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DfT’s commitment to decarbonisation is unwavering, senior official tells delegates
It was a packed room and packed agenda at the Delivering Decarbonisation conference in London, earlier this week (22 November 2022), as senior leaders from across the industry gathered to discuss one of the most pressing issues facing the sector.
Having welcomed delegates, chair Kate Jennings, Logistics UK’s Director of Policy, introduced the keynote speaker, Bob Moran, who is currently Deputy Director – Decarbonisation Strategy at the Department for Transport (DfT).
The title of the conference – Delivering Decarbonisation – cut straight to the chase, Moran said.
“It’s all part of the commitment to decarbonise the UK economy and to achieve net zero by 2050,” he said, “because it’s unwavering across the UK government, it’s unwavering across UK ministers, it’s unwavering across the Department for Transport. We know we can do this, but I think even more importantly we know we must.”
On the new Prime Minister’s recent speech at COP-27 in Egypt, Moran said that he had underlined the point that climate change is not something that is happening in a distant future which we may not be a part of, it is happening right now.
Ending our reliance on fossil fuels is no longer just about reducing carbon emissions, it is now front and centre of our energy security, Moran argued, and therefore a reason to go quicker on this, because this is where the new jobs and growth will be.
“It’s why the UK needs to be in the vanguard of this change, not just because we can, not just because we’re a strong economy, but because we’re competing for global investments,” he said, “The whole world is turning in this direction.”
The remainder of the conference consisted of lively panel debates by industry experts discussing a range of issues, including net zero infrastructure, multimodal matters, transitioning HGV fleets, non-net zero technology, SMEs and last mile.
There was also an intriguing joint keynote speech by bankers Andrew New and Myles McCarthy from Close Brothers Group on a part of the decarbonisation puzzle that often only receives scant attention – how the transition can be financed.
*www.logistics.org.uk/environment
Published On: 24/11/2022 16:00:54
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