The UK has just accelerated a plan to ban all non-zero-emissions vehicles by 2035. The move is 5 years earlier than what was previously announced and is part of a plan for the UK to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
This new timeline was announced by Prime Minister Boris Johnson ahead of the COP26 climate summit.
The ban will include all hybrid vehicles as well. This will leave only electric or hydrogen vehicles available for purchase.
Mike Childs from Friends of the Earth said the government was “right” to move the ban forward, but 2030 would be better than 2035. He also called for the government to show “real leadership” ahead of COP26 and reverse plans to develop “climate-wrecking roads and runways,” and continued:
A new 2035 target will still leave the UK in the slow-lane of the electric car revolution and meantime allow more greenhouse gases to spew into the atmosphere.
Johnson spoke at the Science Museum and said a “catastrophic period of global addiction” to hydrocarbons has led us to be “swaddled in a tea cozy” of carbon dioxide.
These comments led to Caroline Lucas, a Green Party MP taking to twitter with a response: “Carbon emissions are not ‘swaddling the planet like a tea cozy.’ They are behind wildfires in Australia, soaring temperature records and the broken lives of those least responsible. The PM needs to understand that – and act.”
However, many people, including Mike Hawes, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) boss, were very critical of the move. He said the government just “seemingly moved the goalposts” without having a clear plan on how to achieve it.
Hawes went on to say: “With [the] current demand for this still expensive technology still just a fraction of sales, it’s clear that accelerating an already very challenging ambition will take more than industry investment.”
Claire O’Neill is the former Energy Minister who was just fired last week. She did not agree with how Johnson and the UK are handling the climate crisis saying they are “miles off track.”
She goes on to say her “absolute desire for action has not been comfortable for some,” and that this was “not about me” or Mr. Johnson, but about working towards “rapid decarbonization.”
Mrs. O’Neill urged that at COP26 the UK must “absolutely double down on taking our great leadership and ambitions in this space, and really energizing the world as to why this is a huge opportunity.”
Whether or not people agree with how these things are being done is one thing, the greater underlying issue is that they need to be done. Humanity has been foolishly using fossil fuels for far too long without caring about the consequences and the destruction that it caused on our environment. A good start looks like a ban on all non-zero emissions vehicles.
I agree with Mike Childs from Friends of the Earth. Moving this date up to 2035 may be slightly better than 2040, but why wait until then? It would be better to inconvenience people and make the changes as soon as possible around the world so that we all still have a world to live in. Why wait even 15 years?
