Scottish Government brands 20% car reduction target 'unnecessary' and says it 'needs to drop' it

The Scottish Government admits it “needs to drop” its target to reduce car use by 20 per cent by 2030.

Transport Secretary Fiona Hyslop says the Scottish Government’s target, which was set in December 2020, is now “unachievable” and “unnecessary”.

Her comments come after Audit Scotland published a report at the start of the year stating Scotland is “unlikely” to meet this target due to “minimal progress” being made over the past five years.

Cars parked on the road. PIC: Lauren Hurley/PA | Lauren Hurley/Press Association.

During an appearance at Holyrood’s audit committee on Wednesday, Ms Hyslop said of the target: “We need to drop it or change it. We still want to support car use reduction, but I think the figure of 20 per cent by 2030 is not realistic and needs to be changed.

“We are taking advice from the Climate Change Committee that will steer us, but that doesn’t change our focus and drive to make a difference. But we will need to make it more realistic and more achievable.

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“We are in a different time than we were in December 2020, we are a different society.”

Ms Hyslop later said the Government needed to show “some realism and pragmatism”.

However, she also branded the target “unnecessary” as she said she believed the vehicle trading scheme and the switch to electric vehicles was “doing far more than was anticipated to reduce emissions”.

Fiona welcomed publication of the latest active travel report.

The committee was also told urban areas like Edinburgh and Glasgow would need to “punch above their weight” to offset slower reductions in car use in rural and island areas.

Figures for 2022 show car use accounted for 39 per cent of all transport emissions and 12.4 per cent of total Scottish emissions.

Car use is, however, 3.6 per cent lower than it was pre-pandemic in 2019. But Ms Hyslop said: “I don’t think the step change many people would have liked to have seen has happened.”

Audit Scotland’s report said there had been a lack of leadership and “no clear plan” for the Government to meet its car reduction targets.

In its report, the public spending watchdog said: “A lack of leadership has resulted in minimal progress against the demanding policy intention. It is not clear if the Scottish Government remains committed to the target as key documents remain in draft form.

“There is no costed delivery plan or measurable milestones, and arrangements for monitoring and scrutinising progress are insufficient.”

The report also said that to achieve this target, car traffic levels would need to drop by 7.3 billion kilometres to 29.3bn. The last time car use was at this level was in 1994.

Transport Scotland says it will be investing £263 million on regional and local transport projects to encourage more people to abandon cars in favour of public and active transport.

But Scottish Greens transport spokesperson Mark Ruskell said: “The lack of ambition from the Scottish Government is disappointing. Dropping this target won’t change the fact that, since the target was set, there has been a serious lack of action from SNP ministers to meet it.

“Emissions from transport remain the largest source of pollution in Scotland, and private car use makes up a huge share of that. We’ve known for decades that to tackle the climate emergency, we need to cut car use, and while the Scottish Government has been strong with words, their actions have been lacking.”

The Scottish Government declared a climate emergency in 2019 and set out new targets for reducing emissions by 2045. Interim targets were also set, including a 75 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.

Following the decision to reintroduce peak rail fares on ScotRail trains last autumn, First Minister John Swinney said he still believed the 2030 target could be met. However, in November the Scottish Parliament passed legislation to remove this interim emissions target for 2030 after experts said it was no longer credible.