Partnership approach vital to help fleets deliver net zero

Bringing together multiple industry stakeholders is crucial to the UK delivering transport net zero.

Zemo Partnership policy and operations director Jonathan Murray told delegates at a Fleet200 Strategy Network meeting in Leeds that it was important small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) get the help they need to electrify their fleets.

“Larger fleets have the expertise,” he said, “but we also have SMEs who will be critical to making sure we deliver this, and they are also important to the second life of the vehicle.”

In the same week as the Fleet200 event in Leeds in December, Zemo Partnership published a roadmap setting out the policies required to deliver net zero transport and transform UK industry.

Its Delivery Roadmap for Net Zero Transport in the UK highlights the areas where policy interventions are most urgently needed. 

These include measures to accelerate the rollout of electric vehicles (EVs) by working with the private sector to identify how many and what types of chargers are needed and where, while ensuring fairness in VAT rates for charging.   

It also calls for a package of measures to boost production and demand for low carbon fuels to decarbonise the existing fleet, and to encourage low carbon travel choices by providing greater support and information on walking, cycling, public transport, car clubs and lift sharing.  

The seven principles are:

1. Act swiftly: net zero presents huge opportunities but the UK is falling behind other economies.

2. Take a multi-path approach to decarbonising transport: replacing the entire UK car parc with zero emission vehicles will take decades; understand the role that sustainable carbon reduction fuels can play on that journey.

3. Provide a stable policy environment: moving deadlines (such as the 2030 ICE ban changing to 2035 - and now likely to revert to the original date) creates confusion.

4. Apply net zero solutions across the whole UK economy: planning, energy, grid, transport all need to be involved in the discussion.

5. Deliver at national, regional and local level: plan on an integrated long-term basis.

6. Ensure a fair and just transition: too many people are being left behind due to the high upfront price of electric vehicles and access to charging infrastructure. Government needs to recognise this and provide support.

7. Take people with us: Eight out of 10 people are concerned about climate change but that doesn’t mean they support net zero. This needs to be presented as offering a cleaner, safer, fairer transport system for all. 

The Zemo Partnership was previously called The Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership (LowCVP) until a name change in 2021. At the time, it said that changing its name was a “direct and powerful” demonstration that the world has changed and that the climate emergency means that ‘low’ is no longer enough.

Zemo Partnership, as the LowCVP, was established in 2003 as a public-private partnership working to accelerate a sustainable shift to lower carbon vehicles and fuels and create opportunities for UK businesses.