Environmental groups slam Scottish budget

Environmental campaigners have slammed the Scottish Government’s budget, accusing the SNP of failing to do enough to boost active travel and mitigate climate change.

Recent analysis showed the budget reduced spending on climate change mitigation by almost ten per cent, falling from £502m in 2015/16, to £456.2m in 2016/17.

WWF Scotland said the Scottish budget is inconsistent with Scotland’s Climate Change Act, while Friends of the Earth (FoE) Scotland accused the Government of condemning the public to more pollution.

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Dr Sam Gardner, Head of Policy at WWF Scotland, said: “There can be little doubt this Budget is inconsistent with Scotland’s Climate Change Act and fails to deliver on the Scottish Government’s commitment to embed climate change across the Budget. 

He added: “With this Budget, the Scottish Government has chosen to pass up the real social and economic benefits that come with taking action on climate change.”

Ahead of the Scottish Parliament’s budget debate, environmental groups called on the Government to take one per cent of the money it plans to spend on trunk roads and motorways and put it into active travel instead.

Emilia Hanna, air pollution campaigner for Friends of the Earth (FoE) Scotland, said: “The Scottish Government has condemned the public to more pollution and more climate emissions by opting to spend twenty times more money on new motorways than on walking and cycling paths. The decision comes only a day after news that over 2,500 people in Scotland die each year from air pollution, up from earlier estimates.

“The Scottish Government has promised that in four years’ time 10 per cent of all journeys will be made by bike. We are currently at under two per cent of trips made by bike so the Government has a mountain to climb.

“Edinburgh Council has been increasing its spending on active travel year on year and as a result cycling rates have soared. The next Scottish Government must follow suit and candidates for the May elections should support the call for 10 per cent of future transport budgets to go to walking and cycling.”

Ahead of the election Stop Climate Chaos called for all parties to make home energy efficiency a National Infrastructure Project, deliver a Warm Homes Act, target capital investment to boost low carbon infrastructure and shift from private cars towards public transport and active travel.