Welsh ministers will today hear how pollution could be tackled by scrapping older cars and replacing them with credits to use on buses, trains and daily car and bike hire.

The Urban Mobility Partnership, a group of organisations established by Enterprise Holdings that are promoting environmentally-friendly transport policies, will today brief ministers on the advantages of mobility credits.

These work by people trading in their older, more polluting cars for credits in excess of the market value of the car, for use on a range of clean and efficient modes of transport.

This ‘mobility as a service’ approach is being trailed in Manchester by Enterprise and Stagecoach and funded by Imove from the European Union to provide transport on demand across a variety of modes to Manchester Airport Group staff.

‘Enterprise established the Urban Mobility Partnership with key transport partners to look at multi-modal solutions that can be implemented in the short and medium term to improve air quality and reduce congestion,’ said Ben Lawson, from the Urban Mobility Partnership and Vice President of Strategy for UK and Ireland at Enterprise Holdings.

‘Working with national government and local authorities we are developing collaborative policy solutions. The partnership represents all modes of transport and we have a ready built mobility as a service proposition that can be implemented almost immediately.

‘This would be a concrete step that the Welsh government could take as part of its Clean Air Plan to help drive modal shift which will lower congestion and improve air quality. We’re looking forward to discussing with ministers how we can help Wales make these proposals a reality.’

Mari Arthur, director of Cynnal Cymru said: ‘The Extinction Rebellion protests have prompted a lot of discussion about environmental issues in recent weeks and prompted the Welsh Government to declare a “Climate Emergency”. Today, we’re hearing about practical responses to tackle that emergency.

‘Wales has long led the way on sustainability. Now is a chance to create viable alternatives to private car ownership, and encourage people to scrap their older, polluting cars and get them into more efficient vehicles and modes of transport.

‘We need radical solutions to change behaviour, tackle air pollution and climate change; Mobility Credits gives Wales an opportunity to once again lead the UK on sustainability actions.’