The Oxford English Dictionary describes hypocrisy as “behaviour that does not meet the moral standards or match the opinions that somebody claims to have”.
Earlier this week, an excellent article by the Western Mail’s travel correspondent Rhodri Clark suggested that the Welsh Government’s recent behaviour in relation to its transport policy did not meet the moral standards or match its opinions on carbon emissions.
Last June, the new Welsh Government announced that it would be freezing new road building projects as part of its plans to deal with the carbon emissions with an expert panel being appointed to review all road projects in Wales.
As a result, several road projects that had already been approved were cancelled, most notably the Llanbedr bypass in Snowdonia which was needed because of the serious congestion caused by tourists in the summer.
Yet, whilst smaller schemes have been scrapped because the Welsh Government wants to tackle climate change, it is continuing with the £1.4 billion dualling of the A465 in the South Wales Valleys between Dowlais and Hirwaun in order to “improve road safety”.
This is despite, as Rhodri Clark pointed out, that most of the scheme’s carbon emissions have yet to be incurred and the Welsh Government seems unwilling to pause and scale down the scheme in line with its commitments to reduce carbon and car traffic.
Indeed, the Government’s own forecast for the use of the road suggest that its completion will lead to increased traffic when its overall aim for the rest of Wales is to reduce the number of car miles travelled per person by 10% by 2030.
And the excuse for not cancelling the improvements to the A465 to meet its own targets for net zero? Apparently it is because the dualling is a long standing commitment and the work is already under way. Is this an acceptable excuse at a time when other road schemes are being cancelled with significant effects on local areas?
According to Lee Waters, the Deputy Minister with responsibility for transport, the Welsh Government has had to take a pragmatic view of letting schemes already underway to finish. However, if reducing carbon emissions is one of the key objectives of the current administration, how can he commit spend hundreds of millions of pounds to a road that will actually increase carbon emissions over the next few years?
So what should the Welsh Government do going forward? First of all, it needs to ensure consistency in any public policy towards climate change. If the Welsh Government’s view is a climate change is a global emergency then using pragmatism as a convenient excuse just doesn’t cut it when you make the case for the building of a road that will add to the problem.
Therefore if it will cost millions of pounds to stop the A465 being built due to contractual obligations, then the Welsh Government needs to be honest with the public about this.
If that is the price that has to be paid to deal with the climate emergency that is at the heart of the Welsh Government’s objectives for the next five years, then so be it.
Secondly, Ministers need to stop looking at roads as the enemy especially when the real enemy in terms of climate change is the internal combustion engine. Even if every vehicle was an electric car, there would still be congestion in places that need by-passes such as Llanbedr. That was the rationale for the road scheme in the first place and should have been the rationale for any review of the decision.
In fact, the Welsh Government needs to do more to encourage greater use of electric vehicles. For example, why hasn’t it set an ambitious target to make Wales the charging point “capital” of the world so that more people buy electric vehicles? At the moment, Wales has only 3.6% of all charging points in the UK, well below what would be expected by population and the Welsh Government could certainly do more to examine changes in planning regulations to encourage street charging for electric cars in urban areas.
Finally, there is a need to engage with local people and politicians on this vital issue. The whole situation over road cancellations comes across as a top down government pushing ahead with something they want without any consideration for local views.
Certainly, no-one in a small rural village such as Llanbedr wants to have cars spewing pollution into the streets and yet that situation will continue for years to come because none of the Welsh Government’s expert panel (which made the recommendation to reject the by-pass) had any proper interaction with those affected the most in the local area.
Therefore, there are few of us who would disagree with the principle of any government taking steps to reduce carbon emissions given the climate emergency that is changing our lives every day.
However, if the Welsh Government is to be taken seriously on this vital issue and avoid accusations of hypocrisy then it should think carefully about cancelling small road projects that are supported by those affected the most whilst continuing with road projects that will do little to deal with the climate change emergency and, over time, will actually add to the problem.