Debate contribution: Vehicle Emissions Trading Schemes (Amendment) Order 2024

Debate contribution by Mr John O'Dowd on 14 October 2024.

MLA

Mr John O'Dowd

Party at the time

Sinn Féin

Date

14 October 2024

Type

Debate contribution (made as a minister)

Business

Executive Committee Business

Heading

Vehicle Emissions Trading Schemes (Amendment) Order 2024

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4589631

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I beg to move

Go raibh maith agat, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle.

I am pleased to bring the draft statutory instrument (SI) to the Assembly for approval. The Vehicle Emissions Trading Schemes Order 2023 is secondary legislation made under the Climate Change Act 2008 that created four vehicle emissions trading schemes (VETS) and applies to new cars and vans registered in Britain from 3 January 2024. This statutory instrument, the Vehicle Emissions Trading Schemes (Amendment) Order 2024, will also be made under powers conferred by the Climate Change Act 2008. The amendment will bring the North into alignment with Britain from 1 January 2025. At present, 63% of our overall transport emissions are from private cars. If we are to meet our collective emissions reduction targets by 2050, as required by our Climate Change Act 2022, we must focus on how we transition from petrol and diesel cars to zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs). In 2023, electrical vehicle (EV) car sales made up just over 16% of the new car market here, with 11·5% being purely battery electric vehicles (BEVs). That represents a greater percentage of sales in the EV car market here than in Scotland or Wales in 2023. We now have a network of over 630 charge points, and the availability of rapid chargers has increased by over 300% over the past 18 months. It is estimated that 80% of EV owners are also able to charge from home and generally need to charge their cars only once or twice a week. Due to the increase in battery capacity and in the number of public charge points that are within range, the anxiety of potential owners is being reduced and the availability of new models is attracting new buyers to the market. That is a very encouraging position. With the introduction of the vehicle emissions trading schemes, we have the opportunity to continue to accelerate the uptake of ZEVs by setting sales quotas for vehicle manufacturers. The introduction of VETS will give confidence to the private sector-led charging infrastructure providers that the number of EVs here will continue to increase. We have seen evidence of momentum building, with the recent announcements from charge point operators securing further private investment for the expansion of the charging network on forecourts and the installation of charging points at schools and sports clubs in the heartland of our communities. I want to see that strong growth maintained in order to provide the services that EV owners will require to seamlessly move away from petrol and diesel. That will provide the commercial sector with the confidence that it requires to continue to invest in infrastructure in order to align with the targets set out in our climate change plan. The vehicle emissions trading scheme sets targets requiring an increasing percentage of manufacturers' new car or van sales to be zero-emission vehicles and requiring CO2 emissions from non-zero-emission vehicles to be below their 2021 threshold. Emissions are measured as fleet-wide averages calculated per individual manufacturer. The aim of VETS is to encourage the sale of an increased number of zero-emission vehicles. It is aligned with the British Government's ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2035. Its introduction here will continue the momentum that we have to accelerate the uptake of zero-emission vehicles as those quotas are achieved. However, the targets are not for the North alone but are taken from sales across Britain and here. That gives manufacturers flexibility in sales across their dealerships and across regions. The third of three consultations on the zero-emission vehicle mandate and CO2 emissions regulations for new cars and vans in the North and in Britain opened on 30 March 2023 and closed on 24 May 2023. That was a joint consultation led by the Department for Transport (DfT), with the Scottish Government, the Welsh Government and the Department for Infrastructure in the absence of an Executive. The consultation responses were used to finalise the design of the ZEV mandate and CO2 emissions regulations. In response to the consultations, manufacturers overwhelmingly stated that their desire was for one scheme throughout the North and Britain. That would allow them to freely move their vehicles across these islands. That supplies an annual fleet-wide target to eligible vehicle manufacturers for registering non-zero-emission vehicles across Britain and the North. Every year, manufacturers will need to be compliant in meeting their ZEV and CO2 targets. Compliance is set out by allowances or credits that manufacturers earn meeting targets for sales and CO2 emissions. Targets can be met in several ways. Manufacturers may meet the target percentage by averaging their sales of zero-emission vehicles in different locations — for example, dealers' sales of zero-emission vehicles in London may be higher and can offset lower zero-emission sales in more rural locations — or by earning excess credits on their CO2 emissions or their ZEV sales and transferring them from one side to the other. Manufacturers with an excess of credits may trade that excess with other manufacturers that may be in deficit and need further credits to be compliant. They can borrow credits from future years, and that will be especially useful for manufacturers that expect to be fully zero-emission in two to three years but are not now. They can bank excess credits for use in future years. I highlight again that zero-emission vehicle percentages will be targets across Britain and here. Neither single nations nor single dealers will be expected to meet the targets on their own. The vehicle emissions trading schemes are set up to encourage the industry and not to make the targets unachievable, and manufacturers understand that the incentives will allow them to meet their targets. The draft Order was laid before the Assembly on 9 September 2024 and is subject to the draft affirmative resolution procedure. It will come into operation on 1 January 2025, if passed by the House. The introduction of the VET scheme is part of the critical pathway for the House to meet its climate change targets. Climate change is a concern for all of us, and the introduction of the legislation will contribute to reducing emissions from the transport sector, cleaning up our air and making our home a greener place to live and work for our families. Other critical pathways are also being explored by my Department and include the development of a suite of transport plans and continued investment in zero-emission vehicles for the public transport fleet, which will build on the legislative arrangements that I have brought to the House today. I thank the House for its cooperation and assistance in making this major step towards achieving our climate change targets in the transport sector. I also thank the Infrastructure Committee for its scrutiny of the policy and useful feedback; the Departmental Solicitor's Office (DSO) for its scrutiny of the legislation; and the Department for Transport for the collaborative approach that has been taken in drafting the Order. I commend the motion to the Assembly and ask that it approve the statutory instrument.

1,174 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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