UK sets out new emissions reduction targets

The UK has set out higher targets in its latest transport decarbonisation plan published today.

Measures are aimed at accelerating maritime and aviation decarbonisation and at expanding the scope of the Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation (RTFO), which sets an annual obligation on fuel suppliers to supply a certain share of renewable fuels.

Following a consultation, the government will increase the RTFO renewable fuels blending obligation by five percentage points to 14.6pc by volume by 2032. And its scope will be extended to support renewable fuels of non-biological origins used in shipping, rail and non-road mobile machinery. Recycled carbon fuels (RCFs) produced from reused derived fuel and from waste industrial gases will also be eligible for incentives and will fall into the development fuel category. The development fuels sub-target, which incentivises specific fuels of "strategic importance," is already scheduled to increase from 0.5pc in 2021 to 2.8pc by 2032. This target will be reviewed as part of the statutory RTFO review due to be published in 2023.

In an effort to decarbonise the maritime sector, the UK will plot a course to net zero for the UK domestic maritime sector, with indicative targets from 2030 and net zero as early as is feasible. Shipping can achieve net zero through a transition to alternative fuel powered vessels using energy from low or zero emission sources, such as ammonia produced from hydrogen created using renewable electricity, or highly efficient batteries, according to the plan. The UK recently launched a £20mn funding package — the Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition — to support and accelerate research and development of zero emission technology and infrastructure solutions for the maritime sector.

The UK also launched its "Jet Zero" consultation today, which commits the aviation sector to a net-zero emissions target by 2050. The government has also set a target to reach net-zero emissions in UK domestic aviation by 2040 and for all airport operations in England to have zero emissions by that date.

The UK expects sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) to play a key role in decarbonising aviation and is putting in place a comprehensive policy framework that could enable greater SAF uptake.

A consultation on the proposals for an SAF mandate will be published this year, with the government expecting a transition of the renewable road fuels market over to the aviation sector as a result of this mandate. A decline in renewable road fuel in favour of electrification would increase biomass availability in the later 2020s as both waste-derived biodiesel and ethanol feedstocks can be used to produce SAF.

The release of the UK transport decarbonisation plan coincides with the publication of EU legal proposals aligning climate and energy legislation with the bloc's 55pc emissions-reduction target by 2030. They include an SAF mandate, a marine-fuel emissions target and a ban on the sale of gasoline and diesel powered cars by 2035.

In its plan, the UK said that it will ban the sale of new diesel and gasoline-fuelled heavy goods vehicles by 2040, subject to a consultation.

By Giulia Squadrin