Ealing prepares plan to halve transport CO2

Net Zero

The London Borough of Ealing has promised “bold” actions to more than halve carbon dioxide emissions from transport by 2030. 

A draft strategy to achieve net zero status by 2030 projects transport emissions coming down from more than 250,000 tonnes a year today to about 100,000. 

Proposed actions include 20mph speed limits on all roads by next year; investing in electric vehicle charging points so that all residents are within a five-minute walk of a charge point by 2025; a workplace parking levy 2030; and the consideration of road user charging.

Jo Mortensen, Ealing’s sustainability programme manager, told councillors: “The council has committed to treat climate change as a current crisis, where a swift, intensive and substantial response is compulsory, not dissimilar to the council’s treatment of the current Covid-19 crisis. 

“Climate change presents an opportunity for communities to unite behind a common cause and proactively change their behaviours.”

Transport accounts for 28 per cent of borough carbon dioxide emissions and Mortenson said it was likely to prove the “most contentious to engage upon and will require the biggest shift in public behaviour”.

“There is a unique opportunity to consider more radical and progressive approaches to how consumers and business operate and travel around the borough, with the goal of reducing carbon emissions whilst enhancing economic return,” he said. “Achieving these outcomes are not mutually exclusive.”

The draft strategy envisages that overall emissions are cut from about 1,149,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2020 to about 676,000 tonnes in 2030. The council plans to offset the remaining emissions to achieve its net zero status.