Committee
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee 06 January 2026
06 Jan 2026 · S6 · Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Item of business
Draft Climate Change Plan
Professor Davis
Watch on SPTV
Following what Rachel Aldred has said, the best example of an experimental trial of sustainable transport interventions across the whole of the UK was the sustainable travel towns project involving Worcester and Darlington from 2004 to 2009, which was funded by the Department for Transport. That was at least a five-year programme—Rachel has touched on the problems with one-year funding—which brought about a 2 per cent overall reduction in car use and a 7 to 10 per cent reduction in the number of car trips per resident. The fact that it relied on a multipronged approach is a key point. There needs to be a set of multiple interventions, not just one. Ideally, there should probably be at least three or four interventions, such as bus gates, segregated cycle facilities or more facilities for pedestrians—continuous footways are an example. Substantive interventions can be implemented. A number of such interventions were trialled across five years. 09:30 The target of a 20 per cent reduction in car use has been dropped by the Scottish Government and replaced in the draft plan by a reduction of 4 per cent a year, but that will not be sufficient, according to the evidence from the sustainable travel towns. That is the best available evidence that we have in the UK from the point of view of what we in academia call external validity. Can such a target be transferred to another place? Yes, such a target can probably be transferred from England to Scotland, but that will not be enough. The available evidence shows that the best measures, which Mark Ruskell asked about, are congestion charging, parking and traffic controls, and traffic zones—Rachel Aldred talked about the very good example of road space reallocation in Paris. Those are the interventions that give the best bang for your buck in reducing car use. If that is what we are seeking to do, those are the best sort of measures. As was referred to at the beginning of this session, we do not suffer from a lack of good-quality evidence. What we lack is the implementation of those good examples.
In the same item of business
The Convener
Con
Welcome back. We are now in public for our third item of business, which is an evidence session on the Scottish Government’s draft climate change plan. The p...
Professor Adrian Davis (Edinburgh Napier University)
Good morning, everyone, and thank you for inviting me. I will give a short response to that question, because I know that you have been given evidence on thi...
Sara Collier (Confederation of Passenger Transport)
I know that the convener said not to mention things outwith the two outcomes that he referred to, but I will just mention the transport outcome on zero emiss...
The Convener
Con
I call Lamech Solomon. Can you hear me, Lamech?
Lamech Solomon (Logistics UK)
Yes, I can hear you. I echo what everyone has said so far on the detail. From what we have heard from our members, the support for modal shift does not refl...
The Convener
Con
Thank you for that. Sorry, I was looking up something in my papers to make sure that I had the right bit. I come to Rachel Aldred.
Professor Rachel Aldred (University of Westminster)
Thank you for inviting me here. I will not repeat what other people have said but, like Adrian Davis, I was disappointed by the underwhelming nature of the t...
The Convener
Con
I want to drill down a bit into the draft climate change plan. Annex 2 addresses sectoral changes. When it comes to transport, on page 51, it says: “In orde...
Professor Davis
Not really, no. The responsibility is everyone’s, but it is the responsibility of Government to set the framework, and that means that it needs to understand...
The Convener
Con
I am not disputing your thought process; I am trying to work out where the £12.7 billion that is needed will come from, and the net costs, because a saving o...
Professor Davis
This might jump into the whole issue of co-benefits, which I know is on the agenda for today’s meeting. One of the points about active travel—and I say that ...
The Convener
Con
Those savings would have to be £6.9 billion.
Professor Davis
Yes, they would, but there are ways to do that.
The Convener
Con
Well, that is the assessment. I am trying to work out where the figures come from, as somebody who is interested in figures and how they come about. How much...
Lamech Solomon
Apologies, I was not able to unmute.
The Convener
Con
I am checking this with broadcasting colleagues, but my understanding is that broadcasting will unmute you.
Lamech Solomon
Because I joined the meeting via a browser, I think I need to unmute myself.
The Convener
Con
Ah, okay. I understand that. Normally, broadcasting unmutes witnesses, but because you are coming in in a different way, you need to unmute yourself. I apolo...
Lamech Solomon
Brilliant. I know that you had a discussion on electrification earlier. I want to reiterate that our members, who are making the initial investment on the ve...
The Convener
Con
Rachel, do you want to add anything on where all the money is coming from and where the savings are being made?
Professor Aldred
Sure. Obviously, this is not a plan that any of us produced but, on costs and benefits, as Adrian Davis said, the benefits of a substantial increase in activ...
The Convener
Con
I understand that you did not write the plan, but you come to this meeting with a huge amount of knowledge. We are expecting everyone to read, understand and...
Sara Collier
The Scottish Parliament information centre’s assessment made the same points, so I imagine that your committee report will go back to them. One of the areas ...
The Convener
Con
The next questions will come from Mark Ruskell.
Mark Ruskell (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Green)
Green
One of the challenges that we have, particularly in this committee, is that we are trying to scrutinise this plan for the very short period of time of the 12...
Sara Collier
As I said, I was encouraged by the list of policies and proposals. The new policy to develop and deliver bus priority measures on the trunk road network defi...
Lamech Solomon
We hear a lot from our members that they really appreciated the modal shift revenue support scheme, which was a Westminster Government scheme that was admini...
Professor Aldred
I have a few things to add. To pick up on Lamech Solomon’s point on funding settlements, I have found in my research that it is really important to have long...
Professor Davis
Following what Rachel Aldred has said, the best example of an experimental trial of sustainable transport interventions across the whole of the UK was the su...
Mark Ruskell
Green
What role has travel planning had in those case studies? I am thinking, in particular, of large institutions and employers. Should national and/or local gove...