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This article provides the first detailed and evidence-based account of the coalition government's approach to transport-related carbon management.

It exposes the existence of a ‘governance vacuum’ between the statutory target and a very weak devolved implementation system (i.e. ‘fuzzy governance’ and ‘fuzzy accountability’).

Research in four major city regions reveals a systemic switch from an emphasis on carbon management and reduction towards economic growth and job creation.

Officials within the policy design and delivery chain emphasise the manner in which the demands of democratic politics tend to frustrate meaningful policy change.

A general demand by actors at the local level not for the discretions delivered by localism but for a more robust and centrally managed—even statutory—governance framework.