New London Architecture

Decarbonising Transport post COVID-19

Thursday 09 April 2020

As we approach the long weekend, the conventional Easter vacation or indeed trip to see distant family or friends will, through necessity, be postponed. However, the travel impacts of COVID-19 may well be seen beyond the pandemic we currently face.

In this context, the DfT’s recent “Decarbonising Transport - Setting the Challenge” document, outlining the Government ambition to “achieve 'net zero' greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050” and to develop a plan and associated policies seems particularly apt. According to the document, in 2016, transport became the largest emitting sector (at 28%) of GHG emissions. Whilst it is a reasonably well-rounded summation of where we currently are and what is currently planned, the document also acknowledges we will need to go further than the existing plans it describes. 

The most obvious response to reducing transport emissions is to travel less. In our current circumstances this is being forced upon us but is also leading many to question whether this will lead to longer term behavioural change, enhancing our sense of both local and global community and ultimately improving urban air quality. Changing attitudes to working from home, flexible hours and significantly reduced unnecessary travel, could be some of the positive outcomes from our current unprecedented situation. On this last point, the Stanford University Department of Earth System Science provides some real perspective:

“Air pollution kills about 1.1 million people in China alone every year. The fall in pollution during the country’s lockdown in January and February likely saved 20 times more lives in China then have currently been lost due to Coronavirus in that country”.

With COVID-19 forcing much behavioural change upon us, now may be the best time to think about actions beyond the DfT’s document, moving away from siloed thinking to a more integrated approach to policy. 

As head of our Weston Williamson + Partners IF_Lab (Innovation & Foresight Laboratory), I direct our team exploring exactly this over three interrelated threads: 1) how we inhabit, 2) how we build and 3) how we move in and between our cities. Our mission statement in creating what we term ‘Civilised Cities’ is dependent on the interaction of all three facets. Given the focus of this Government document on how we move and with the emerging impact of COVID-19 on how we inhabit, we have an unprecedented opportunity to think about how we build both our infrastructure and our cities.

Recent changes such as the devolution of Network Rail into a geographic structure could encourage a shift from delivering individual capital projects to thinking holistically about regional and national enhancements. Furthermore, the recent court ruling rejecting expansion at Heathrow emphasises the need to consider the wider implications of transport infrastructure. Perhaps here the Government’s recently established National Infrastructure Commission could help lead a true multi-modal joined-up approach yielding tangible benefits beyond what any individual transport project could achieve in isolation.

Let’s use this time to reimagine what a truly resilient and eco-smart global city could be as well as how regional, national and global transport infrastructure must evolve. 

Transport & Infrastructure

#NLAInfrastructure


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