British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has advanced to 2030 the ban on sales of new petrol and diesel vehicles in the United Kingdom, as part of a “green industrial revolution” intended to create jobs which he will detail on Wednesday .
Develop offshore wind power, heat homes and run hydrogen transport, promote electric cars, plant thousands of hectares of trees, become a “world leader” in terms of CO capture and storage2, but also encourage nuclear at the risk of angering environmental defenders … This is the ten-point plan of the conservative leader, supposed to “create and support” up to 250,000 jobs, said his services in a report. communicated.
These measures should enable the United Kingdom, which will host the major UN climate conference, COP26 in Glasgow in 2021, to achieve its goal of zero net greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
“Following extensive consultations with automakers, the Prime Minister confirms that the UK will stop selling new gasoline and diesel cars and utility vehicles by 2030,” the statement said.
In February, Boris Johnson had already advanced this goal by five years, setting it at 2035. From now on, only sales of hybrid vehicles will remain authorized until that date.
This “green industrial revolution” will mobilize 12 billion pounds of public investment (13.4 billion euros), including 1.3 billion to accelerate the deployment of charging stations for electric vehicles.
In October, Boris Johnson had already promised to make the United Kingdom the Saudi Arabia of offshore wind, capable of supplying energy to all British homes with a production quadrupled to 40 gigawatts by 2030, that is to say l equivalent of more than 40 nuclear reactors.
In addition to the goal of carbon neutrality in 2050, the leader hopes that his green “revolution” will reduce regional inequalities and partially erase the economic damage caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic.
“Our green industrial revolution will be powered by wind turbines in Scotland and the North East, powered by electric vehicles made in the Midlands and it will advance using the latest technologies developed in Wales,” he said.
The NGO Greenpeace hailed the ban on new petrol and diesel vehicles as “a historic turning point in climate action”. She regrets, however, that Boris Johnson “remains fixed on other speculative solutions, such as nuclear and hydrogen from fossil fuels”.