infrastructure report
Decarbonising transport Northern Ireland’s Regional Transport Strategy is outdated and must be replaced by a green transport policy which reflects the aim of a carbon neutral transport system, a Stormont inquiry to explore the future pathway to decarbonising road transport in Northern Ireland has suggested.
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Transport is Northern Ireland’s second highest greenhouse gas emitting sector, estimated to represent around 20 per cent of emissions, behind agriculture’s 26 per cent. However, unlike the other high emitting sectors of agriculture and energy generation, which continue to decrease emissions since 1990 baseline figures, transport emissions continue to grow and are up an estimated 21.5 per cent since 1990. Unsurprisingly, the majority of emissions in transport are from petrol and diesel in road transport.
In response to the UK’s proposals, the Northern Ireland Assembly’s Infrastructure Committee launched an inquiry into decarbonising Northern Ireland’s road transport, a report on which was subsequently published in November 2021.
In June 2019, the UK passed the Climate Change Act introducing a net zero target by 2050 and this was subsequently followed by Transport Decarbonisation Plan (TDP) in July 2021, with a heavy focus on road transport. Prior to the TDP, the UK Government had already committed to end the sale of petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2030 but the plan added to this by proposing to phase out the sale of new diesel and petrol heavy goods vehicles by 2040.
In 2015, a report by the Northern Ireland Audit Office assessing the Regional Transportation Strategy (2002) concluded that a desired modal shift had not been achieved, recommending higher levels of investment and innovation. While recent years have seen a reduction in the gap between expenditure in public transport and active travel narrowed, evidence to the committee’s inquiry suggests that short-term targeted investment on the existing network, enhancements to active travel
Critical to tackling emissions in transport in Northern Ireland is addressing Northern Ireland’s car dependency. Between 2017 to 2019, over 70 per cent of all journeys were taken by car, a car dependency legacy which has spanned over 20 years.
