On 24 June 2019, the House of Commons unanimously passed an amendment to the Climate Change Act that committed the UK to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Previously, the target had been 80 per cent of UK’s 1990 emissions. This followed the report by the Committee for Climate Change (CCC) (issue 177, Aug/Sept 2019), which showed that net-zero carbon by 2050 was an achievable, though highly demanding, target.
The CCC report was published shortly before the rail industry decarbonisation taskforce finalised its report in July 2019. This was initiated in February 2018 following Rail Minister Jo Johnston’s call for the rail industry to remove all diesel-only trains by 2040, leaving only diesel bi-mode trains. The final taskforce report concluded that diesel bi-mode trains could not be part of a permanent solution if the requirement is now to be net-zero. Yet the report noted that, until 2050, bi-mode trains will have a useful transitional role.
The decarbonisation report concluded that achieving net zero would require a mix of electrification, hydrogen and battery trains. It considered that achieving net zero may require 4,250 route kilometres of electrification and noted that “electric traction, where the line is sufficiently intensively used, provides the lowest whole-life carbon impact, and delivers services that are faster, more reliable, quieter and less polluting than diesel traction”. However, on less intensively used lines, the report concluded that electrification may not justify the investment cost.
“Getting Electrification done”
Has anyone asked Chris Grayling for an opinion on this?
😂