The Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership (LowCVP) is launching a renewed strategy for carbon reduction from road transport in celebration of 10-years leading the shift to greener cars, buses, trucks and vans and the fuels which drive them.

Domestic transport contributes nearly a quarter of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions.

To meet the Government’s target of an 80% cut in emissions by 2050, domestic transport must substantially reduce its output over the next decade.

The LowCVP’s managing director Andy Eastlake said: “The introduction of new transport fuels like electricity and biofuels means that we will no longer be able to rely solely on measures of emissions at the vehicle tailpipe to assess our true progress in tackling climate change.

“In the long term we aim to establish systems which will allow us to monitor progress on a full life-cycle basis, including emissions derived from the production, distribution and disposal of both fuels and vehicles.

“But over the next decade the use phase will remain dominant; the LowCVP will drive the focus towards better understanding of these impacts.”

The LowCVP has significant experience in this area having developed carbon and sustainability standards for biofuels which were adopted by the Government to help monitor the impacts of the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation, as well as defining beyond tailpipe standards for the DfT’s Green Bus Fund.

The LowCVP chairman, Professor Neville Jackson, said: “The LowCVP has a record of producing policy advice based on comprehensive data and sound science.

“The Partnership aims to ensure that future policy is based on the best available evidence and that targets set for climate change mitigation are accurate, appropriate and achievable.”

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