Lower Thames Crossing: Call for pause following damning government climate report

Campaigners have called for the Lower Thames Crossing project to be paused, after a damning climate report recommended the government review its road-building projects “to assess their consistency” with environmental targets.

The Climate Change Committee’s (CCC) progress report presented to parliament details a number of key concerns related to the government’s plans for achieving net zero.

These include a lack of urgency and wavering on existing commitments, via actions such as expanding fossil fuel production and airports.

One of the committee’s recommendations is that the government should “conduct a systematic review of current and future road-building projects to assess their consistency with the Government’s environmental goals.

“This should ensure that decisions do not lock in unsustainable levels of traffic growth and develop conditions that permit schemes to be taken forward only if they meaningfully support cost-effective delivery of Net Zero and climate adaptation.”

Laura Blake, chair of the Thames Crossing Action Group (TCAG), said the report proves the multi-billion-pound road, which is intended to run between the A2/M2 in Kent and Junction 29 of the M25 in Havering, east London, must be paused while a review is carried out.

Concerns about the environmental impact of the road, which includes a crossing beneath the River Thames east of Gravesend, have been raised by groups including the Woodland Trust and Havering Council.

National Highways, the transport authority managing the project, says it is needed to ease congestion on the Dartford Crossing.

Ms Blake said: “We welcome the Climate Change Committee’s (CCC) call for an urgent review of both current and future road building in England.

“This is of course very relevant in regard to projects like the proposed £10bn+ Lower Thames Crossing that is estimated to emit 6.6 million tonnes of carbon emissions, if it goes ahead.

“We recognised this fact and the breaking news, as we gave evidence to the Planning Inspectorate who are currently examining the LTC project as part of the Development Consent Order (DCO) process, as we presented oral evidence yesterday (June 28) at an open floor hearing.

“It is completely unacceptable at a time of climate emergency for hugely destructive and harmful projects to be pushed through, especially when like the proposed LTC they also fail to meet scheme objectives. As the CCC state, we need an urgent review, and we believe all road building projects need to be at least paused whilst that review takes place.”

Chris Todd, director of the Transport Action Network, said: “We welcome the climate committee’s call for an urgent review of England’s roads programme. Having spent the last three years challenging the roads programme in the courts, we feel vindicated.

“The government’s position that it can continue with a huge roads programme while meeting climate targets has become completely untenable. It’s time for a roads reset. We need all investment to be taking us towards net zero, not making it harder to achieve by increasing traffic, concrete and congestion.”

A Department for Transport spokesperson said: “Our Transport Decarbonisation Plan sets out a clear path to net zero and our road investment strategy is designed for all vehicles including greener cars, buses, vans and HGVs.

“We must make our roads fit for the future and that’s why we are investing more than £2bn into helping people make the switch to electric vehicles.”

The Lower Thames Crossing is one of several major projects the government has delayed by two years, due to what Transport Secretary Mark Harper described as “inflationary pressures”. It is expected to be completed in the early 2030s.

In the CCC’s report, outgoing chairman Lord Deben wrote the committee’s “confidence in the achievement of the UK’s 2030 target and the Fifth and Sixth Carbon Budgets has markedly declined from last year”.

Lord Deben urged the government “to find the courage to place climate change once again at the heart of its leadership”.

“It would be a terrible error if we in Britain hesitate just as the rest of the world wakes up to the opportunity of net zero,” he said.