So said Oliver Letwin, cabinet office minister for government policy, when answering questions from the EFRA (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) select committee.
Letwin was addressing the committee in his new role as chair of a new inter-departmental ministerial Committee on Clean Growth –set up late last year in the wake of the emissions scandal to consider issues relating to air quality and decarbonisation.
“We have a choice either to be a major part of [low and zero-emission vehicles industrial revolution] or to lag behind it... And we want to be a major part of it,” insisted Letwin.
“We can turn a series of very, very great challenges into a series of very, very great opportunities. And that, I think, is the prize,” he added.
Letwin is a known advocate of electrific vehicles in general and cars in particular.
“There are huge advantages we can have here which don’t lead to conflicts between carbon dioxide and NOx, for example,” he told committee members. “Electric engines sort out both problems.”
These and related issues are due to be debated at a joint seminar/reception organised by LowCVP (Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership) in collaboration with the Clean Air Alliance on 1 March 2016.
LowCVP and the Clean Air Alliance have joined forces on an initiative that aims to bring the climate change and air quality communities closer together – and hence ensure that UK vehicle and transport fuel policy is streamlined.
For more information, click the link below.