The Scottish Government has announced £16.7 million additional funding to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the road transport sector. The additional money will be used to significantly increase the number of 'green' buses across the country and improve access to electric charging points in homes, businesses and public spaces.
As a part of her Programme for Government, the First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced the additional funding "to help Scotland lead the way in transforming to a low carbon country".
Last year’s Programme for Government committed to set ambitious targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote the electrification of the road network, with the aim of removing the need for new petrol or diesel cars or vans on Scotland’s roads by 2032.
The announcement confirmed an expansion of the Switched on Towns and Cities initiative which will also help create 20 new ‘electric towns’ by 2025 to support local communities to increase electric vehicle uptake.
The programme confirms that £1.7 million is being invested in more than 100 new green buses while £15 million is being spent on new charging infrastructure, installing more than 1,500 new electric charge points in homes, businesses and public spaces.
This new funding is in addition to an earlier announcement of £20 million to help people make the transition to electric vehicles plus the deployment of 500 new ultra low emission vehicles into the public sector fleet. (See link.)