Highways England has announced what it calls its ambitious new carbon plan that aims to rapidly cut carbon from road construction, maintenance and operations, and support the transition to zero emission vehicles.
The Government company says it is taking “immediate and sustained action” towards decarbonising England’s motorways and A-roads, so they can “continue to bring significant benefits to motorists, communities and businesses in a net-zero future”.
To achieve net zero, Highways England says it is taking action by the following dates:
2025: Highways England has made a Greening Government Commitment to reduce its own carbon emissions by 75% compared with the 2017/18 baseline
2030: Highways England will be net-zero for its own carbon emissions. This includes switching to LED lighting, changing its vehicle fleet to electric and planting up to 3 million additional trees
2040: All construction and maintenance activities carried out on the Strategic Road Network will be net-zero
2050: All vehicles on its network will be net-zero. To support that it says it taking action in this
Road Period (2020-2025):
- to provide charging infrastructure on the network and create a blueprint of on-road services for electric vehicles
- to train Traffic Officers to meet the needs of electric vehicles in incident recovery
- to support modal shift and integration of modes
- to act as an expert advisor and assessor for Government’s trials of emerging zero-carbon HGV technologies.
Highways England says this plan supports the UK Government’s Transport Decarbonisation Plan and the Paris Agreement. It also meets the challenge of international organisations based on scientific targets and supports the need to build back greener following COVID-19.
You can read the full net zero plan here.
(Picture – Highways England)
