Britain will ban the sale of petrol and diesel vehicles by 2030 as part of a “green industrial revolution” that will “transform living in the UK’’ and make it the first G7 country to decarbonise road transport.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said even hybrid cars, which have proven popular across the country, would be phased out by 2035.
He said in addition to banning petrol and diesel cars, Britain would have a neighbourhood powered by hydrogen within two years and an entire town of tens of thousands of homes heated with hydrogen by 2030. More than £500m will be immediately invested in developing hydrogen for heating and cooking.
The plan is for Britain to be a green pioneer and comes ahead of next year’s UN climate change summit.
“My 10-point plan will create, support and protect hundreds of thousands of green jobs, whilst making strides towards net zero by 2050.’’
Most of the jobs will be created in the north of England and across the Midlands, as well as in Scotland and Wales.
Mr Johnson’s new timeline has brought forward the end of petrol and diesel cars by a decade and fast-tracks plans to support electric vehicles with a rollout of £1.3bn worth of electric vehicle chargepoints in homes and on streets.
The government will begin offering £582m in grants to encourage the purchase of zero- or ultra-low-emission vehicles. A similar amount will be spent in the next four years on advancing the production of electric vehicle batteries.
“This will put the UK on course to be the first road country to decarbonise road transport,’’ Mr Johnson said.
The plan also includes investing heavily in more offshore wind farms to quadruple production and produce enough energy to power every home in the country in nine years.
While wind power is designated for the home; energy for industry and transport will be hydrogen based. There are plans to generate 5GW of low-carbon hydrogen production by the end of the decade.
Mr Johnson is advancing nuclear as a clean energy source, and developing the next generation of small and advanced reactors. In addition, 30,000ha of trees will be planted every year.
Greenpeace supported the transport measures, saying they helped to tackle the climate emergency, but said the plans fell short by looking to nuclear and hydrogen.
“It’s a shame the Prime Minister remains fixated on other speculative solutions, such as nuclear and hydrogen from fossil fuels, that will not be taking us to zero emissions any time soon, if ever,” it added.
Labour said the measures did not go far enough and claimed the strategy was “deeply, deeply disappointing’’.
Ed Miliband, the shadow business secretary, said the measures would not be introduced quickly enough. “This isn’t fundamentally a green stimulus, it’s nowhere near the scale of what is required,’’ he said, highlighting how Germany and France had pledged tens of billions of euros to combat climate change.
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