Stop this fantasy politics over greenhouse gases

Published on Sunday 28 June 2009 21:59

PASSING legislation is easy. Implementing it is the difficult part. Last week, the Scottish Parliament voted through a legal mandate on the Scottish Government to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 42 per cent by 2020. This is well above the 34 per cent target that a UK government panel of experts claimed was reasonable.

Today, the Scottish Government has announced one way it hopes to meet the 42 per cent requirement. It wants all of Scotland's 30,000 public-sector vehicles to be "low carbon" (ie, electric) by 2020, along with 95 per cent of each year's 200,000 new private cars.

This is a bold vision, but it is at odds with the Scottish Government's own Climate Change Delivery Plan, which states: "Emissions from transport can be expected to decrease significantly but only in the medium term" – ie, by 2030, not 2020. The truth is that we can expect little reduction in vehicle emissions by 2020 except through better petrol and diesel engines, and that requires tougher EU regulations. There is a case for pushing the public sector to switch to electric vehicles – something that is within the competence of the Scottish Government. This would help create an electrical charging infrastructure. But it is hardly feasible that in only 11 years, 95 per cent of all the cars bought in Scotland will be electric powered, or even hybrids.

If we are to cut emissions, we need to replace green fantasies with some hard-headed thinking.