The governance of transport and climate change

Climate change is one of the key global policy issues of our time. The complexity of the policy problem stems from the atmosphere being a public good and from the increasingly global nature of our resource, goods, business and leisure markets. The UK government has been active in promoting agreements to tackle climate change emissions and The Climate Change Bill makes the UK the first country to have a legally binding internal obligation to meet carbon dioxide reduction targets. Transport is the sector from which it has been hardest to cut emissions and to make substantial progress in the future, action will be required at all levels of government from EU to local. The Governance of transport within this already challenging arena is further complicated by the existence of different structures for the management of transport modes and variations in formal governance structures across countries and regions. This paper examines the prospect for deep cuts in CO2 emissions from transport through an examination of the key policy levers for change and considering the governance issues surrounding their realization. The research applies a Multi-Level Governance framework to the policy environment in England and Scotland which captures the range of spatial actors but also the influence of sectoral actors in what is a complex polity. It is concluded that the policy approach currently appears constrained by a desire to divide accountability by formal institutional structures, which fails to tackle the dispersed nature of travel and the national and international nature of businesses. There is currently a lack of clarity about the tiering of responsibilities between spatial levels and there is therefore a comparative lack of commitment to the potential for demand management and travel reduction strategies to contribute to carbon reduction and to prevent rebound effects from technological progress. Carbon reduction policies are also influenced by strong industry lobbies whose goals may not be fully aligned with carbon reduction strategies. The profusion of actors engaged in climate change policy seems to dilute rather than promote pro-active policy making.