Labour has fleshed out its transport policy pitch, pledging to introduce a carbon budget for the Department for Transport and vowing to put decarbonisation efforts at the core of the department's remit.

In a speech at the Institute for Government think tank, Shadow Transport Secretary Andy McDonald said a Labour government would introduce a sweeping new strategy designed to curb transport emissions that have been ticking upwards in recent years and now represent the largest single source of carbon emissions for the UK economy.

"For too long, transport has been put in the 'too difficult' box so far as climate change is concerned," McDonald said. "This will change under Labour. I say it is only 'too difficult' if it is approached with unambitious or, dare I say, conservative priorities."

He added that Labour would "align the priorities of the Department for Transport with our commitment to tackle climate change" and would introduce a specific carbon budget to ensure emission reduction efforts are delivered.

"We will put an end to paying lip service to looking after our planet, and instead we will ensure we put our moral responsibility to cut emissions at the department's core and we will allocate departmental spending as if climate change really matters," he said. "Under my leadership I will want to see the Department set a carbon budget consistent with the aspirations of the Paris Agreement on climate change.

He added that the budget would then be translated into specific targets for rail, road, aviation and maritime emissions. 

"We will reallocate departmental spending to achieve the changes required," McDonald said.

McDonald said that the last Labour government had a good track record of investing in public transport and wider transport infrastructure. But he argued that "perhaps our biggest mistake on transport" had been the handling of protests over rising fuel prices in 2000. "New Labour was at the height of its powers with a Conservative Party in disarray and we should have seen this through," he said. "The failure to do so led to a huge distortion in both the public finances and how the financial burden has fallen across the modes of transport which we still live with today."

He said Labour had asked Professor Phil Goodwin to lead a study on how the UK could adopt a New Social Contract for Transport that would ensure the costs and benefits of transport are more fairly shared.

"Consider these points about where the burden falls on transport users," McDonald said. "Fuel duty frozen since 2010 at a cost of more than £50bn. Air passenger duty in aviation broadly frozen over a similar period. Rail and bus fares up by more than a third. This is not a sensible approach to transport policy… The social contract for transport has completely collapsed under the Conservatives, with soaring fares for bus and rail passengers, alongside huge cuts to investment in road maintenance, railways and bus services."

Labour also reiterated its support for a raft of specific green transport policies, promising to undertake a rolling programme of rail electrification as part of its rail ownership reforms, change planning rules to encourage more active transport, increase investment in bus services, introduce a smart logistics strategy, and put transport at the heart of a wider Green Industrial Revolution.  

"Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell has recently said the next Labour government intends to drive a Green Industrial Revolution," said McDonald. "Transport, and the railway in particular, was at the heart of the Industrial Revolution. And so, those greenest forms of transport, with the railway at the forefront, are critical to our plans for a Green Industrial Revolution."

The government has announced a raft of green transport policies in recent months, including increased funding for EV charging infrastructure as part of its Road to Zero strategy and yesterday's announcement of a new urban mobility strategy. However, critics have consistently argued more ambitious measures are urgently needed to tackle emissions from road transport, aviation, and shipping which all continue to climb.