Sustrans Scotland has welcomed plans by the Scottish Government to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 66% by 2032.

Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform, Roseanna Cunningham, unveiled the Government's draft Climate Change Plan on Thursday, 19 January.

The blueprint sets out a number of green proposals for over the next few years, including providing 80% of domestic heat from low carbon heat technologies, having a fully decarbonised electricity sector able to remove CO2 from the atmosphere and increasing the registration number of ultra-low emission new cars and vans to 40%.


While welcoming the new targets, John Lauder, director for Sustrans in Scotland, said in order to achieve the plan, a "wide-ranging set of actions" is required.

"Transport is now Scotland's biggest source of emissions and that while almost all other sectors have achieved some decrease in emissions, the decrease in emissions in transport since 1990 has been highlighted in the report as just ‘marginal'," he said.

"In the context of the Scottish Government's plans in regards to road building and reduction of, it will be of even more critical importance to have targeted measures, including measures on active travel.

"We would prefer to see more detailed proposals on active travel and sustainable transport. In addition to the achievement of emissions reductions, active travel gives a significant opportunity for wide-reaching co-benefits across a whole spectrum of policy areas, through behaviour change to reduce sedentary lifestyles and the reduction of air and noise pollution.

"The best way to achieve active travel objectives within the Climate Change Plan is to increase funding to the Cycling Action Plan 3 (CAPS 2017) and the National Walking Strategy."

(LM/MH)