Environment Food and Rural Affairs written question – answered at on 6 May 2004.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what proportion of the 20 per cent. cut in carbon dioxide emissions by 2010 she expects to be achieved through reductions in carbon dioxide emissions from the transport sector.
The UK Climate Change Programme, published in November 2000, seeks to reduce emissions from all sectors of the economy. The Programme was intended to be flexible and cost effective and did not set targets for individual sectors.
UK carbon dioxide emissions were around 165 million tonnes of carbon (MtC) in 1990. Reducing emissions by 20 per cent. will correspond to a reduction of around 33 MtC by 2010.
Policies in the Climate Change Programme to reduce emissions from transport include the EU voluntary agreements on carbon dioxide emissions from cars, backed up by changes to company car taxation and vehicle excise duty; the 10 year plan for transport and; sustainable distribution in Scotland and Wales. At the time the Programme was published, it was estimated that these policies could reduce transport emissions by a total of 5.7 MtC below the projected business as usual emissions for 2010 which would have reduced the projected increase in emissions from transport to around 2.5 per cent. above 1990 levels by 2010.
The Government are committed to reviewing the Climate Change Programme later this year, including the measures introduced to reduce transport emissions. The implications of the rolled forward strategy for transport, which the Government expects to publish in the summer after the conclusion of the spending review, will also feed into this review. The Department for Transport is currently consulting stakeholders on the UK's targets for the use of transport biofuels under the Biofuels Directive. Achieving 5 per cent. use of biofuels today would save around £1 million tonnes of carbon per annum—around three per cent. of overall road transport carbon dioxide emissions. To date indications are that the transport sector is not currently on course to deliver the level of carbon savings estimated in the UK Climate Change Programme. Details of this were outlined in the 10 Year Plan Progress Report.
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