Open letter to Scottish Transport Minister, Keith Brown MSP
Dear Mr Brown,
We are writing to you today to express our deep concern about the lack of credibility of the transport elements of the Scottish Government’s draft plan to reduce climate emissions. In particular, we are alarmed at the complete absence of any Scottish ‘policies’ in the plans to reduce emissions from transport.
The plan to meet climate emissions targets is a key test of the Government’s commitment to the environment and on the degree to which it takes seriously the ambitions enshrined in the Scottish Climate Change Act. Given that transport accounts for a quarter of Scotland’s emissions, and that emissions from that sector are higher now than they were in 1990, the baseline year, emissions from transport must be addressed as a matter of priority.
In a recent Parliamentary Committee meeting about this, you said: “We are using all the levers that are available under our devolved powers and resources to tackle the challenge of transport emissions abatement.” There are a range of actions that the Scottish Government could take to significantly reduce emissions from this sector, which could also deliver huge economic, public health and quality of life benefits.
We cannot achieve the longer-term emissions targets to reduce emissions by 42% by 2020 and 80% by 2050 without a significant shift in how people travel. We call upon you to amend the transport section of the Government’s climate change plan to ensure that Scotland retains credibility in its climate change efforts.
Yours sincerely,
Dr Richard Dixon, Director of Friends of the Earth Scotland
Dr David Brennan on behalf of Pedal on Parliament
Dave du Feu, Lead Organiser of Spokes
Tom Ballantine, Chair of Stop Climate Chaos Scotland
John Lauder, Director of Sustrans Scotland
Colin Howden, Director of Transform Scotland
Lang Banks, Director of WWF Scotland
