Professor Alan McKinnon:

On the relationship between regional development and decarbonisation, it depends where the boundary is drawn. Some countries are trying to decarbonise, while some cities are setting carbon reduction targets, and presumably, they will want to do that for activities within that boundary. If the same is done at a regional level, the problem is that any region will be criss-crossed by many supply chains. There will be a great deal of through traffic. A former colleague of mine examined how a region in England could be decarbonised. Running through the region was a major motorway on which there was heavy truck traffic. Should that be included in a carbon calculation? Such issues will be encountered.

Clearly, if a region expands its economy, is more vibrant and can become a bit more self-sufficient, that will be beneficial because it will reduce the quantity of freight-related emissions, but it is difficult to do that because of the structure of modern supply chains. Very few economic sectors are localised to that degree. I often think, therefore, that if we are decarbonising freight transport, we should not be thinking about it at a local or regional level but rather at a national level to take account of these interdependences between the various supply chains.