Hansard

Poor air quality is a daily experience for too many people in Scotland. Those who live, work or go to school or nursery in streets with high levels of air pollution will feel an impact on their health, and that impact will be all the greater for those with on-going medical conditions.

Our air quality breaches legally binding European air quality limits for nitrogen dioxide and tougher Scottish air quality standards. For the people who live in affected communities, the situation is unacceptable. However, the fact is that, in many ways, modern air pollution is invisible.

The Minister for Environment and Climate Change might stress the fact that emissions have fallen significantly since 1990 but he knows as well as I do that that is mainly due to the closure of steel plants. Our society has changed from one in which the air was polluted by heavy industry or the burning of domestic fossil fuels—and it is clear that improvements have been made in those areas through tighter regulations and new technologies—to one in which urban air pollution is like passive smoking. Such pollution is invisible and is having an impact on the most vulnerable.

This morning, the Scottish air quality website, which reports on air quality monitoring sites, reported elevated air pollution levels at three locations across Scotland: Falkirk Banknock; Edinburgh’s Salamander Street; and Dumbarton Road in Glasgow. The official classification of air pollution levels at those sites is moderate but the levels of PM10, which are small particles, have been recorded at more than 50 micrograms per m³. If that average stays above 50 for the rest of the day, it will be a breach of the daily average limit, and only seven breaches of that limit are allowed each year.

As a result, while we discuss the issue in the chamber, poor air quality is having an impact on people’s health. There is evidence that it reduces life expectancy, and links with cancer are being investigated. Poor air quality particularly affects those with respiratory and cardiovascular conditions and has a more significant impact on children. Moreover, those who sit bumper to bumper in cars should know that these pollutants can seep into their cars and make the air inside more polluted than that outside.

I know that many members across the chamber are concerned about this issue, because they frequently question the Government about it.

I acknowledge the work that Friends of the Earth is doing to raise awareness of the damage that is being done by poor air quality in urban areas and to help to push that issue up the political agenda.

Although particles and pollution travel, the majority of poor urban air quality is caused by road traffic. Addressing poor air quality needs political will, commitment and, crucially, resources—not just financial resources, but capacity in the Government and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency to drive that forward and make progress.

I am not suggesting that meeting the European Union targets or the Scottish standards is easy—although it is becoming difficult to find an environment target that the Government is meeting. However, the European Commission has launched legal proceedings against the United Kingdom because of a lack of progress in cutting nitrogen dioxide levels. Glasgow is cited as a city of particular concern. Other European countries are failing to meet the target, but the lack of a convincing strategy from the UK, to which Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland contribute, has raised concern. Furthermore, the tougher Scottish standards, which were enabled by the Environment Act 1995, have never been met. The 2005 nitrogen target and the 2010 small particles target were missed. Therefore, there is not a lot of confidence around that those targets will be met under the current plans.

We need, of course, greater investment in and a focus on modal shift to make walking, cycling and public transport options more attractive for people. The Government has a target of increasing cycle journeys to 10 per cent of all journeys by 2020 and improving air quality as part of making them more attractive. There are on-going concerns that the active travel budget is not funded at a level to make those aims achievable. We need to see more integrated transport options.

Our bus network has huge potential to deliver more in that area. Passenger cars produce nearly 60 per cent of all the CO₂ emissions from road transport across the UK, compared with the 5 per cent from buses. In a city centre, a journey by bus can result in half the CO₂ emissions per passenger of those from a journey by car. Buses are often seen as the problem, but they should be seen as part of the solution. They need to be reliable, quick and pleasant, but they are often snared up in city traffic. More needs to be done to avoid congestion and to invest in bus stop infrastructure and real-time information.

Measures such as the green bus fund and the bus investment fund are welcome, but cuts to the bus operators grant make progress more difficult, as they are resulting in fewer routes and are restricting people’s options.