THE distance travelled in car journeys should be cut by a fifth by 2030 as part of a “world-leading” aspiration to tackle climate change, according to a wide-ranging plan from the Scottish Government.
Ministers published a 255-page Climate Change Plan yesterday, setting out more details of how they aim to achieve targets set by an earlier programme in 2018.
With a goal of reaching “net-zero” by 2045, other announcements include £180 million in funding for carbon capture and hydrogen technologies. It also includes £120m towards zero-emission buses and £50m for “active freeways” along major travel routes.
The report says: “This update commits to reduce car kilometres by 20% by 2030, a truly world-leading aspiration, and we are not aware of any other country that has committed to such an ambitious transformation.”
It further aims to “phase out the need for new petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2030” and review options on fuel duty to reduce unsustainable travel.
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Scotland’s Climate Change Secretary Roseanna Cunningham said: “These policies and proposals set us on a pathway to a just transition to net-zero.
“This journey will not be easy. We know there are factors we can’t control, including technological advances and the limits of devolved power.
“We will need to be innovative, to learn as we are going and to utilise new and exciting technologies and ideas.
“We also need the UK Government to match not just our ambition but our action.”
But Friends of the Earth Scotland said the plan falls short of the transformative action needed to tackle climate change quickly.
Climate campaigner Jess Cowell said: “The plan relies heavily on illusory promises of carbon capture, hydrogen from gas and hare-brained schemes to burn trees for energy.
“There is a very real concern that negative emission technologies are being used as a ‘get out of jail free’ card by the Government to make their figures add up rather than doing the hard work of cutting emissions in the here and now.”
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