The uptake of electric vehicles will not be enough to counter-balance the extra emissions caused by the Government's road building programme, a report has warned.
Research by Transport for Quality of Life has found the Government's £27bn investment in roads over the next five years breaches the UK’s commitments on climate change.
Using data collected by Highways England, the report argues that roads programme will add 20 million tonnes of carbon dioxide to UK emissions between now and 2032.
Even with the Government’s most optimistic estimate of the adoption rate for electric vehicles, emissions from trunk roads and motorways in England are not on track to meet ‘net zero’ by 2050.
The report’s lead author, Lynn Sloman, said: 'People think that electric cars will solve the UK’s transport carbon problem, but widespread use of electric cars is going to come too late.
'If we are to meet the legally-binding carbon budgets that have been set by the Committee on Climate Change, we need to make big cuts in carbon emissions over the next decade. That will require faster adoption of electric cars but it will also require us to reduce vehicle mileage by existing cars.'
