1 week Ago By Rachel Amery
The Scottish Government admits it “needs to drop” its target to reduce car use by 20 per cent by 2030. Transport Secretary Fiona Hyslop says the Scottish Government’s target, which was set in December 2020, is now “unachievable” and “unnecessary”. This comes after Audit Scotland published a report at the start of the year stating Scotland is “unlikely” to meet this target due to “minimal progress” being made over the past five years.
During an appearance at Holyrood’s audit committee, Ms Hyslop said: “We need to drop it or change it. We still want to support car use reduction, but I think the figure of 20 per cent by 2030 is not realistic and needs to be changed. “We are taking advice from the Climate Change Committee that will steer us, but that doesn’t change our focus and drive to make a difference.
But we will need to make it more realistic and more achievable. For the best Scottish politics news and analysis, get The Steamie newsletter “We are in a different time than we were in December 2020, we are a different society.” Ms Hyslop later said the Government needed to show “some realism and pragmatism”.
However, she also branded the target “unnecessary” as she said she believed the vehicle trading scheme and the switch to electric vehicles was “doing far more than was anticipated to reduce emissions”. The committee was also told urban areas like Edinburgh and Glasgow will need to “punch above their weight” to offset slower reductions in car use in rural and island areas. Audit Scotland’s report said there had been a lack of leadership and “no clear plan” for the Government to meet its car reduction targets.
In its report, the public spending watchdog said: “A lack of leadership has resulted in minimal progress against the demanding policy intention. It is not clear if the Scottish Government remains committed to the target as key documents remain in draft form. “There is no costed delivery plan or measurable milestones, and arrangements for monitoring and scrutinising progress are insufficient.
” The report also said that to achieve this target, car traffic levels would need to drop by 7.3 billion kilometres to 29.3bn.
The last time car use was at this level was in 1994. Transport Scotland says it will be investing £263 million on regional and local transport projects to encourage more people to abandon cars in favour of public and active transport. The Scottish Government declared a climate emergency in 2019 and set out new targets for reducing emissions by 2045.
Interim targets were also set, including a 75 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. Following the decision to reintroduce peak rail fares on ScotRail trains last autumn, First Minister John Swinney said he still believed the 2030 target could be met. However, in November the Scottish Parliament passed legislation to remove this interim emissions target for 2030 after experts said it was no longer credible.
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