Global carbon dioxide emissions have experienced the sharpest drop in carbon output since records began after Covid-19 lockdowns were imposed around the world, research has shown1. Daily global CO2 emissions decreased by 17 per cent by early April, compared with the mean 2019 levels, just under half from changes in surface transport. Whilst it will be challenging to match these low emissions as economies reopen, many people are calling for a new way of doing things rather than going back to business as usual.
At Sharpness Vale, we have continued our innovative approach to meeting travel needs by actively examining what this new normal could look like. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, we were already planning to make a place that is ready for climate change effects and environmental change. We wholeheartedly support Stroud District Council in its target for the whole district to be carbon neutral by 2030.
Transport is the largest contributor to UK domestic greenhouse gas emissions, contributing 28 per cent of UK domestic emissions in 2018. Our approach to transport at Sharpness Vale is ambitious and forward-thinking – we’re aiming for an exemplar for sustainable transport. Our proposals include the re-opening of the Sharpness branch rail line; bespoke, demand responsive coach and bus services; and purpose-built routes through the site that allow cycling, walking, and every kind of emerging mode of personal transport too.
We are planning for what we want to happen, rather than what we fear may happen, and this means redressing the balance between public transport and the car, emphasising and prioritising investment in the former, and reducing expenditure on the latter. This reverses the trends of the last forty years. At the same time, we recognize that some will have concerns about whether the new community at Sharpness Vale will generate traffic congestion. We will work with the highway authorities to make sure that the network works for everyone in the future, and do what is necessary to ensure this.
But expectations are already changing—younger people have very different aspirations to those of previous generations. Emerging trends suggest that they will want to work much more closely to where they live, that they will value their time differently, and will tune their lives to make day-to-day travel easier.
At Sharpness Vale, we want to plan a place on the basis of discernible future trends. Much of our transport approach was already in harmony with recent announcements on Government policy. It has committed to significant investment in public transport— rail in particular. Government has pledged £1 billion per annum over five years to modernise buses in the country. In February, it earmarked £1bn for safe cycling and walking routes in the next five years.
The Government presented a fresh approach to tackling carbon emissions in the UK in the March publication ‘Decarbonising Transport’ which is the first step to developing the policy proposals required and a coordinated plan. In the foreword to this document, Grant Shapps, Transport Secretary, wrote: “Public transport and active travel will be the natural first choice for our daily activities. We will use our cars less and be able to rely on a convenient, cost-effective and coherent public transport network.”
The coronavirus crisis has focussed minds further on transport and its effects on climate change and air quality. We will shortly be publishing our ‘Transport Approach’ paper on the website and look forward to hearing what you think.
Tim Allen, Director,
Stantec
1 The research was published in the journal Nature Climate Change https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-020-0797-x It conducted by scientists from the University of East Anglia, Stanford University in the US, the Cicero Centre in Norway, and scientists in the Netherlands, Australia, France and Germany.