In the final of our Countdown to COP26 series, we’re looking at the UK’s newly published Net-Zero Strategy, which sets out for the first time how the UK Government plans to deliver on its commitment to decarbonise the UK by 2050.

This Strategy was published just last week, in the final stages of preparation for the landmark UN COP26 summit starting on Sunday in Glasgow. At the summit, the Prime Minister will be calling on other world economies to set out their own domestic plans for cutting emissions and ensure that this year's COP is a “turning point for humanity”. But will our own Net-Zero Strategy measure up? 

In this blog, HIba Alaraj takes a closer look at what the Strategy says about decarbonising transport and heating, and identifies some of the questions that, for us at DG Cities, remain unanswered. 

The UK recently published its strategy for achieving net-zero by 2050. The strategy highlights targets and ambitions for a variety of sectors and activities within the UK, including transport & heating.  

Transport greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the UK account for 27% of total GHG emissions. These are mainly generated by car travel. In response to this, the UK’s net-zero strategy will ban the sale of fossil fuel vans and cars by 2030 to reduce emissions by a minimum of 65% and and accelerate the transition to electric forms of transport. 

The ban itself is a positive step forward, however, vehicle electrification is challenging and for electric transport to be fully enabled, a number of other elements need to be put in place, in particular electric vehicle charging infrastructure. 

Currently, just 1% of all vehicles on UK roads are electric. With fossil-fuel-powered vehicles being phased out, this number needs to scale rapidly! The Net-Zero Strategy includes commitments to use £350m to build a competitive zero-emission vehicle supply chain and “ensure the UK automotive industry is at the forefront of the transition” - and a further £620m to sustain the rollout of charging infrastructure, focusing specifically on residential on-street charging and targeted plug-in grants. This will add to the £1.3bn pledged in November 2020 for charging infrastructure.

Here at DG Cities, we are fully supportive  of these commitments and investments. Up until now, local authorities using government funding have supported charge point installations through various means, with some regional models, such as the Source London network, also being established. But with the massive increase in scale that is necessary, what will delivery models look like going forward - and what role should local authorities be taking in that delivery?  

There are particular challenges that need to be solved in rural areas, such as the ability of the electricity distribution network to support new charge points. So how should the local authority’s role vary to take into account these types of challenges? These are questions that we are actively thinking about and working with councils to answer, so that we can help them to plan for the future.

But we need to remember that the lowest emitting journeys are those that are not done by private vehicle, whether it’s electric or otherwise. And as individuals, we can also help to reduce transport emissions with our daily commutes by choosing to walk or cycle, or for longer journeys, by choosing public transport.  

The net-zero strategy also sets targets for decarbonising heating, which accounts for a large portion of the UK’s emissions. For instance, housing GHG emissions account for 15% of the UK’s total GHG emissions, and this is mainly from heating and cooking. To reduce these emissions, the UK will ban the sale of gas boilers by 2035, and will instead encourage the installation of low carbon heating systems such as heat pumps in both homes and workplaces. The government aims to install 600,000 heat pumps a year by 2028, in an effort to meet its net-zero commitments. But a major barrier to this target is the upfront cost of heat pumps. To mitigate this, the government will offer a £5,000 or £6,000 grant for households to upgrade their existing gas boilers with air or ground source heat pumps respectively. But this will only go part of the way towards the cost, and of course with ground source in particular,  there are other major operational barriers to consider. 

Another major issue is that the budget allocated to this scheme will only finance approximately  90,000 heat pumps in total. The gap between that number and 600,000 is substantial. To meet the target of installing 600,000 heat pumps per year, we need to urgently fund ways to lower the cost of installation for homeowners and we need a larger pool of money to ensure that a greater number of households are able to bridge that funding gap between gas and renewables. 

To ultimately reduce heating emissions within the private and public sectors, it’s crucial that we also ensure that buildings are properly insulated, and with a large proportion of the UK’s building stock being of solid wall construction and requiring more expensive external insulation, again, proper financial and technical support will be crucial.

Overcoming these barriers and filling in the policy gaps will be crucial to the delivery of the strategy and ensuring that the UK stays on target to meet its obligations. 

With COP26 just around the corner, there’s mounting pressure on global world leaders, including the UK, to present climate action plans that are clearly defined and impactful. Here at DG Cities, we will be keeping a close eye on the Net-Zero Strategy and, as ever, will be thinking of what we an organisation can do.