Introduction

The Scottish Government and COSLA remain fully committed to reducing our reliance on cars in a way which is fair and equitable for all of Scotland’s communities. This is a key policy in helping us deliver across all of the National Transport Strategy (NTS2) priorities and outcomes.

In 2019, Scotland declared a global climate emergency. Research commissioned by Transport Scotland in 2021 concluded that it would not be possible to reach net zero emissions through a transition to electric vehicles alone, and that changes in people’s behaviour to reduce overall car use will also be required. Car use remains the largest emitter within the transport sector with 39% of total transport emissions and 12.99% of Scotland’s overall emissions (Scottish Greenhouse Gas Statistics 2023) so reducing car use is deemed essential for the transport system to be de-carbonised, therefore Scotland’s Climate Change Plan update included a target to reduce car distance travelled in Scotland.

In 2022, we published a draft route map to achieve a 20 per cent reduction in car kilometres by 2030. The route map was aimed predominantly at national, regional, and local stakeholders to facilitate a collaborative approach to meeting the target, and intended to raise awareness of the need for change and empower people to swich to more sustainable travel modes in Scotland.

A key piece of feedback was that the use of kilometres (km) for the headline target was distracting from the overarching policy aim, when the majority of the general public use imperial measurement units such as miles when referring to car use. That is one of the reasons why the policy has been changed to remove reference to ‘car km’ and refer instead to ‘car use’. This intends to separate out the policy aim and the measurement while making the language more accessible.

The development of the target was informed by the statutory emissions target of net zero by 2045 and the interim target to reduce emissions by 75% by 2030. Following the passage of the Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets) (Scotland) Act 2024, we will now set out our carbon budgets through secondary legislation taking into account the latest advice on Scotland’s Carbon Budgets from the Climate Change Committee. This means that the 75% reduction in emissions by 2030 target is no longer statutory, which allows the opportunity to revise the approach to car use reduction in Scotland with a longer term lens.

Audit Scotland, in their Sustainable Transport Audit report, called for the Scottish Government to clarify its commitment to reducing transport emissions through the car km target, and to set out how this aligns with the new carbon budget approach towards its climate change policy.

The publication of this policy statement is the first step in our renewed approach to achieving sustainable car use reduction in Scotland. In this document, we reaffirm our commitment to this policy outcome, setting out the current national context, the societal benefits to pursuing this ambition, and our overarching approach to the policy. Following receipt of the necessary evidence this summer, we will develop a new, longer-term target for reducing car use and set out our approach to delivery of this target alongside key stakeholders.