THE Scottish Government has defended its record on air pollution after an environmental organisation questioned its plans to introduce just one low-emission zone.
ClientEarth has written to the Government calling for “urgent clarification” on cleaner air plans as it said three Scottish cities will have pollution outwith legal limits in 2020.
The letter welcomes the proposal for a low-emission zone in 2018 in one Scottish city – which has not yet been named – but seeks further details on action across the rest of Scotland.
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The environmental law organisation, which has twice successfully challenged the UK Government’s response to illegal air pollution levels, said UK Government figures project Glasgow will have illegal levels of nitrogen dioxide until 2024, while both Aberdeen and Edinburgh will hit the legal limit by 2020.
Detailed plans for the country’s first low-emission zone are expected later this month, but ClientEarth says it is not clear how legal limits will be met elsewhere. ClientEarth’s Anna Heslop said: “We’re confused as to why their plans contain measures that will only help people in one Scottish city.
“We want to know what the First Minister will do to protect people across Scotland, in all the places where people are suffering from breathing toxic air.
“We hope that they can provide us with some reassurance that the measures they plan to take will bring pollution down to within legal limits as soon as possible all over Scotland, not just in one place.”
Environment Secretary Roseanna Cunningham pointed out Scotland has made progress in tackling air pollution, adding: “We acknowledge there are still specific areas of our towns and cities where levels are too high. That’s why the Scottish Government has plans in place to make further progress and has already set more stringent air quality targets than the rest of the UK.
“We acknowledge the important role which low-emissions zones can play, and we are working to have Scotland’s first low-emission zone in place next year.
“We are the first country in Europe to legislate for particulate matter 2.5 – a pollutant of special concern for human health – and we are providing support to local authorities, including £3 million a year to help tackle air pollution hotspots.”
ClientEarth is calling for a national network of low-emission zones to keep the dirtiest diesel vehicles out of the UK’s most polluted urban areas and has given the Scottish Government 14 days to reply to its letter.
Emilia Hanna from Friends of the Earth Scotland said: “ClientEarth are absolutely right to ask the Scottish Government why they are proposing only one low-emission zone when illegal and dangerous levels of pollution continue to plague many towns and cities in Scotland.
“The Scottish Government needs to finalise the details of its first low-emission zone straight away and needs to commit to introducing low-emission zones in all Scottish cities with illegal air pollution.”
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