Decarbonising logistics debated at Conservative Party conference

Chairing the event was William Atkinson, Assistant Editor of Conservative Home, who introduced the three panellists: Transport Minister Baroness Vere, Kate Jennings, Director of Policy, Logistics UK, and Justin Laney, Partner and General Manager at John Lewis.

“Logistics can play a very big role in the decarbonisation agenda because road transport is responsible for more CO2 emissions than any other sector in the UK,” Atkinson said in his introduction, “so if we can get decarbonising logistics right, we’ll be well on our way to achieving net zero.”

VOICE OF CENTRAL GOVERNMENT

Baroness Vere, who after three years as Road Minister, confirmed that her new portfolio of responsibilities within the Department for Transport (DfT) includes aviation and space, said: “This topic is absolutely vital. We know that without logistics the whole world will fall apart. It doesn’t get enough love.”

In the three and a half years that she has been at DfT, Vere said she had witnessed a seismic shift in priorities as both logistics and decarbonisation had shot to the top of the policy agenda. “There has been a massive change in how we look at decarbonising all of the modes,” she said, arguing that when the government published its Transport Decarbonisation Plan in the summer of 2021, it was the first major developed economy to do so.

“The Department is technology agnostic,” she said, “It is not the case that we only look at electric solutions, we will look at hydrogen, whether that be fuel cell or combustion engine. We need to think broadly because what we cannot do is shut down our thinking on this because we’ve got to succeed.”

VOICE OF LOGISTICS

Kate Jennings was also keen to discuss decarbonisation across the whole transport system, as Logistics UK represents operators from all modes of transport, as well as some of the infrastructure providers and buyers and suppliers to the logistics industry.

“I would say on behalf of the sector that there is a strong commitment to decarbonising the industry, to meeting the government’s ambitions on net zero,” she said.

However, she cautioned that to succeed the industry needs to work in partnership with government: “Because government holds a lot of the levers on things like where your infrastructure charging points are going to be, what your strategy is for hydrogen, for buses or rail or road. There are some really big strategic choices to be made there.”

With the cost of doing business rising, Jennings argued that both public and private monies must be invested wisely. Underlining the importance that industry must have certainty that government will remain committed to net zero by 2050, she said it was vital that government and industry make those strategic choices about investment together.

VOICE OF BUSINESS

Justin Laney was the final panellist to introduce himself. A fleet engineer and manager for 37 years, he said the industry had never been more exciting. “There is a true revolution going on within fleets,” he said.

Operating a fleet of 4,500 vehicles, he said the Partnership had a strategy that it would electrify anything that it could electrify, but for the heavier trucks it had been using biomethane for over a decade. “It’s working really well,” Laney said, “We see it as a very important transition fuel to a zero tailpipe. The biomethane trucks each save around 100 tonnes of CO2 a year, so again that’s a very good reason not to wait until we have a full electric solution. They’re also quieter and smoother than diesel trucks.”

The John Lewis Partnership has committed to move away from fossil fuel within its commercial vehicle fleet by 2030 and be a zero carbon company by 2035. “Some quite punchy commitments there,” he said, “and they are not targets, they are properly costed, detailed commitments.”

Laney maintained that there were three parts to the jigsaw to enable this to happen: engineering, the availability of properly sustainable fuel, and the confidence to invest.

“A real challenge facing industry to decarbonise is how do we achieve that confidence in the business case going forward, so that whatever we do to decarbonise still has a positive business case against diesel?”

You can view the fringe event here.

*www.logistics.org.uk/environment

Published On: 13/10/2022 15:50:00

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