Vanguard STS gives an enthusiastic welcome to the Transport Decarbonisation Plan that was published by the UK Government yesterday (14 July 2021). We fully support the view that transport is something that fundamentally shapes our quality of life far more than just travelling from one place to another – the impacts are far more reaching than that.
We were particularly struck by this sentence in the Foreword from the Secretary of State for Transport talking about the importance of transport decarbonisation as an issue, “It is millions of people literally, if slowly, being poisoned by the very air they breathe.” That is a very striking statement to make from a senior politician on the importance of taking action now to decarbonise our transport systems. Given transport is still the largest UK sector emitter of greenhouse gases at 27% of the total in 2019, it is clear that action is urgently needed.
Vanguard STS was founded in 2020 to power decarbonised transport and our particular focus is on the development and deployment of battery and hydrogen systems for transport applications. Our mission comes from our experience as part of the team that delivered the UK’s first hydrogen train to run on the UK mainline railway in September 2020 (specifically referenced in the Plan). We have a huge contribution to make to support the decarbonisation of our transport systems in the UK and globally. We welcome the UK’s Transport Decarbonisation Plan and now strongly urge the UK Government and its counterparts around the world to match words with action and investment to decarbonise transport as quickly as possible.
The UK Transport Decarbonisation Plan can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/transport-decarbonisation-plan
More information on the UK’s first hydrogen train can be found here: https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/railway/research/power-systems-and-energy-use/hydrogen-train-mainline.aspx