The Scottish Green Party are hopping mad that the Scottish Government, in which they are a partner, have abandoned their goal of reaching a 75% cut in carbon emissions by 2030. The move was triggered by a damning report from an independent committee tasked with tracking such things.

“The 2030 target is no longer credible because of inadequate action in areas including home heating, transport and farming.”—UK Climate Change Committee (CCC), March 2024

“We accept the CCC’s recent re-articulation that this parliament’s interim 2030 target is out of reach.”—Màiri McAllan Cabinet Secretary for Wellbeing Economy, Net Zero and Energy, April 18^th 2024

The move is a significant climbdown from a government which was one of the first in the world to declare a climate emergency.

Màiri McAllan was elected to the Scottish Parliament in 2021 representing Clydesdale. She was appointed Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Just Transition in March 2023, then as Cabinet Secretary for Wellbeing Economy, Net Zero and Energy two months ago.In her role, the Scottish Government says she is supported by three colleagues:

• Gillian Martin as Minister for Energy, Just Transition and Fair Work
• Lorna Slater as Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity
• Patrick Harvie Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings, Active Travel and Tenants’ Rights

Readers may be bewildered by this proliferation of titles that weave ministerial responsibilities across what might seem logical boundaries. But First Minister Yousaf has taken what was once a penetrable structure under six Cabinet Secretaries and exploded them into no fewer 28 ministerial posts.

The cross-cutting thinking that seems to be behind these interwoven titles appear to have run foul of the politician’s foibles of ambition, mistrust, and empire-building. The result is an absence of joined-up thinking and a corresponding dearth of real action. Addressing climate change requires a spectrum of co-operation right across government. This does not appear to be happening.

Consider transportation as an example. The Greens and several councils have a hostile attitude to motorists, praise public transport and subsidise a myriad of train services, bus routes and ferries. But in the 17 years since the SNP formed the Scottish Government, there have been nine Transport Ministers and a dearth of joined-up thinking.

Transport is Scotland’s biggest contributor to climate change, emitting over a quarter of all our greenhouse gas emissions. Within this, the largest share of transport emissions comes from cars, accounting for 38%. While car use in thinly populated rural areas may remain essential, countering overwhelming use of private cars in cities means making public transport an easy and cheap way to move around. Following sterling examples set by Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Munich, etc. would render carbon targets achievable.

Meantime, despite Newspeak press releases emanating from a long succession of transport ministers the level of transport cohesion in any of Scotland’s six main cities is risible.

1. Edinburgh The second-most popular tourist destination in the UK boasts the most tourists passing through its main station: Waverley. Most of the city’s 50+ bus routes pass nearby. But they are scattered over a dozen nearby stops accessed through one of the five exits from the station. Accessing the tram involves five escalators and a 300m walk. So does the airport bus since it was thrown off Waverley Bridge and taxis banished to the nether regions of New Street. In the station itself, there is no information to find them. Visitors from Europe think all this rather third-world.
2. Glasgow Whether at Central or Queen Street, bus information on buses on adjacent streets does not exist, nor does the obvious need for a link over the half mile between the two. And, through Queen Street boasts a subway access, Central has none.
3. Dundee Since the area was revamped, the station sits on an island surrounded by multi-lane traffic. It is easier and more obvious to get to the V&A Dundee than to find local buses on Marketgate, in the city centre, 1/2km away across two main roads.
4. Perth has the magnificent ex-Caledonian station. This is 100m from the bus station. Trouble is, both are a half-mile along South Street to the city’s heart St John’s Square
5. Aberdeen also has a fine station and, like Perth, is close to the bus station. But it is located 300m south of Union Street, where the local buses run. There is a way to get there, involving a car park, a stairway, and a mall, but it is kept “secret”.
6. Inverness also has a nearby long-distance bus station. But the way to get there involves Platform 7, a gap in a fence and another car park. Tourists never find it.

But the bitter icing on this almost inedible cake is the lack of integration among modes of transport. Our European neighbours cracked this one half a century ago when Munich rolled all its transport under a single ticket in time for the 1972 Olympics. Even London got its act together a quarter century ago with the Oyster card.

But Scotland? Well, there is the National Entitlement Cards. A significant slice of the population uses these to access public transport. As a result, all buses and train stations have had to be equipped with readers.

But they are available only to under-26’s, pensioners, and those with disabilities. These are not the people driving private cars who need to be lured onto public transport. So, rather than dreaming up idealistic wheezes like container recycling or 75% carbon reduction, what if the Scottish Government were to threaten the Transport Minster with her jotters if she didn’t roll out a Scottish Oyster in two years and properly integrate train and bus within four?

#1109—946 words