Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
much less developed than the immediate programme, and this is a recurring problem with
local transport planning - often the strategic issues fail to be tackled at the expense of short-
term crisis management, with the focus on highway maintenance or similar issues such as
'congestion hotspots'.
There are no explicit county-wide or local CO2 emission reduction targets, either cross-
sectorally or for the transport sector. The nearest perhaps was a traffic growth target in LTP2
which seeks to limit the growth in overall traffic levels on Oxfordshire roads. A baseline is
used of 10.9 million vehicle kilometres travelled in 2000; with a target of 'no more than'
12.2 million vehicle kilometres per day travelled in 2010. This equates to an approximate
1 per cent per annum maximum traffic growth target, against a projected 2 per cent per annum
(Oxfordshire County Council, 2000). Although the development of sustainable transport
initiatives has some history over the last decade or so, the development of low CO2 transport
strategies are less well-developed. There is a lack of clarity in strategic direction, insignificant
funding, and little progress in terms of the scale of change in travel behaviours required to
contribute to national CO2 reduction targets. Only ad hoc progress appears possible in recent
years.
Recent historic cross-sectoral CO2 emissions are given for the districts in Oxfordshire in
highest emissions in the county. Cherwell has a total of 11 tCO2 per capita, and 5 tCO2
per capita in transport; 30-45 per cent of emissions are associated with the transport sector
in some districts. Oxford is by far the lowest emitter, with a total of 6.9 tCO2 per capita, and
just 0.9 tCO2 per capita in transport. The differences in emissions, even in a county as small
as Oxfordshire, are thus large, with income levels and accessibility to public transport and
central urban areas playing a large part (Brand and Preston, 2010).
The national UK target of an 80 per cent reduction in emissions by 2050 on 1990 levels
can be applied to Oxfordshire. There are, however, data issues in that 1990 data do not appear
to be readily available for the county. A 60 per cent reduction in emissions by 2030 can be
derived on a 2005 base. This would mean a target for Oxfordshire as below:
•
Total, 2005 = 5,880 ktCO2 (9.4 tonnes CO2 per capita)
•
Transport, 2005 = 1,964 ktCO2 (3.1 tCO2 per capita)
•
Total target, 2030 = 2,352 ktCO2 (~3.8 tCO2 per capita)
•
Transport target, 2030 = 786 ktCO2 (~1.2 tCO2 per capita).
There are important issues here though in terms of target setting: different contexts have
very different baselines and opportunities for changing travel behaviours, hence national targets
will need to be differentially apportioned by area. Urban and rural areas will provide different
possibilities. There is, however, very little analysis below the national levels concerning
appropriate targets to be adopted. No population growth has also been assumed within the
above per capita targets (this could also make the per capita targets more difficult to achieve
depending on how they were conceived). As discussed in the previous chapter, budget
allocations will also encourage early progress to be made in terms of investing in certain
transport options, and progressing more quickly to end state targets.
As a comparison,
Table 4.3
gives similar data for selected local authorities in England, and
again the differences in emissions are very large. The affluent rural areas (Berkshire,
