Leeds City Council has made a number of commitments related to both Air Quality and decarbonisation. This follows on from the declaration of a Climate Emergency in 2019 and ongoing work to deliver continuing improvements in air quality. As a city, Leeds aims to be Carbon neutral by 2030 and changes in Transport will play a critical role in meeting that target – 38% of the city’s carbon footprint comes from travelling for work and leisure, mostly from diesel and petrol cars. To this end, Leeds is working on its own fleet, how the city moves goods and people, and how people live.
“Leeds has ambitious targets to change the way we travel, with modal shift targets designed to transform the city into being a place where you don’t need a car”, says Andrew Hickford, Project Manager for Leeds City Council’s Sustainable Energy & Air Quality Service, which has responsibility for the Leeds Climate Emergency action programme. “We also have targets for our own fleet: by 2025 we will no longer purchase any conventional engine vehicles and by 2030 the fleet will be zero emission or ULEV. We are also adopting the tougher WHO targets for air quality having already delivered compliance with UK and EU legislative targets for NOx”.
We were delighted to welcome Andrew to EMISSIONS & AIR QUALITY Smart Class, North 2022 earlier this month to enlighten us further on the work that has been delivered to date and the changes LCC are planning to reduce the carbon impact of transport in the city as they work to meet their 2030 targets.
The scope of Andrew’s opening keynote presentation included:
Leeds’ Scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions from 2000-2050 (sourced from Leeds Climate Commission) and present and projected emissions by sector (Transport, Domestic, Public & Commercial and Industry); Targets to increase the uptake of cycling, rail and bus journeys; Installing £200m infrastructure to make public transport more attractive and active travel more accessible; SEAQ projects such as EV Vehicle trials and E-Bike trials; Supporting innovate projects, collaborative working & engagement and E-Cargo Bikes; Clean Air Zones and Leeds’ success in meeting the aims of the CAZ early; Air Quality Strategy actions to tackle air pollution from transport, home, industry and agriculture; working with the health and care sector to protect the most vulnerable from air pollution; Zero emission fleets and investing in electric refuse vehicles and an EV ready depot; working with WYCA to deliver a modern mass transit system for Leeds and West Yorkshire; Free parking initiatives and the UK’s first solar powered Park & Ride; Low carbon city planning for active travel; The Highways and Transport Carbon Working Group; Low carbon flood alleviation schemes; Decarbonising freight, shipping and aviation; Phasing out diesel trains; Current EV Uptake (27,000 ULEV/Plug-in vehicles were registered in Leeds by Q4 2021) and EV Charging Infrastructure (Rapid Charge Network, Park & Ride, Residential Charging, V2G & Wireless Charging); Growth in Public Charging 2019-2021; Challenges around future charging demand (Medium projections suggest c.250,000 plug-in vehicles in West Yorkshire by 2025 and 670,000 by 2030); Charging Behaviour – How will vehicles charge? (Analysis nationally shows that at least 75% of charging will be undertaken at home and 15% at work with the remainder through public charging); Next steps for Decarbonisation (The Connecting Leeds Transport Strategy, Developing City Scale EVCP); Benefits of Decarbonisation Planning.
If you meet our regular delegate qualification criteria but were unable to join us at The Carriageworks Theatre, Leeds, for the live in-person event on June 17th, CLICK HERE and complete the short “Download form” (located at the bottom of the post) to receive a unique link enabling free access to the presentation video recordings and slides (including the film footage and slides from Andrew’s keynote).
Those qualifying to receive the rich presentation content from this event include commissioning, procurement, trialling and partnering leads, senior influencers, strategic decision makers and planners from: local authorities (e.g. city, borough, metropolitan, district and county councils); public and private transport operators/service providers; sub-regional transport bodies, combined authorities, integrated transport authorities and passenger transport executives; road operators and highways authorities; freight and logistics operators; airports and port operators; vehicle manufacturers; energy providers; potential partners from industry (e.g. retail, construction, manufacturing and waste management sectors) and healthcare; DfT, Defra, EA, BEIS, DHSC and supporting national agencies; prime contractors etc.
