October 2021 saw the UK Government task itself with a plan to reduce CO2 emissions by 50% in little over a decade, and eradicate them completely by 2050. How it plans to do this is called the ‘Net Zero Strategy’. Overall, this is a plan that will tackle climate change head on, but will also bring jobs, investment and wider benefits to the UK, and it is also seen as a bold statement from the UK in terms of backing up targets with actions.

The UK is one of the first major industrialised nations to implement laws surrounding net zero targets, and the policy plans which have been announced include:

• Decarbonising the power sector by 2035
• Phasing out the manufacture of new petrol and diesel vehicles by 2030
• Promoting the use of heat pumps in domestic settings

Emissions targets set by the UK are to be at net zero by 2050, and in terms of measuring progress, to have a 78% reduction from 1990 to 2035. As a means of achieving this the electrification of the power sector will be supported by low-carbon hydrogen and the phasing-out of fossil fuels from surface transport, home heating and much of industry with some immediacy.

How the UK Government plans to reduce CO2 emissions

The Government has committed to increasing the use of offshore wind, low-carbon hydrogen production, electric cars, heat pumps, energy efficiency and tree planting across the economy for the next 15 years. It has also presented proposals to scale up private investment in renewable power, a zero-emission vehicle mandate, an obligation on boiler manufacturers to grow the heat pump market, carbon capture, usage and storage (CCUS) and hydrogen use.

So the Net Zero Strategy gets to the root of emissions and where they are coming from, and adds more weight to the importance of everyday schemes such as the salary sacrifice car scheme offered by Pink Salary Exchange. This promotes the use of zero-emission vehicles to improve emissions at a private individual and corporate level.

Harvey Perkins runs HRUX, an organisation committed to advising employers in a number of areas related to human resources, employment tax issues and employee benefits. Harvey also assisted in the design of the Pink Salary Exchange salary sacrifice car scheme and is therefore well-positioned to comment on the Net Zero Strategy and how business can help in implementing it in everyday practices.

Salary sacrifice car schemes are a great way to help the Net Zero Strategy

Having recently studied the actual source of the UK’s carbon emissions, Harvey found that nearly a quarter of them came from transport, and that cars are responsible for just over half of that. So a significant shift in focus on zero-emission vehicles is clearly the way to go. Harvey commented: “The announcement earlier this week of the net zero strategy is welcome, but we really need to start to see the detail around how this shift is going to be incentivised. Salary Sacrifice is a great example of how the Government can have a significant impact on consumer behaviour with a huge number of companies setting up schemes, most of which, in our experience, are electric vehicle only.”

Clearly, with over 33 million petrol and diesel vehicles still on UK roads, there is a long way to go in this respect, but it is felt future Budget measures and the promotion of salary sacrifice car schemes would help to bring the issue more into the public domain, and offer people a direct means by which they can contribute and buy-in to the collective effort.

At Pink Salary Exchange we therefore welcome the Government’s approach to its Net Zero Strategy and we think our salary sacrifice car scheme – which deals exclusively with new and used electric vehicles – is a great way for employers and employees to contribute towards it, so get in touch with us today and let’s get your business involved.