Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to ensure the environmental sustainability of all aspects of the High Speed Two project.

Environmental sustainability is embodied in HS2’s strategic goals. All phases of the railway have environmental minimum requirements (EMRs) which set out the government’s high level environmental and sustainability commitments across all aspects of the project. HS2 is critical for the UK’s low carbon transport future; providing a low carbon alternative to road and air travel. HS2 will run highly energy efficient electric trains powered by a grid increasingly using zero carbon sources. As the grid moves to supplying 100% zero carbon energy, journeys on HS2 will also move to zero carbon.