Just Transition: draft plan for transport in Scotland

Annex A: Engagement and Co-Design

Many different views, ideas, and lived experiences from people, organisations and businesses have shaped the draft Just Transition Plan for Transport. The sections below set out the different stages of public engagement that we’ve undertaken so far. It is important to highlight that national discussions around transport and fairness did not start with the development of just transition plans and will continue beyond the planning process.

This draft Plan addresses some key themes which emerged from our engagement to date:

• Fairness should always be the guiding principle for future policy priorities and people will be more willing to change their travel behaviours if they feel that government has taken an approach which maximises fairness.
• Communication about how priorities are decided will improve trust between people, business and government. A clear sequence of actions will help everyone to prepare for changes to the transport system.
• Partnership working, between industries and with government as well as with communities and the wider public sector, is the best way to deliver transformative change.
• Regional differences should be recognised, reflected and celebrated in all just transition planning.

Building on the Just Transition Discussion Papers (What We Asked)

The Scottish Government published a series of discussion papers in 2023 to inform the Climate Change Participation Programme. The Transport discussion paper set out the scale of the decarbonisation challenge for the sector and set some high-level priorities. We asked a series of questions^[48] to help us to shape the draft Just Transition Plan for Transport:

• We asked people to picture the transition to net zero transport and what kind of action government might need to make to change travel behaviours.
• We asked about how the transition might have different impacts on different groups of people.
• We also asked for input to help shape the Transport Just Transition outcomes.

Additional questions focussed on some priority areas for transformational change:

• Reducing inequalities through reducing car use.
• Facilitating viable alternatives to car use.
• Capturing the opportunities from investment, trade and innovation.
• Skills and jobs in the transport transition.

Climate Change Participation Programme (Who We Asked)

We engaged with over 1,000 people as part of the Climate Change Participation Programme in 2023, this was alongside engagement with over 200 public and private organisations. The Programme covered Climate, Adaptation and Just Transition themes in Transport as well as the Built Environment and Construction sector, and the Agriculture and Land-Use sectors. Therefore, it is not useful to divide the information on participants by sector, and the outputs of the Programme were not intended to be wholly representative of all views about Transport in Scotland. That said, there were around 20 discussions that were wholly or mostly transport-themed, which included:

• 5 x national public engagement workshops with an independent facilitator
• 5 x focus-groups with lower-income households
• 8 x regional events with faith-based organisations
• 2 x sessions on concepts of fairness and road user charging (as part of a wider deliberative research project on just transition funded by the Scottish Government via ClimateXChange)
• 1 x workshop with public sector hosted by the Improvement Service
• 1 x Gaelic language event in which transport emerged as a key theme

Trusted Messengers

Some facilitating organisations interpreted the discussion paper questions to be more appropriate to their participants or worked with them to steer discussions where there were issues that participants wanted to focus on, within the wider theme of Transport. For example, there were discussions hosted by ARUP and Ipsos Mori where people talked about road-user charging as a possible way to discourage car use. Outputs from more targeted discussions may not appear in the draft Transport Just Transition Plan, though it has provided valuable insights which will inform future policy development.

Engagement Quote - In 2023, as part of our engagement on the Transport Just Transition discussion paper, YouthLink Scotland worked with young people (from Stirling, Renfrewshire, East Renfrewshire, Dumfries and Galloway, Dundee, Fife, North Lanarkshire and East Dunbartonshire) to come up with their ideas for Transport in the future. Children and young people wanted us to consider:

• “Reducing cost of transport (including cheaper electric cars)
• Payment schemes or discounts for young people for public transport or buying bikes
• Toll roads that charge cars for low occupancy within vehicles, or laws for minimum number of passengers
• Award schemes e.g. Duke of Edinburgh, John Muir Awards, that encourage young people outdoors and to travel actively
• Reducing the stigma of not having a car – make sustainable options seem ‘cooler’
• Cycle confidence training for young people”

Link to full report from Youthlink.

We are grateful to everyone who took part in events. More information on the Climate Change Participation programme and a list of organisations who received grant funding to help us to hold valuable discussions is available here: https://blogs.gov.scot/participation/2025/02/17/climate-change-participation-programme-23-24

Other Sources: Engagement which informed the development of the Transport Just Transition Plan (including research)

Additional research was commissioned by the Scottish Government and ClimateXChange on the fair distribution of costs and benefits in the transition to net zero emissions. This research included “deliberative discussions” with members of the public, see Annex C (People and Equity) for more detail.

The independent Just Transition Commission undertook extensive engagement and produced a Transport Brief which included recommendations such as taking a ‘whole system approach’ to decarbonisation focussing on public transport and demand management (vehicle use reduction) complemented by a redistributive strategy to achieve public consent.

Scottish Trade Union Council engagement with Transport Workers

The STUC supported worker engagement to just transition discussion papers through trade union officials and members in the transport sector across Scotland’s buses, railways, aviation, ferries, and manufacturing and road transport. The contents of the Scottish Government’s discussion papers were distilled to prioritise questions with immediate implications for workers in the sector. These were included in an online survey, alongside general questions to establish the current state of the sector from workers perspective. In their responses, workers who responded focussed on:

• Concern about the cost of living and lack of investment in their local areas
• Belief their industry would need to change to address climate change, although less were aware of plans from their employers
• Lack of certainty on the future particularly given the time needed for workers to adapt and undergo training
• The importance of more reliable and affordable services across public transport
• The potential for change in transport to deliver new jobs and a healthier environment for all, alongside concern that if managed badly it could lead to reduced staffing and poorer services.

Transport Workers Survey, 138 Respondents, 2023

Wider Business Engagement

In collating views to inform the Transport Just Transition Plan, consideration was given to industry/business engagement conducted out with the just transition specific engagement in 2023 as these contained discussions relevant to a just transition for the sector. Views from the Transport sector were considered as part of the 2024 CXC SWOT analysis of economic opportunities of net zero in the context of Low-carbon transport fuels and HDV manufacture. In addition to the Participation Programme, Transport Scotland engaged with key industry stakeholders via the:

• Zero Emission Truck Taskforce (HDV Decarbonisation Pathway 2024) bringing together key representatives from the logistics, manufacturing, energy and finance sectors to shape the pathway to the decarbonisation of Scotland’s road freight and logistics sector.
• Bus Decarbonisation Taskforce (Routemap 2023) a joint initiative between industry and government to decarbonise the bus fleet in Scotland.
• Consultation on the Aviation Strategy (analysis 2022) which included workshops and an online consultation open to both the public and organisations.
• 20% Car Km route-map business engagement conducted by Transform Scotland and Edinburgh Napier (Tackling Traffic 2022)
• Zero Emission Mobility Industry Advisory Group (final report 2019-2021) which included operators, manufacturers and suppliers to the automotive sector in Scotland as well as motor trade organisations, passenger groups and skills organisations.

Transport Scotland Engagement with People and Communities

Previous engagement and evidence which have informed key Transport Scotland strategies, interventions and policy documents have aligned with “just transition principles” even if this was not explicit or different terminology applied, for example:

• National Transport Strategy – Social and Equality Impact Assessment undertaken for the first Delivery Plan (2020)
• Engagement on car use reduction and consideration of evidence set out in the consultation Technical Annex.
• Active Travel Ambassador report
• Fair Fares review, including a citizen’s panel
• Transport and Child Poverty Beyond the Pandemic – research commissioned by Transport Scotland, conducted by The Poverty Alliance