PRESS RELEASE

The Government is required by 30 June 2026 to set the level of climate ambition for 2038 to 2042, a process known as the seventh carbon budget. The Climate Change Committee recommended an 87% cut of Greenhouse Gas Emissions from 1990 levels was needed. That assumed, however, that earlier climate plans would be delivered, which is looking increasingly unlikely. Last June, Transport Action Network (TAN) secured a historic victory in the Court of Appeal against Treasury cuts to active travel funding, revealing new evidence that official targets would be massively off track without shifting funding¹.

With the Labour government yet to publish any long-term transport strategies nearly two years after being elected, TAN says radical ambition is now needed to turn around what has become the biggest source of UK emissions.

Responding to the Environmental Audit Committee’s carbon budget report, Chris Todd, TAN’s director said:

“MP’s are right to say that helping people make greener choices that ‘tangibly improve everyday life’ should become the ‘major national delivery challenge’². Simply focusing on expensive technology like electric vehicles was never going to cut emissions enough nor help those struggling most with the cost of living.

“With the Department for Transport due to publish new plans for cycling and walking as well as roads this month, this will show whether the Government is listening to MPs and experts³. Will it stick to spending on high-carbon low-value infrastructure like outdated road schemes, or invest in communities across the country to create vibrant town centres with high-value pedestrian zones, connected by greenways and safer crossings?”

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Notes to editors:

1. Walking and cycling legal challenge – Transport Action Network. ↩︎
2. Paragraphs 115 to 117 in the inquiry report due to be published at 00:01 this Wednesday 4 March, available at The Seventh Carbon Budget. ↩︎
3. The third Road Investment Strategy (RIS3) and the Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy (CWIS3) are both expected before Easter recess. ↩︎

TAN’s submitted evidence to the Environmental Audit Committee’s inquiry into the 7th carbon budget last year