Words are easy

While the Scottish Government’s new commitment to tighter climate change targets is laudable and its policies are showing a lead at least within the UK, I would be much more persuaded by concrete action rather than words.

Transport accounts for 37 per cent of Scotland’s greenhouse gas emissions yet road building programmes continue to dominate investment, and the ludicrous proposed reduction in Air Passenger Duty has not been ruled out. Cleaner forms of mass transit, especially buses, are in steady decline while rail services under severe pressure.

Here in the former mining community of Levenmouth on the Fife Coast, now the most deprived in Fife, we’ve seen similar virtue signalling in the form of a raft of fine polices addressing inequality and exclusion accompanied by no significant action.

Levenmouth is the largest urban area in Scotland with no rail services, a catchment of almost 50,000. We have a Network Rail line currently mothballed which, if reopened, would remove significant freight and passengers traffic from congested roads for a meagre investment of around £50 million.

Such shovel-ready projects are the low-hanging fruit of practical climate change action, allowing a simple and

straightforward option for any Government wishing to back up its bold policies and targets. STUART MCINTOSH Kirkland Drive

Methil, Fife

Dr Richard Dixon, director of Friends of the Earth Scotland, is tenacious in constantly appearing in the press with his climate alarmism and ignoring reality. His latest epistle, “Climate emergency? SNP plans easier carbon target” is yet another (Perspective, 30 April).

Reality. China, India and America, with more than 50 per cent of global emissions, are increasing them. Poland is still mining coal and Germany is still belching out greenhouse gases from its coal-fired power plants.

The world has huge oil deposits, even bigger shale gas reserves and abundant coal reserves, yet Dr Dixon expects countries to leave it in the ground. Dr Dixon does not highlight that the promises to reduce emissions made after the Paris Agreement are not, except for a handful, legally binding and are only one third of what climate scientists say are essential to keep global temperature increases below the tipping point.

There is something he could do. Come up with an answer to the world population of 7.7 billion, the 1bn cattle, 1bn sheep, 769 million pigs and 1.1bn petrol/diesel vehicles in the world all emitting greenhouse gases.

Alongside this, Scotland’s miniscule 0.13 per cent of global emissions is insignificant.

CLARK CROSS Springfield Road, Linlithgow