Despite a certain amount of nervousness and political parties playing games, the introduction of Scotland’s Low Emission Zones has gone well. This demonstrates that politicians can be bolder when introducing environmental measures. Glasgow has had an LEZ in operation for …
Integrated ticketing. Hurrah ! Again
Among the policy announcements that was supposed to temper our disappointment at the 2030 target climate target being abandoned was one that the Scottish Government “will explore a new national integrated ticketing system for public transport in Scotland.” This is a great idea. …
Electric vehicles reaching a tipping point
Despite the UK and Scottish Governments going backwards on their top-level commitments to phasing out the sales of petrol and diesel cars and vans, things are actually going pretty well for electric vehicles. A new analysis shows that someone who bought a …
Renewables energy’s rise and rise
Renewable energy prices are tumbling and installation rates are surging ahead. In almost every part of the world, it is cheaper to install wind and solar than it is to invest in new fossil-fuel power generation. Globally renewable energy grew by a …
Good ideas on climate change needed more than ever
The world is in a climate crisis. Never has there been a greater need for good ideas to reduce emissions here and at home. I was lucky enough to be involved in the creation of a Climate Manifesto for Stop Climate Chaos …
Fossil-fuelled vehicle phase out – SNP roll over
Rishi Sunak may have gone backwards on the environment, but the SNP have been too quick to roll over on the ban on petrol and diesel vans. Despite delaying or scrapping a number of key commitments, Sunak claims that the …
Wales forges ahead on the environment
On Sunday a default speed limit of 20 miles an hour in urban areas came into force in Wales. A public health study estimates that this will result in 40% fewer collisions every year, saving 6 to 10 lives and avoiding 1,200 …
Electric vehicles – coming quicker than you think
Electric vehicles are not the answer to all our transport woes but they are a big part of the change we need on transport, and they are coming quicker than you might think. Watch any city street and you cannot …
Climate and collective insanity
If aliens are watching our antics on climate change from afar they can surely only conclude that our species is collectively insane… Report to the Galactic Accession Committee, from the Chief Anthropologist Background – we have been observing the planet …
Air pollution progress – good but not enough
Friends of the Earth Scotland’s annual round up of air pollution found that, in 2022, all the main monitoring sites in Scotland met legal standards set to protect health. This has only happened once before, when the pandemic lockdown drastically reduced …
Sailing into disaster
Despite producing as much climate pollution as the country of Germany, international shipping has largely escaped much attention in the climate debate. Most countries don’t even include these emissions in their official carbon accounts. Sending things by ship is efficient. If we …
COVID helps climate ambitions
The climate change emissions results for 2020 are out and they show that we met our target for the first time in four years. Hurrah! But only because COVID lockdowns kept emissions from cars and planes unusually low. The new figures published …