Wales Scraps All Major Road Building Projects Over Net Zero

Deputy Climate Change Minister Lee Waters. Gov.wales

Planned road-building schemes in Wales have been cancelled and won’t be built unless they comply with strict conditions that won’t cause more emissions or cars, the Welsh government has announced.

The decision by Wales’ Labour-led government was announced on Tuesday by deputy minister for climate change Lee Waters, who said all infrastructure projects in the future must now “reduce carbon emissions and support a shift to public transport, walking and cycling.”

Waters said the changes put “climate change at the heart of decision-making” for transport in Wales.

The Welsh government will only consider future road investment for projects that pass strict net zero criteria, which means they must not increase carbon emissions, increase the number of cars on the road, or lead to higher speeds.

“We will not get to Net Zero unless we stop doing the same thing over and over,” said Waters.

Net Zero

Farm traffic crosses Bigsweir Bridge, over the River Wye, dividing England (on the right) from Wales (on the left) near the town of Llandogo in south Wales on Oct. 17, 2020. Geoff Caddick/AFP via Getty Images

The announcement means that major projects such as plans for a third Menai bridge the Red Route in Flintshire will now no longer go ahead.

It follows a year-long review by the Welsh Roads Review Panel which was set up in September 2021 and led by Dr. Lynn Sloman, during which 55 road projects were paused and reassessed.

Sloman is the founder and director of Transport for Quality of Life. In a policy paper, she wrote that “we have to recognise that electric cars are not enough” and that “climate targets require less car use by 20 percent minimum, and possibly up to 60 percent.”

Environmental and transport campaigners welcomed the move.

Duncan Dollimore, Cycling UK’s head of campaigns, said: “The Welsh Government’s Roads Review marks the most significant change in UK roads building policy over the last 20 years.

Friends of the Earth Cymru director, Haf Elgar said that “We must break the cycle of building more roads for more cars—it will only create more congestion, make our air more polluted, and increase the emissions that are wrecking our climate.”

Snowdon National Park. Pajor Pawel/Shutterstock

‘Far-Reaching Consequences’

On Twitter, Wales’ Conservative Party Leader Andrew RT Davies called the move “utter madness.”

“Labour ministers in the Senedd won’t build new roads in Wales because they’ll ‘induce demand.’ Because encouraging more visitors to Wales and money into our economy is obviously a bad thing. Utter madness,” wrote Davies.

Labour Senedd member and former Labour transport minister Ken Skates criticised the plans and called for the matter to be devolved to North Wales.

“What we had is a diktat which says basically a decision has been made 140 miles away, that vitally important infrastructure works will not go ahead, and by the way there are no alternatives that we can tell you about today,” Skates told BBC Wales.

In an email to The Epoch Times, Wales’ Federation of Small Businesses pointed to a statement by its head Ben Cottam who said that the report “clearly has far-reaching consequences for Welsh Government’s approach to future investment in infrastructure.”

“The reality for most small businesses is still a necessary dependence on road-based transport. We know there is significant interest and action among small businesses in the opportunities of decarbonising and moving to less carbon intensive transport, but this means that roads will still play an important part in developing the economy,” he said.

“Depending on the response to the Review, Welsh Government will have to go some way to demonstrate that any decisions won’t impact on regional competitiveness at a time when we seek to level up different regions of Wales,” Cottam added.

‘Ideological Agenda’

Environmentalism skeptic Ben Pile, co-founder of the Climate Resistance blog, told The Epoch Times that “anyone who has been to Wales, knows, Wales needs roads.”

“The idea that you can get around all these wonderful beautiful places using public transport is a joke,” he said.

“With the loss of mobility, at some point, people are going to say ‘I have had enough of this,’” he added.

Pile claimed that due to net zero, the relationship between governments and people has been transformed.

“They are putting their ideological agenda in advance of people’s needs and wants, and that’s going to hit a breaking point at some point,” he added.

He pointed out that some councils in Wales have seen their black bin bag collections move to a four-weekly occurrence, also because of Net Zero climate change commitments.

“Utilities are being decreased all the time, the amenity is being reduced and reduced,” said Pile.

Pile said there hasn’t been a public discussion about Net Zero, though he believed that people will vote against it if they had the chance and realise that it’s “the imposition of a radical ideological agenda for the transformation of society.”

The Epoch Times contacted the Welsh government for comment.

PA Media contributed to this report.