Beware of electric vehicles

I read with interest Councillor

Murray’s column on decarbonising travel as a part of addressing the climate emergency. Travel is the area where the Council can influence residents’ carbon dioxide emissions the most, and where this influence can also reap the biggest related benefits in terms of congestion, air quality and health and wellbeing.

We need to be wary of overreliance on electric vehicles. EVs deliver none of the related benefits and their lifecycle carbon dioxide emissions including the cost of manufacture are surprisingly high, pulling ahead of internal combustion powered vehicles only after around 45,000 miles of use.

As with all aspects of the climate emergency, reducing demand has the potential to make the greatest contribution, and it is good to see this mentioned. Every part of the Council needs to get behind this, as development and school admissions policies – rather than transport planning play the largest part.

For the local journeys which remain, walking and cycling must play a major role. Our existing, roughly one metre per resident, cycleways, greenways and public rights of way doesn’t particularly feel like something to celebrate.

Cllr Murray’s climate emergency plan relies on more than five times the levels of cycling and 2.5 times the level of miles walked by 2030 and expects 40% fewer car miles, yet the vast majority of Council spend on travel is currently directed towards making it easier to drive, which will have the opposite effect.

We have started the decarbonisation journey, but we need to change how we are travelling.