PHILIP Davies is one of a handful of MPs who has backed a new report by a fossil fuel campaign group condemning plans to ban the sale of petrol and diesel cars from 2030.
Shipley MP Mr Davies is one of 12 MPs to have backed the report by the All Party Parliamentary Group for FairFuelUK, the campaign group behind the report.
It claims that the push towards electric vehicles is “ill-informed” and will damage the UK’s economy and its plans to address climate change.
Vehicles are one of the biggest producers of greenhouse gases (19 per cent of all UK emissions), pumping out carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides, all of which contribute to climate change and have a detrimental impact on people’s health.
Bradford is due to introduce a Clean Air Zone around the city centre to try and reduce the impact of emissions caused by queuing traffic on congested roads, improving the city’s air quality and reducing the damage to people’s health.
Car manufacturers are increasingly investing in better and more affordable electric and hybrid technology to increase the number of emission-free or ultra-low emission vehicles on the roads, and there is also ongoing work for hydrogen-powered vehicles, which would also produce no greenhouse gases.
The report calls on the Government to remove the threat of the 2030 ban on the sale of new fossil fuelled vehicles.
It suggests instead the Government should incentivise the move to “clean fuels” by “by motivating industry and entrepreneurs to develop technologies that will not impact adversely on the economy, drivers, or businesses”.
FairFuel UK purports to represent the UK’s 37 million motorists and has successfully campaigned for a number of years against rises to fuel duty.
Howard Cox, the group’s founder and architect of the report called the 2030 ban “a set of virtue signalling policies” and claimed a move away from fossil fuel would “cause the economic recovery to collapse”.
He also claimed the ban would have a large impact on low-income families, logistics firms and “hard working drivers”, accusing the Conservative Government of being “oblivious” of the impact of its decision.
Philip Davies, a Conservative MP, added the “arbitrary proposed ban” was a “nanny-state intervention to vainly achieve its unrealistic and hugely expensive net zero target”.
He accused his own Government of showing “no regard to road users” and “piling additional costs on hard pressed consumers”, whose wages have stagnated after ten years of austerity.
The Government has created a £20 electric vehicle innovation fund and last year committed £1.3 billion to EV infrastructure.
Earlier this year, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said: “Investing in innovation is crucial in decarbonising transport,” while the Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the switch to electric is part of the UK’s ‘Green Industrial Revolution’.
Graeme Cooper, transport decarbonisation director at the National Grid, added: “Banning the sale of new ICE cars from 2030 will cut carbon emissions and reduce air pollution.”
Hybrids are the only exception to the rule, being allowed for sale until 2035.
Also unaffected by the ban will be second-hand vehicles, meaning petrolheads who are opposed to electric vehicles can continue to run on fossil fuels, and there is no obligation to buy a new vehicle after 2030.
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