12 September 2012
Warning Signs launch event report
On September 12th, Transform Scotland launched the report ‘Warning Signs: Is Scotland Moving Towards Sustainable Transport?’ with a highly successful event, chaired by Transform Scotland's vice-chair Helen Todd. The event was held at Edinburgh’s Hemma restaurant, with over 70 participants in attendance, including representatives from the Scottish Parliament, environmental organisations, local universities, as well as various interested members of the community.
The ‘Warning Signs’ report, authored by Sandra Wechner and Colin Howden, was summarized in a presentation, delivered by both Sandra and Colin. The presentation, like the report, focused primarily upon aspects of the annual budget of the Scottish Government dealing with sustainable transport. Positive trends were highlighted, including the increasing prevalence of low carbon vehicles, and an overall reduction of annual per capita miles travelled by Scottish citizens.
However, the main thread of the report and corresponding presentation was exposure of negative trends, and those compounded by the current budget. A key finding, amongst others, was that while the most economically vulnerable socio-economic groups (such as young people and women) were the most likely to utilise public transport, ticket prices continue to rise. Additionally, although the transport budget has increased, expenditure for the improvement and maintenance of public transport has decreased.
To counteract these projected negative impacts resulting from the current budget, Sandra and Colin provided commentary and advice on how the budget could be better spent. To the Cabinet Secretary for Finance, John Swinney, it was suggested that funds directed toward infrastructure by the Scottish Government should be recycled back into the Scottish economy. For example, by contracting with Scottish companies, as opposed to foreign ones, those funds stay within Scotland and provide greater local economic impact. Furthermore, to the Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure, Nicola Sturgeon, it was suggested that other aspects of the budget should be directed at lowering emissions and pollution by promotion of active travel. Given Nicola’s political background, it was also anticipated that public health benefits of active travel would also be relevant. Lastly, Sandra and Colin stressed the importance of the Scottish Government’s investment in active travel, its commitment to combating climate change, and its duty to meet the Climate Change (Scotland) Act targets.
In addition to the main presentation, Gail Wilson, Coordinator for Stop Climate Chaos Scotland, also provided information about recent developments in climate change. According to Gail, Arctic sea ice is at an all time low, and for the first time ever leading academic scientists have spoken out directly linking climate change with the activity of humans. Gail also pointed out that some of the poorest regions on the planet are beginning to suffer from the effects of climate change. In 2009, the Scottish Government were seen to have “world leading legislation” directed at reducing these effects in the form of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act, however the Scottish Government has failed to even reach its first target. To ensure that the future climate change targets are met and this “leading legislation” is not simply empty rhetoric, Stop Climate Change Scotland recommended that at least 10% of the Governmental budget be directed at encouraging and increasing active travel.
Matt Eastwood, Development Officer for Carplus, also provided a sort presentation. He focused on the effect of car sharing arrangements on reduction of vehicular emissions. Matt pointed out that car clubs in urban centers are now fairly common, and that even rural areas are participating in car share clubs. For those areas that do not have a dedicated car club in place, individuals may partake in peer-to-peer car shares or one way car clubs. Matt stated that when multiple people share a car there are less car journeys overall, resulting in a reduced emissions and miles travelled per person. However many regions, in particular rural areas, lack car share schemes, and further progress will require government funding of sharing schemes to promote and expand this practice.
Furthermore, Ian Findlay, Chief Officer of Paths for All, spoke about the urgent need for investment in active travel. He commented that a mere 1.1% of journeys in Scotland are made by bike, yet a staggering 50% of car journeys are less than 2 miles (which could be reasonably seen as a journey short enough to make on foot or bicycle). According to Ian, active travel is not only healthy economically and physically for the individual, but replacing very short journeys with walking or cycling would dramatically improve Scotland’s environmental status. Ian noted that increased expenditure on active travel would be ‘preventative spending’, due to the overarching health benefits associated with physical exercise gained through active travel, and would not be overly costly for the Scottish Government, whose current expenditure on active travel amounts to less than 1 % of its total budget.
Lastly, David Spaven, Scottish Representative for the Rail Freight Group, presented on the benefits of rail freight. As David mentioned, rail is a more sustainable method of transporting freight goods, as it produces one third of the amount of CO2 when compared to the road transport of similar goods. Expanding the use of rail freight would therefore be beneficial to the environment, and would also reduce road maintenance costs caused by heavy goods lorries. For example, the new Forth Road Bridge would not be as urgently needed if all freight from heavy goods lorries were instead transported by rail. In future, suggests David, Scotland could prevent degradation of roads by shifting the transport of primary exports, such as whisky and timber across Scotland and to different countries to rail instead of road. However, as David pointed out, to do this, the rail industry requires heavy investment from both the private and public sectors.
Following the presentation portion of the event, a panel comprised of the evening’s speakers hosted a question and answer session. The issues discussed included the importance/lack of importance of cars for transport, the methodologies utilised in obtaining data for the ‘Warning Signs’ report, and what climate change and active travel goals would look like in an independent Scotland.
The event concluded with thanks to Mike Harrison, who is leaving his post as Treasurer with the Transform Scotland Board after 11 years in the post. It was followed by drinks and a Swedish buffet, giving all attendees an opportunity to engage in further discussion of the presentations and report.
