Expectations Whitehall clean growth plan will cut transport CO2 high after emissions increase

Campaigners are looking to the Government Clean Growth Plan to turn around a failure to cut transport carbon emissions after official statistics showed that they increased by two per cent from 2014 to 2015.

Former business secretary Vince Cable warned that the UK was at "a dangerous turning point at which the achievements of the past decade or so in building a green dimension into policy and, in particular, a strong commitment to decarbonisation, could be undermined and even reversed". He said it was vital that industrial policy supports electric cars.

The WWF, meanwhile, said that while the UK has a world-leading Climate Change Act, the Government was "not delivering the robust and ambitious plan for reducing emissions we need". Gareth Redmond-King, WWF head of climate change and energy, called for measures in the forthcoming Clean Growth Plan to build a low-carbon economy.

Government statistics last week highlighted that transport emissions have changed little since 1990 and increased in the year to 2015 "driven by increased vehicle kilometres travelled by passenger cars and HGVs".