Great Western Coffee Shop

There have been some posts, in various places, about the Climate Change Committee*, but I thought it could do with its own thread somewhere that's easy to find. And the thread can also cover some of the more general aspects of what they are saying, I'm, sure.

The CCC website (https://www.theccc.org.uk/) has loads of reports, most of them suitably big. The latest one, yesterday's "The Sixth Carbon Budget - The UK's path to Net Zero (https://www.theccc.org.uk/publication/sixth-carbon-budget/)" is a case in point; at 448 pages I have not read much of it. The news reports picked up on the idea that the cost of decarbonisation now being predicted was less than in earlier reports.

*The Committee on Climate Change, now trading as The Climate Change Committee, (CCC) is an independent, statutory body established under the Climate Change Act 2008.

This report and the statement from the government about the reduction in carbon emissions are very good news.  However what I would to see is the detailed road map of how (and by how much) each significant source of carbon emissions will be reduced each year to 2035.

I now see from another post that the rail usage of energy is minimal compared to road transport and homes, so this probably not a major driver for electrification.

The major driver for rail electrification is in my view LOCAL air quality, rather than total carbon emissions. Reducing carbon from rail transport is a good thing, but as has been said it is a small percentage of the UK total.
PR is also important, it will look a bit silly if significant numbers of diesel trains are still running after the cut of date for internal combustion engine cars.
Better performance is also welcome.
I do however feel that ALL new electric trains should incorporate either a small diesel engine or a battery pack for when the wires come down. Sufficient to run at least 50 miles at much reduced performance, or to maintain heating or cooling for several hours.
I also support SHORT gaps in the OHLE in particularly problematic locations, Dawlish, under low bridges and the like.

I would also like the see more use of PV modules on railway property in general, every little helps. And wind turbines in windy locations.

...and 'local' can be very local. The atmosphere at Clifton Down Station when two class 166's cross there, both belching diesel fumes, can be distinctly unhealthy...

Which is why those bi-modes with battery for station starts that we're talking about elsewhere are such a good idea

As long as they actualy get far enough from the station before the engine starts.
My expirence of the Hybrid buses used on the Oxford - Abingdon run is that even mid morning the engine starts about 10 seconds after the bus starts to move. So the back of the bus has not even cleared the bus stop.

The CCC has published this year's report to Parliament on "Progress in reducing emissions" (https://www.theccc.org.uk/publication/2022-progress-report-to-parliament/). The name is of course a bit of a misnomer, at least for most areas of energy use, since it mostly documents a lack of progress. Just a couple of bright spots, with the take-off of electric car sales being  noted by news media.

I won't pretend to have extracted its gist by a quick skim through it - there are 619 pages. But this is their overall assessment of the rail sector for efficiency and technology:

In traffic-light form:
Delivery mechanism and responsibilities     YELLOW
Funding and other financial incentives      GREEN
Enablers in place and barriers overcome    ORANGE
Timeline for future policies                      GREEN
Overall sub-sector assessment                YELLOW

I have had a huge internal document sent to me as part of a series of internal meetings to put some meat on the bones of this.   (I cannot share it as it is commercially sensitive)