Tories pushing coordinated campaign of climate denial
The latest Scottish Tory campaign to increase air pollution in cities is the latest in a coordinated campaign of climate denial, the Scottish Greens have said.
Today’s attempt to annul the workplace parking levy – a key tool for councils to raise revenues and shift emphasis away from private car use – follows previous attempts by the Scottish Conservatives to get parliament to back other climate science-denying positions, such as opening new oil fields and a UK budget that splurged £21 billion on roads while cutting air passenger duty for domestic flights, a week before the COP26 climate conference.
Commenting ahead of the debate, Scottish Greens climate and transport spokesperson Mark Ruskell said: “The Conservative Party has an uncomfortable relationship with scientific evidence. Boris Johnson certainly ignored clinical advice when he stopped COVID protections in England this week to distract from his own rule-breaking.
“But at Holyrood the Tories have got into the habit of ignoring the climate emergency too. They failed to get the Scottish Parliament to back endless fossil fuel expansions, they failed to win MSPs backing for endless road building and today they will fail to strip councils of powers to tackle air pollution and rising car use.
“As we’ve seen in Nottingham, a workplace parking levy gives local authorities the opportunity to invest in local bus services and regenerate town centres to make them attractive places to walk, wheel and do business. The Tories want to take that opportunity away.
“They are conducting a coordinated campaign of climate denial, as part of a local election campaign based around increasing transport emissions and dangerous air pollution. Thankfully, the public list the climate emergency among their top concerns, so it would appear the Tories will fail again.
“Greens are working for Scotland to invest record amounts in the alternatives, and hopefully in May more Scottish Green councillors will be elected to carry on this work in our communities.”