RHA Calls For Government To Rationalise Decarbonisation Agenda.

The Road Haulage Association (RHA) has called for the UK Government to display coordinated leadership by producing a considered, evidence-based national decarbonisation roadmap that will take account of the needs of both the users and the environment.

The Load Star reports that the RHA has published a paper entitled ‘Eliminate, Minimise, Offset’, that sets out the association’s vision on how the commercial vehicle sector can achieve Net-Zero emissions goals.

The key point of the paper is for added investment into developing vehicle standards to drive down CO2 emissions, to be supported by stable regulation.

The RHA says that politicians have a rain of thought that is an increasingly knee-jerk reaction that demonises road users that some politicians and groups view as being unpopular or polluting.

The implication is that these groups do not have any understanding of how the supply chain operates in practical terms, and have little regards to the needs of the economy and society for goods to be moved.

RHA chief executive Richard Burnett said that both the political ambition and technological potential to reduce CO2 emission in the UK is clear.

“However, sustainable and predictable implementation is less so, and our updated policy paper sets out clear recommendations to steer the next steps. It is unfortunate that, as the UK recovers from the devastating impact of Covid-19, the political debate is currently unbalanced and threatens to alienate any goodwill that exists ‘to do the right thing’,” he commented.

He added that a successful outcome for the environment depends on a healthy, mobile economy that can generate tax revenue that can be invested into lowering emissions, but that a healthy economy also depends on the cost-effective and efficient transportations of people and goods.

The RHA has said that ‘at present, there is no coordinated plan with clear milestones towards achieving [Net Zero]’, and has recommended the following steps:

• Policymakers to provide regulatory certainty to avoid future ‘stranded assets’
• Well-designed standards generated to govern the development of new technology and infrastructure that is phased in sustainably as market supply allows
• Highway authorities to ensure the road space works for all users with the ability to move goods and people efficiently and cost-effectively unimpeded
• Policymakers to avoid regressive impacts or counter-productive outcomes

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