Climate expert casts doubt on car travel target in Scotland

Climate change experts have said they are “dubious” about whether the Scottish Government will be able to hit another key environmental target by the end of this decade.

Chris Stark, chief executive of the Climate Change Committee, warned it will be “extraordinarily difficult” for ministers to achieve the goal of reducing the number of kilometres travelled by car by 20% by 2030.

He issued the warning days after Holyrood’s Net Zero Secretary, Mairi McAllan, announced the Scottish Government was abandoning its target to reduce emissions by 75% by 2030.

While Ms McAllan has pledged to publish a plan later this year setting out how the car-use reduction can be achieved, Mr Stark said: “I am dubious about any plan to be successful in delivering the 20% reduction, and the reason I say that is because the requirements are pretty big to pull that off.”

Giving evidence to MSPs on Holyrood’s Net Zero Committee, Mr Stark said to hit the target the Scottish

Government will need to have the same impact that was achieved in the first year after London introduced the congestion charge for every year between now and 2030.

He said: “Maybe they have a plan to do that in the Scottish Government.

“I would love to see it. But that took years of planning for London to introduce that and we haven’t had that kind of planning in cities across Scotland.”

Adding that the more rural nature of parts of Scotland can mean people having to make longer journeys, he insisted the target for reducing car kilometres will be “an extraordinarily difficult target to hit”.

Chris Stark.