Even though Motorbiscuit is an enthusiast site first, you need to be tight with your friends and tighter with your enemies; so we present this as a public service and not an endorsement. The UK wants to ban ALL private vehicles by 2050 to meet Britain’s carbon-neutral goal. 

We don’t mean just combustion engine vehicles. They want to eliminate ALL private vehicles, be they trucks, cars, or EVs. Everything. The recommendation comes from a bi-partisan group called the Science and Technology Select Committee. The committee is also recommending moving the timeline for removing combustion-powered vehicles and hybrids to 2035 from its current target year of 2040.

Why EVs Too?

The report includes EVs because, though they do not pollute per se, the plants that manufacture the cars and components that go into EVs are polluting to some extent. It says, “Although ultra-low emissions vehicles generate very little emissions during use, their manufacture generates substantial emissions.”

Though these are only recommendations and are not mandated by law, they hold a lot of weight within the UK. Not to scare you further but the report continues, “In the long-term widespread personal vehicle ownership, therefore, does not appear to be compatible with the significant decarbonization. The Government should not aim to achieve emissions reductions simply by replacing existing vehicles with lower-emissions versions.”

Still More Recommendations

The committee is also asking for fuel duties to be increased rather than train fares. Fuel taxes have been frozen for nine years while bus and train fares have steadily risen. 

The British government has not announced its conclusions to a 2017 study and recommendations for how to build a market for those able to pay for energy efficiency improvements.

The Government has no plan for decarbonizing the heating of millions of homes and commercial buildings in the UK. 

These are just some of the recommendations the committee sees necessary for the UK to transform itself for a painful reduction in carbon generation to meet ambitious goals for achieving carbon-neutral status.

The committee was formed after Parliament declared a climate emergency. Upon review, the committee saw that the government had ambitious goals but did nothing in the way of incentives to achieve those goals. They called out the government for cutting back on some programs aimed at reducing carbon emissions, while legally binding the UK to looming carbon targets.

“We need to see the Government put its words into actions,” the report says. “The worrying effects of climate change such as heatwaves, wildfires, and flooding are already occurring at an alarming rate and will have a huge impact on future generations.”

World On Notice

The report in many ways puts the entire world on notice that the committee is serious about what it takes to get to the mandated 2050 carbon levels. If other countries adopt the UK report then we could be facing an almost global ban on all private vehicles by the middle of this century.

What the world might look like, much less what it does for enthusiasts like ourselves, is something no one can even imagine at this time in 2019.