BRC calls on government to ‘accelerate use’ of green goods vehicles

The British Retail Consortium (BRC) has written to the secretary of state for transport, Grant Shapps MP, calling on the government to act to encourage the take up of green technologies and reduce emissions from goods vehicles. 

According to the BRC, retailers are “making progress” to address this issue, but without government intervention to “generate faster adoption” of green vehicles, it will not be possible for the industry to reach its 2035 net zero target.

It comes as a new report by BearingPoint, commissioned by the BRC and DP World as part of the BRC’s ‘Climate Action Roadmap’, has found that 88% of retailers operating in-house fleets have some type of green fuelled vehicle, but only one quarter of these were operating them on a large scale. 

The BRC’s Climate Action Roadmap aims to ensure the retail industry and its supply chains are net zero by 2040 in order to play its part in “limiting global temperature rise to 1.5oC above pre-industrial levels”. 

To achieve this, vehicle carbon emissions must reach net zero by 2035. The BRC has partnered with DP World on its ‘Low Carbon Logistics’ pathway – one of five pathways under the Climate Action Roadmap.

Peter Andrews, head of sustainability at the BRC, said: “Retailers and fleet operators are making decisions in the next few years about the vehicles that will be operating in 2030 and beyond. This is why it’s so important to make sure that green fuel options are not only available, but invested in. 

“Government has a key part to play, not just in encouraging the take up of these technologies, but also in supporting further research and development in this area. If the UK is to become a world leader in the transition to net zero, we need action today.”