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Publication - Strategy/plan

Cleaner Air for Scotland 2: delivery plan

Published
15 July 2021
Directorate
Environment and Forestry Directorate
Topic
Building, planning and design, Communities and third sector, Energy, +5 more … Environment and climate change, Farming and rural, Health and social care, Public sector, Transport
ISBN
9781802010619

A plan setting out timelines, milestones and responsible organisations for delivering the actions in Cleaner Air for Scotland 2: towards a better place for everyone.

View supporting documents Supporting documents

Priority 8: Transport

We support a modal shift to active travel and public transport. This will mean, amongst other objectives, providing a transport system that facilitates active travel choices, better public transport provision, embracing new technologies, and constraints upon private vehicle use, especially in urban centres where pollution and congestion are most acute. The new National Transport Strategy (NTS2) priorities will underpin our efforts to deliver additional air quality improvements in CAFS 2.

Low Emissions Zones

Our strategic approach:

Outcome:

16. Introduce Low Emission Zones (LEZs) into Scotland's four largest cities and ensure that LEZ outcomes are integrated with future City Deals and City Centre Transformation projects to maximise co-benefits.

Actions:

Our key short term actions (to 2022)

  • Transport Scotland will work with local authorities and SEPA to introduce LEZs into Scotland's four largest cities.
  • SEPA working with local authorities and Transport Scotland will provide updateson the performance of the LEZs and continue to update the LEZ models to reflect changes associated with projects such as Spaces for People fund.
  • Local authorities working with Transport Scotland and SEPA will look at opportunities to promote zero-carbon city centers within the existing LEZs structure.
  • The Scottish Government will provide financial support to businesses and individuals most affected by the implementation of LEZs through schemes such as the LEZ Support Fund and Scottish Bus Emissions Abatement Retrofit (BEAR) Fund.

Avoiding unnecessary travel

Our strategic approach includes:

Outcome:

17. We reduce travel demand.

Actions:

  • Our key medium term actions (2024) Transport Scotland will encourage all Scottish employers to apply the Acas homeworking principles (where possible) within their Carbon Management Plans.
  • Public bodies will be exemplars in adopting this way of working, and should incorporate travel from employee commute as part of their corporate carbon footprint and will report these emissions via their public bodies duties reporting.

Active travel

Outcome:

18. We enable and encourage people to travel actively.

Actions:

Our key short term actions (to 2022)

  • Transport Scotland will work with local authorities and active travel partners to provide funding for permanent active travel infrastructure and behavioural change programmes, through grant funded programmes in line with the National Transport Strategy (NTS) Sustainable Travel Hierarchy and the Sustainable Investment Hierarchy and where the projects are clearly aligned to the active travel outcomes framework.
  • Transport Scotland will work with local authorities and delivery partners to make temporary active travel infrastructure, delivered under the Space for People fund during the COVID-19 outbreak, permanent in the medium to longer term. Where appropriate and with due process, for example, in taking account of the implications for disabled people.

Our key long term action (to 2026)

  • The Scottish Government will work collaboratively with partners to deliver our Active Travel vision of enabling walking, cycling and wheeling to be the most popular mode of travel for short, everyday journeys in our towns and cities. We have committed over £500 million over five years for large scale, transformational active travel infrastructure projects, access to bikes and behaviour change schemes.

Buses

Outcome:

19. We support the transition to low and zero tailpipe emission buses.

Actions:

Our key short term actions (to 2022)

  • Transport Scotland will manage the Bus Partnership Fund to support local authorities to establish bus priority infrastructure and adapt the trunk road network to prioritise high occupancy vehicles.
  • Transport Scotland will support the transition to a fully zero emission bus fleet in tandem with preparing/retrofitting the applicable existing mid-life bus and coach fleet for LEZ compliance. Scottish Government will continue to support battery-electric and hydrogen fuel-cell buses through subsidy schemes, investing £120 million over 5 years from 2021/22.

