22 June 2010
Towards a low carbon economy
Transform Scotland have today published their response to the Scottish Government's discussion paper 'Towards a Low Carbon Economy for Scotland'.
Our response was prepared by Matthew Byrne with input from board member Calum McCallum. Calum commented:
"The transition to a low carbon economy presents a number of opportunities where Scotland has a comparative advantage, such as electricity generation by renewable means. However, the paper concentrates too much on technological fixes for transport problems and on electric cars in particular. While Scotland does not possess any mass car production facilities, investing in public transport would have a significant economic impact as we are already a volume producer of public transport vehicles.
"Unfortunately, the Government's discussion paper fails to address the significant changes to existing transport policy that are required. The Government needs to re-focus transport policy away from the current road-building programme. We need more electrification of the railways, better public transport in urban areas, and many more people walking and cycling for short journeys. We also have to reduce the need for travel through facilities such as video-conferencing and by making sure that we create communities that are not car-dependent.