Businesses and environmentalists have called on the Scottish Government to set a date for phasing out cars running on petrol and diesel.
Conservation charity WWF Scotland has teamed up with organisations across Scotland involved with electric vehicles to call on the Scottish Government to take action to reach future emissions targets.
Independent analysis conducted for WWF found half of buses and one in three cars on Scotland's roads needs to be electric by 2030.
Read more: Anger as rising fees at Donald Trump's Turnberry golf course hit locals
The organisations now want the government to set a date to phase out fossil fuel vehicles as well as putting in place plans to enable rapid growth of the Scotland's electric vehicle-charging network, require public transport to shift to low-emission vehicles and to introduce low-emissions zones in towns and cities.
Fabrice Leveque, WWF Scotland's climate and energy policy officer, said: "Recent research has shown that the switch to electric vehicles is not only possible but essential if we're to reduce climate emissions from Scotland's transport sector.
"Moving to electric will also clean up the dirty air in our towns and cities, and drivers will benefit from much lower fuel costs.
Read more: Anger as rising fees at Donald Trump's Turnberry golf course hit locals
"Already several countries across Europe are considering phasing out fossil-fuelled cars within the next ten to fifteen years.
"Scottish companies are already involved in manufacturing electric buses and batteries, installing charge points and operating low-emissions vehicles, reflecting growing global momentum behind the move to electric.
"The fact that in Norway today almost a third of new car sales are electric vehicles shows it can be done."
Read more: Anger as rising fees at Donald Trump's Turnberry golf course hit locals
Supporting the push to phase out fossil-fuel cars and transform Scotland's transport network are EV Association Scotland, Falkirk bus manufacturing firm Alexander Dennis, Dundee's electric taxi company 203020 Taxis, Thurso firm AGM Batteries and electric vehicle charging point installers BMM Energy Solutions.
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: "We are committed to freeing Scotland's towns, cities and communities from harmful vehicle emissions by 2050 and we are investing heavily to accelerate the widespread adoption of electric vehicles.
"Combined with our commitment to introduce the first low emission zone in Scotland by 2018, this shows we are taking firm action to tackle climate change and reduce air pollution."
She said electric vehicle sales in Scotland are increasing, there are now more than 600 public charge points and the government is investing in electric public sector vehicles and low-emissions buses.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel