Draft Renewable Transport Fuel Obligations (Amendment) Order 2021

Mike Kane Excerpts

Monday 29th November 2021 General Committees

[Mike Kane (Wythenshawe and Sale East) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stringer. In 35 years of knowing you, that is the first time I have referred to you as Mr Stringer. I have referred to you as many other things during that 35 years, but they may not be for the public record.

I put on record that the Chairman and I were together on Thursday night to mark the retirement after 25 years of Councillor Sir Richard Leese, the leader of Manchester City Council, but it must be remembered that Manchester’s renaissance, which gained pace under Sir Richard, was started by the Chairman when he was leader of Manchester City Council for 12 years.

[The Chair]

You are drifting out of order.

[Mike Kane]

That marks nearly 40 years of continuous leadership by two politicians. I am eternally grateful to the Chairman for taking me under his wing as a very young councillor in the great city of Manchester. Okay, I have embarrassed you enough, Mr Stringer.

The statutory instrument amends the renewable transport fuel obligations order 2007, as the Minister rightly said, and will help further to increase carbon savings by increasing renewable fuel targets and expanding the renewable transport fuel obligations to sectors with limited alternatives to decarbonise, such as maritime.

While we welcome the SI, it does not go far enough. We need to be doing much more radical things if we are to decarbonise the transport sector. The covid-19 pandemic has dominated headlines, but we cannot forget that we are still in a climate emergency and that green, efficient transport is the future. As transport is now the largest contributing sector to UK emissions, it is worth reinforcing the need to reinvest in our communities and offer true levelling up across the regions. We needed a radical plan to decarbonise and get polluting vehicles off our streets, but what did we get in the autumn spending review? A cut to air passenger duty for domestic flights, a devasting announcement on HS2 and the abandonment of most of Northern Powerhouse Rail. That will not take 1.5 million cars off our northern roads any time soon.

The UK hydrogen strategy, which the Minister mentioned, identifies transport as the key early market for hydrogen in the 2020s. While the new policy plans outline long-term frameworks for business models, these will not come into effect until 2024-25. The Government’s offering ranges from absolutely zero to nowhere near enough, and every shade of not much in between. The Government’s unambitious approach to something that we all know and agree is vital to our future should be a major concern for us all.

Internationally, Governments are investing billions in alternative fuel markets. For example, Germany has invested €9 billion in its hydrogen markets and France has invested €7 billion, whereas our Government are under-investing and hoping to stimulate private investment through smaller targeted funds. If the UK were to invest properly in research, technology and infrastructure, we could truly become world-leading in this technology. For instance, Hamburg port alone is investing £100 million in decarbonising itself. The Government here have announced a fund for £20 million for the whole country for a competition. It really is not good enough.

There are a couple of areas where the Government have not gone far enough and are examples of why we are struggling to offer support. The Government have announced that they will ban the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles in 2030—a policy with which we agree, as it was our policy too. However, there is no commitment to phase out the sale of second-hand vehicles. Another example of something for which the Opposition have been calling for some time is the formal inclusion of international aviation and shipping emissions in future carbon budgets; however, we still need to see detailed, specific plans on how those sectors will be decarbonised. As I said, all the efforts are being undermined by plans to cut air passenger duty on domestic flights.

You and I, Mr Stringer, represent a city that started the industrial revolution and saw the beginning of the mass extraction of fossil fuels to fund a new world order. It would be great if we could have a commitment from Government that our regions and great cities in the north will not only decarbonise but grow wealth and jobs in those regions, and lead the world in reversing what we started.