Hansard

The experience in communities is that what has happened is leading to fewer routes and higher fares. That is working against the policy that encourages people into buses, and buses are still the poor neighbours of trains in respect of public subsidy, although they have more passengers.

This is also about car management. The report on proposals and policies 2 does not have a target to reduce car use or journeys. The not far? leave the car campaign is fine as far as it goes, but it will not achieve the step change that is needed. We need to engage the public, which is another reason why the Friends of the Earth campaign is so welcome. Some of the options out there might not be popular, but there are many that are carrots instead of sticks.

Urban air pollution needs to be tackled in partnership with local authorities, which have responsibility for monitoring air quality, declaring problems and producing air quality action plans. Currently, there are 35 air quality action plans in Scotland, but they are failing to deliver the reductions. I know that the Government is reviewing the local air quality action plans, and I am pleased that one of the outcomes is expected to be the increased monitoring of fine particles. I hope that the outcomes will include a plan to introduce a Scottish standard for those.

We also need to consider whether the appropriate obligations are on local authorities, but we need to be honest about the difficulties that they face in achieving the targets. Although they have the statutory responsibility to manage air quality, the statutory obligation for meeting the air quality target is on the Scottish Government. Local authorities often work in historic environments that were not designed for modern travel or population numbers; they work on short electoral cycles, which can make some of the more unpopular decisions and options difficult to deliver; and we cannot forget that they are working under significant financial pressures.

We must ask whether the Government gives enough direction and levers to local authorities to deliver. The minister will point to welcome projects and pilots, but in replies to recent parliamentary questions the Scottish Government has confirmed that improving air quality is not an expectation of the single outcome agreements with local authorities or community planning partners.

In addition, the Government has not included the need to meet air quality objectives in the second Scottish planning policy or the third national planning framework. We need to ask whether existing tools are being used effectively. For example, I walked from the station this morning past hotels outside which coaches were sitting with their engines idling; and I live opposite a primary school where cars will often sit with their engines running for 15 minutes until the school closes. There is a power that local authorities can apply to use to fine vehicles that are idling, but I understand that only six authorities so far have applied to use that power.

RPP2 is the underpinning strategic document, but it is not a particularly convincing set of proposals for action in this area. For Scotland to meet its annual emissions targets, it needs the EU to set the target at 30 per cent and all the policies and proposals to be introduced. There is an overreliance in RPP2 on proposals, and the concern that failure to meet early targets makes them harder to deliver in later years is justified.

There are opportunities to strengthen the policy direction to give more tools to partners to make a difference, and we should take them. The proposed low emissions strategy must be the focus for renewed emphasis. It must be robust and provide a clear timetable for action. We need to have the ambition to no longer have a need for air quality management areas. The Government has announced the strategy, but we have little information on what it will include and whether it will be consulted on. Given the weakness of RPP2 on transport and the lack of focus on air quality in the planning policy, the strategy must give added impetus to delivery in those areas.

I welcome the amendments from other members, but I do not fully understand the need for the Conservatives’ amendment to take out from my motion reference to the European Commission’s legal action, which is a statement of fact. However, as I have outlined, I agree with the amendment’s analysis of RPP2.

Although I am sympathetic to the Greens’ amendment and support calls for more investment in low emission travel, I am cautious about the amendment’s proposed mechanism of proportionality and the consequences that it might have for big infrastructure projects. Such consequences might be the intention of the Greens, but there are concerns around what that would mean for a big rail transport project, for example, and the potential for big projects on either side of the debate to skew how proportionality would work. However, I look forward to Patrick Harvie’s contribution to the debate.

The Government’s amendment asks me to put faith in a strategy that I have not yet seen, so I will listen to what the minister says further on that.

Air pollution remains Scotland’s greatest environmental health threat. It affects people and communities every day across Scotland, contributing to and causing poor health and impacting most on the young and the vulnerable. However, it is a problem with a solution that is in our power, and we should work together and be bold enough to tackle it.

I move,

That the Parliament is concerned with the level of air pollution identified by the 2013 air quality monitoring results, which show that a high number of areas are in breach of air quality safety standards; believes that air pollution is an aggravator of respiratory conditions, is linked to other serious health conditions and is understood to be a contributory factor in over 1,500 deaths in Scotland annually; highlights the European Commission’s launch of legal proceedings against the UK due to failure to cut excessive levels of nitrogen dioxide; regrets that, in addition to failing to meet the EU standards on nitrogen dioxide, Scotland has also failed to meet Scottish standards on nitrogen dioxide and small particles (PM10); calls on the Scottish Government to increase the monitoring of fine particles (PM2.5) and to introduce a Scottish standard for these; believes that it is vital for the Scottish Government to work closely with local authorities as well as delivery partners to ensure that the necessary action is taken to tackle air pollution in Scotland; notes the Scottish Government’s plan to bring forward a national low-emissions strategy, but believes that, given the scale of the challenge that the country faces, this strategy must be robust, include a clear timetable for action and ensure that national planning guidance and transport policy play a full part in delivery to ensure that air quality targets are met.