PERHAPS unsurprisingly given the subject matter, the way Jersey navigates its agreed (in 2022) Carbon Neutral Roadmap perhaps makes us realise how much control we truly have.
Yesterday, the Environment Minister signalled that he was removing the proposed ban on importing and registering used petrol/diesel vehicles from 2030. His decision was in part based on strong feedback in a consultation process which he said was one of the most responded to they had ever conducted, with some 2,000 people completing the survey alone, as well as others writing in, and attending events.
He is still working through that feedback, particularly in relation to the proposed ban on importing and registering new petrol/diesel vehicles as well.
Stepping back, that ban was intended to be one of the main ways the Island decarbonised its vehicle fleet before 2050, and so addressed its largest single source of emissions. However, the Minister has described “overwhelming support” for changing the planned approach for doing that, leading to used vehicles being removed from the 2030 ban.
As some of his colleagues pointed out, that will now need carefully thought, and wording, to define exactly what is meant by a ‘new’ and a ‘used’ car.
But as well as public feedback; two other factors are in play. The first is affordability, which the Minister called a “just transition for Islanders, ensuring the burden of change does not unnecessarily impact on those worst off.” There are certainly echoes here of points made internationally by those who argue some proposed decarbonisation measures are just too expensive. In this, the Island (in common with other places) will have to decide how much it is willing to pay to help tackle the Climate Emergency declared by the States Assembly in 2018, both as a government in terms of the support provided, but also as individuals in terms of daily expenditure.
Secondly, the Minister pointed out that in his view, Jersey has a similar status to a particular franchise for the UK car market – in a nutshell, the decisions as to what is driven on local roads are in many ways a result of decisions over which we have little (if any) real control. We do not exist in isolation, local vehicles come from the UK – so what the UK, and the industry manufacturers, decide as to the availability there of petrol/diesel vehicles, be they new or used, will largely dictate what happens here too.
Clearly the Roadmap contains many more twists and turns that were originally envisaged, and further choices lie ahead before we see what exactly is allowed, or not, by 2030.