Taxi and private hire cars

Our strategic approach

Outcome:

20. We reduce emissions from taxi and private hire cars.

Actions:

Our key short term actions (to 2022)

  • Transport Scotland will ensure that taxi operations are incorporated into the drafting of 'LEZ Guidance', with cross reference to the 'Taxi and Private Hire Car Licensing' guidance.
  • Transport Scotland will explore the merits of a national taxi and private hire car licencing database in terms of supporting the LEZ enforcement regime.
  • Transport Scotland will continue to support the uptake in cleaner taxis through provision of LEZ Support funding.

Rail

Our strategic approach includes:

RSSB Air Quality Strategic Framework/Rail Decarbonisation Action Plan https://www.rssb.co.uk/en/Research-and-Technology/Sustainability/Air-quality

Outcome:

21. We provide a rail network with minimal impact on local air quality.

Action:

Our key long term action (to 2026)

  • Transport Scotland will ensure that the RSSB Air Quality Strategic Framework recommendations are supported and delivered where practicable in Scotland.

Zero tailpipe emissions

Our strategic approach includes:

Outcome:

22. We support households and businesses to make the switch to zero tailpipe emission vehicles.

Actions:

Our key short term actions (to 2022)

  • Transport Scotland will continue to support the uptake of zero emission vehicles by supporting local authorities to bring forward innovative projects to incentivise battery electric and hydrogen vehicles, including through Switched on Towns and Cities programme and the Scottish Cities Alliance.
  • Transport Scotland will engage extensively on future financing and delivery models to support the growth in the public electric vehicle charging, including ChargePlace Scotland
  • Transport Scotland working with Scottish Procurement and Scottish Futures Trust will work across the public sector to accelerate the decarbonisation of vehicle fleets by establishing innovative ways to invest in zero emission vehicles at scale across the public sector, whilst maximising opportunities to leverage commercial investment through aggregated demand for new products, vehicles and infrastructure.

Lower carbon transport fuels

Our strategic approach include:

Outcomes:

23. We explore the role of alternative fuels in decarbonising our transport system.

Action:

Our key long term action (to 2026)

  • Transport Scotland will work to more fully understand the role of non-electrification routes to decarbonising transport – to lead to a better-defined wider policy position that complements existing electrification work streams. We will explore alternative fuels' potential to power certain vehicle types in the short, medium and long term, whilst still contributing to Scotland's statutory climate change targets.

Freight

Our strategic approach includes:

Outcomes:

24. We reduce emissions from freight by promoting efficient and sustainable freight.

Actions:

Our key long term actions (to 2026)

  • Transport Scotland will collaborate and engage with the freight industry and retailers to explore the options for, and the associated logistics of, 'last/first mile' delivery approaches.
  • Transport Scotland will collaborate with the private sector to identify effective pragmatic solutions on the uptake of zero and ultra-low emission vehicles

Trunk road network and demand management

Our strategic approach includes:

Outcome:

25. We ensure trunk roads are not the main contributor to exceedances of air quality limit values.

Actions:

Our key longer term actions (to 2026)

  • Transport Scotland will work to revoke all Air Quality Management Areas (AQMAs) where trunk roads are the primary contributor to air pollutants.
  • Transport Scotland will ensure that all trunk roads will comply with European air quality limit values.
  • Transport Scotland will explore how we can reallocate road space to cycling and pedestrians following learning from COVID-19 spaces for people.

Workplace parking charges

Our strategic approach includes:

Outcome:

26. We support the implementation of workplace charging levy provisions.

Action:

Our key medium term action (to 2024)

  • The Scottish Government will take forward a policy consultation in advance of drafting Workplace Parking Levy (WPL) regulations, and thereafter, take forward the regulations required to support the WPL provisions in the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 which require commencement and supporting regulations.

Vehicle disposal schemes

Our strategic approach includes:

Outcome:

27. We will incentivise disposal of non-LEZ compliant vehicles.

Action:

Our short term action (to 2022)

  • The Scottish Government will deliver a vehicle disposal program in Scotland that is founded on the principle of emissions reduction.

Contact

Email: andrew.taylor2@gov.scot

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