from Sunday Herald, 14 December 2008
Major new transport projects given the green light by Scottish ministers will spew out 900,000 extra tonnes of pollution by 2020, jeopardising the government’s targets to tackle climate change.
The transport minister, Stewart Stevenson, told the Scottish Parliament last week that 29 proposed road and rail schemes across Scotland would “cut” carbon dioxide emissions by more than 100,000 tonnes “compared with business as usual”.
But according to the leading environmental group, WWF Scotland, all that means is that a little pollution will be shaved a huge projected increase. Instead of transport emissions growing a million tonnes by 2020, they would grow by 900,000 tonnes.
Scotland’s carbon account will still be taken “massively into the red”, argued WWF Scotland’s director, Dr Richard Dixon. And as a result ministers will struggle to meet their target of reducing climate pollution 80% by 2050.
“The week after the climate change bill was introduced we should have had a transport plan about investing in rail, cycling and walking and working hard to get people out of cars,” he said. “Instead we have a monster more-of-everything plan which panders to the car driver at the expense of the climate.”
The government’s assessment of the environmental impact of its transport plans. was a “joke”, Dixon claimed. “Suggesting that doubling the amount of driving space on major roads will not increase emissions would be funny if this were not about wrecking the planet.”
Among the 29 projects backed by the government’s Strategic Transport Projects Review are another Forth road crossing, the dualling of the A9 and upgrades to the A96, A82, A77 and the A90. The review also supported electrification of the rail network, and promised improved train services between Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness, Aberdeen and Perth.
In a separate development, plans for a £20 million boost for cycling were rejected last week by the Scottish Parliament’s Finance Committee. The amount of money left to spend on cycling was “miserable”, argued cycling campaigners.
The Scottish government, however, insisted that its transport plans would result in “a net reduction in emissions”. It stressed that it was committed to meeting its climate change targets.
“We recognise the challenge of reducing emissions and are currently developing a range of short, medium and long term policy options to drive the changes needed across government to meet our ambitious targets,” said a government spokesman.
“We will be continuing to invest heavily in public transport, whilst promoting cycling and walking as an alternative to the car. Priorities such as electrifying the rail network and innovative plans to turn the existing Forth bridge into a dedicated public transport only corridor bring with them an opportunity like never before to encourage people onto public transport.”
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