains why no further mention is made of the transport sector's role in reducing emissions (a mitigation issue). However, since transport is responsible for a quarter of UK CO2 emissions and is the fastest growing source, this only points to the need for WAG to extend the climate change adaptation plan to cover mitigation as well. Adaptation and mitigation need to be considered together. Measures taken to reduce emissions through shifting emphasis to public transport, for example, will lead to a consideration of the adaptation demands faced by public transport infrastructure, often located in flood-prone areas of coast and river floodplains.
The WAG commitment to achieve annual carbon reductions, with specific targets for transport, is to be welcomed as a starting point in strengthening WAG policy. This target needs to inform a new climate change strategy, covering both adaptation and mitigation measures, which should in turn set the context for new energy and transport strategies. Transport policy needs to be set within a strategic framework for climate change, with targets and guidelines on measures to achieve them. The current policy documents, and those in draft, flag up climate change as an issue, but lack a framework and targets for action. Policies and action on energy, transport or climate change will remain limited if prepared in isolation from each other and out of sequence.
Countryside Council for Wales
Nov. 2007
