Transport has a significant role to play in reducing overall greenhouse gas emissions, as well as improving air quality levels, and is responsible for 25% of the UK’s total greenhouse gas emissions.
As a result, the sector is engaging in an extraordinary period of innovation, with major technological advancements being made in the effort to reduce emissions from vehicles. At the UK level, the Government has set out a strategy, The Road to net zero, to reduce the impact of transport, including the ambition that all new cars and vans should be effectively zero emission by 2035, to help ensure that 2050 net zero targets are met.
In Scotland, the Scottish Government announced its ambition to phase out the need for new petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2032, in the Programme for Government the Scottish Government outlined a further ambition to decarbonise the public sector fleet, phasing out the need for new petrol and diesel cars from the public sector fleet by 2025, for all other vehicles in the public sector by 2030.
As a significant body within Scotland’s public sector, NHS Scotland is committed to doing its part in the decarbonisation of the public fleet. The effective operation of NHS Scotland relies on the ability to move people and health-related products quickly, safely, securely, and efficiently, often over long distances. Practical alternatives to petrol and diesel fuelled vehicles will therefore need to be facilitated across all areas.
The Road to net Zero, among other sources, has highlighted battery electric vehicles (BEVs) as one of the most likely technologies to provide the alternative to fossil fuelled vehicles. Pictured here are two of the new fully electric vehicles displaying a new livery promoting NHS Forth Valley’s “I am 100% electric – supporting our drive to go green” recently delivered to the Fleet Management Department for use within our Estates Department.
NHS Forth Valley’s Fleet Management Department have to date 22 fully electric vehicles live within the current fleet and forward orders for a further 29 currently awaiting delivery throughout 2022 -2023. The remaining fleet vehicles will be replaced with an electric alternative when they reach their replacement dates to help meet the targets set out by the Scottish Government of phasing out the need for new petrol and diesel cars from the public sector fleet by 2025,and for all other vehicles in the public sector by 2030.
