The British government made public, late on the evening of Tuesday, November 17, its plan “In ten points for a green revolution”, while Boris Johnson was confined to his apartment at 10 Downing Street, for having been in contact with a member of Parliament positive for SARS-CoV-2 the previous weekend, and most of the national media were occupied by a blunder committed , the day before, by the Prime Minister, about Scotland, and a new controversy over anti-Semitism within the Labor Party.
Funny timing for an announcement supposed to revive a struggling government, criticized for its management of the epidemic and still entangled in endless discussions with Brussels on post-Brexit. However, it has some flagship measures, placing the United Kingdom at the forefront of major economies in the fight against global warming: the Johnson government thus undertakes to ban sales of new gasoline cars and vans and diesel from 2030, ten years earlier than expected.
Become “the Saudi Arabia of the wind”
The sale of new hybrid vehicles is expected to cease in 2035, “Which will place the United Kingdom in a position to be the first G7 country to have decarbonised its road transport [véhicules particuliers uniquement, a priori] “, we congratulated on Downing Street. “Although this year has taken a very different course than what we expected, the country is looking to the future and wants to seize the opportunity to rebuild greener,” Mr Johnson said for his part.
With this ambition, the United Kingdom passes in front of France or Spain, which have fixed their transition around 2040. The only country going further is Norway, which has planned a ban on thermal vehicles from 2025. This decision could have European repercussions, since the British market absorbs 12.6% of German car exports or 7.6% of French exports.
The Johnson government further plans to quadruple electricity generation from offshore wind, with the goal of en “Produce enough to feed every household” by 2030. “We are going to make the United Kingdom the Saudi Arabia of the wind”, assures the Prime Minister in a forum at Financial Times. It is also betting on a production capacity of 5 gigawatts of carbon-free hydrogen, still by 2030. It will still be a question of becoming “A world leader in technologies for capturing and storing polluting emissions” and of “Restore the environment by planting 30,000 hectares of wood each year”.
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