Wales ends road projects to ‘fight climate change’

The Welsh government this month said it is ending road building projects in its effort to reduce carbon emissions. Only road projects which pass rigorous reviews to ensure they won’t lead to more traffic will be considered.

Deputy Minister for Climate Change Lee Waters cited a report by the Welsh Roads Review Panel which assessed 55 roads for their impact on “climate change”.

“Our approach for the last 70 years is not working,” said Waters. “As the review points out the by-pass that was demanded to relieve congestion often ends up leading to extra traffic, which in time brings further demands for extra lanes, wider junctions and more roads.

“Round and round we go, emitting more and more carbon as we do it and we will not get to Net Zero unless we stop doing the same thing over and over.”

Waters said the country is looking to shift away from private vehicles on the roads and instead make residents take public transportation or cycle.

“We want to prioritise freight and we want to look at modal shift programmes like bus lanes, like park and ride, like active travel routes, like travel planning,” he said, according to the Daily Mail.

Phasing out private cars and making people dependent on state-owned public transportation has been a globalist dream for some time.

In 2018 the World Economic Forum praised cities who decided to ban cars from certain areas, hoping it would be a rallying call “for cities around the country to go car-free”.

An extensive report published last month and funded by globalist dark money groups is advocating for “reducing” private car ownership and relying more on public transportation.

The report explains that because electric vehicles (EVs) are built with lithium batteries, the current push to convert cars into EVs by globalists like Joe Biden — who has mandated that EVs constitute 50% of US cars by 2030 — will lead to a lithium shortage. When that happens, lithium will need to be mined, which will harm the environment.

By 2050, the report projects, the EV market will require triple the lithium currently used and will thus require significant mining.

Therefore, since the “solution” to “climate change” will, in fact, cause more climate change, according to the report, the authors suggest reducing car ownership, which it euphemistically refers to as “car dependency”. A reduction in car ownership will also “ensure transit equity” and “respect indigenous rights”.

The Welsh government’s restriction on expanding roads to reduce carbon emissions falls in line with plans by UK districts to create “15-minute neighborhoods” for the same reason.

The Oxfordshire County Council decided in December to divide the city of Oxford into “15-minute neighborhoods” by restricting Oxford residents from driving beyond their own community centers in what some people are calling a “climate lockdown”.

The new system will involve six “traffic filters” — busy stretches of road that filter one neighborhood into another. From 7 AM to 7 PM seven days a week, private vehicles that are caught driving past their own neighborhoods for “non-essential needs” will be subjected to a £70 fine. 

"It is about making sure you have the community centre which has all of those essential needs, the bottle of milk, pharmacy, GP, schools which you need to have a 15-minute neighbourhood,” said Oxfordshire County Council Cabinet Member Duncan Enright, according to Oxford Mail. 

Councillor Andrew Grant, responsible for the county’s highway management, said the decision was based at least in part on environmental concerns. 

“Currently, our roads are gridlocked with traffic, and this traffic is damaging our economy and our environment. Oxford needs a more sustainable, reliable and inclusive transport system for everyone. Traffic filters are an important tool to deliver a transport plan that works for all,” said Grant in a statement. 

Private drivers who wish to travel through the traffic filters may apply for a permit for up to 100 days a year, which averages out to about two days per week. In a household that has multiple vehicles, a maximum of three permits will be allowed.