In 2017, the government announced that it would ban the sale of all new cars with internal combustion engines (ICEs), by 2040 under new rules designed to tackle air pollution.

Since that time, the government has faced increasing pressure, including legal challenges in court, to reduce the fatal levels of air pollution in cities. A recent study found that 400,000 premature deaths in Europe were caused by air pollution in 2016 alone.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced plans to accelerate the existing plans, bringing the deadline for the switchover forward by five years and including hybrids.

The changeover to EVs will require the rollout of charging infrastructure across the country. The government said last year that it would provide an extra £2.5m to support the installation of a further 1,000 new charging points on residential streets. While petrol and diesel cars still account for nine out of every ten car sales in the UK, automakers are increasingly focused on developing more affordable and practical EVs, including some attractive, sporty models.

Johnson is under pressure to prove that he is serious about tackling emissions, particularly carbon emissions, with the UK due to host the UN’s annual climate change summit (COP26) in Glasgow in November.

The conference is anticipated as a moment of truth in which world leaders will need to commit to the 2015 Paris Agreement to minimise climate change by restricting global average temperature rises to within 2°C through intensive decarbonisation programmes, which will include massive investment in renewable and other zero-carbon energy sources.

The UK government has pledged to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050, following the advice of its independent climate change panel.

“We have to deal with our CO2 emissions and that is why the UK is calling for us to get to net zero as soon as possible, to get every country to announce credible targets to get there – that’s what we want from Glasgow,” Johnson said at a launch event at the Science Museum in London. “We know as a country, as a society, as a planet, as a species, we must now act.”

However, Johnson has attracted criticism for firing the head of the Glasgow conference, Clare O’Neill, last week. O’Neill has since publicly accused Johnson of failing to lead on decarbonisation, such as by not convening the Cabinet subcommittee on climate change he had promised and for having admitted to her that he did not understand climate change. O’Neill’s former position remains vacant, with no replacement yet announced.