Dr. Jeanne Moore:

I might start before passing to my colleagues. On whether the Department has been involved in any way with the research, Ms Laura Behan from the Department was on the steering group for the research. She was supportive and had good input into the work as it was done. The work has just been published and we have not met Ms Behan since. I acknowledge that because it was an important part of us commissioning the work. It was a short piece of research and, therefore, I commend my colleagues on getting under the skin of the transport sector in the way they did. We wanted to examine a process aspect in respect of institutional governance, which NESC is interested in, along with the specific technical issues that my colleagues will be able to address.

On the necessary shift in the system, the individual must be put at the centre of the policy and transport system. If we are trying to create a system of sustainable mobility, not only do we need to think more about the technical changes to electric vehicles, EVs, as the Deputy mentioned, but also social aspects need to be at the heart of policy-making and planning. That involves the digital transition as well as the wider issues of the opportunities that stem from a low-carbon transition. That framing, namely, starting to put the individual at the centre, means that different questions must be asked. Given that we have thought about how to persuade people not to use their cars, we must ask how we can make the infrastructure supportive of them cycling and walking. The latter are risky activities in the city centre at present. We need to think about putting the individual at the heart of the issue, and building out questions and supporting networks to understand how it might be developed. My colleagues might wish to comment further on some aspects.

I welcome the climate action plan and the significant steps towards thinking about the governance arrangements therein, which we acknowledge in our report. We noted that a climate action delivery board is important for delivering concrete actions. As Dr. O'Connell stated, our report favours an Action-Plan-for-Jobs-plus type of approach. As well as the kind of delivery mechanism outlined in the climate action plan, we must ask what kind of process is it necessary to generate, tailor and generalise solutions. We must also ask what else can be done to try to get under some of the innovative, bottom-up practices that my colleagues have outlined, and how could they be fed into the process. I welcome the signal that governance is being taken seriously. My colleagues might comment on how to embed some of those solutions.