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INTRODUCTION: NET ZERO, AN
EXCUSE FOR DRIVER-BASHING …
Road
pricing is unpopular. In TfL’s under-publicised consultation on it and
ULEZ (2022), a massive 83% of
responses were hostile to road pricing! (Source: p112).
Expanding
ULEZ was ‘justified’ by the ‘climate emergency’, but ironically the
Mayor’s own consultants’ report felt it would make negligible difference.
Yet this
from Transport for London (TfL) set the scene for action:
“…further action will be
needed in the long-term to achieve the necessary levels of traffic and emissions reductions… to meet
net zero carbon targets to tackle the climate emergency. This may require
the introduction of London-wide road user charging by 2030 at the latest, as set out by
an Element Energy analysis of a 2030 net zero target
for London. The analysis notes that all scenarios would benefit from
London-wide road user charging being introduced as early as possible…”.
Even
less-publicised was the assumption
that road pricing would be in place by 2026… this was made in a long and very technical consultation
document known as ‘IIA’ or ‘the Jacobs Report’
The Mayor’s preferred scenario (‘Accelerated Green Pathway’) was
from a strange report from the Element Energy consultancy [2022]. It saw
as ‘necessary’ 27% reductions of our vehicle journeys. For
some reason, the Mayor insists on aiming for the ‘Net Zero’ fantasy world
target by 2030, 20 years ahead of national government.
Time
to look at what ‘Net Zero’ and the wider fervent climate claims really
mean:
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