No, you will not. I am really sorry, Douglas—I do apologise. If I were sitting around the table as a committee member or as someone giving evidence, I would be disappointed about the meeting being ended there. However, I have no option: we are on incredibly tight timescales to do all the things that the committee has to do. The climate change plan is perhaps the biggest example—we have only until the end of February to do the work on it, as well as all our other business.

I thank everyone who has given evidence this morning for their time and for the details that they have provided. As convener, I apologise to you for not having enough time to get all your answers, and I also apologise to committee members for cutting them short, but we have a report to get through straight after this evidence session.

I now move the meeting into private session.

Welcome back. We are now in public for our third item of business, which is an evidence session on the Scottish Government’s draft climate change plan. The plan sets out how the Government intends to meet its carbon emissions reduction targets. The committee is leading a cross-committee effort to scrutinise the draft plan. The Scottish Government has said that it will lay the final plan before the Parliament is dissolved at the end of March. Everyone giving evidence today will be contributing to a report that we will publish in late February. A debate in the chamber will follow.

I welcome to the meeting Professor Adrian Davis, transport research institute, Edinburgh Napier University; Professor Rachel Aldred, University of Westminster; Lamech Solomon, head of decarbonisation policy, Logistics UK; and Sara Collier, senior public affairs manager for the Confederation of Passenger Transport. Thank you all for attending this morning.

This evidence session will cover all the main aspects of the transport sector. I note that we discussed electric vehicles and charging points at the meeting on 16 December, so I feel that that part has probably largely been covered, although we may come back to it.

In the normal way in this committee, I get to ask the introductory questions, which are meant to be a gentle warmer into the bank to give you each a chance to say what you think. Are the policies that are set out in the draft climate change plan sufficient to deliver the Scottish Government’s overarching goals for car use reduction and modal shift, including in the freight sector?

The answer could just be yes or no, but I suspect that you will want to say a bit more than that. I remind you that there are four of you, so if somebody wants to say something that somebody else has already said, it would be better just to say, “I agree with so-and-so,” rather than repeating it all, because time is of the essence.

Professor Davis, do you want to start?

I am checking this with broadcasting colleagues, but my understanding is that broadcasting will unmute you.

Ah, okay. I understand that. Normally, broadcasting unmutes witnesses, but because you are coming in in a different way, you need to unmute yourself. I apologise. We can now hear you. Go for it.

Yes. How should we deal with it? It appears that private car use will be hit first by the climate change plan—it is at the pinnacle or the sharp pointy end—and the private car is used in rural areas more than anything else, because there ain’t anything else.

I call Kevin Stewart, who has been waiting patiently to come in.

I am afraid that it will be your last question.

I want to drill down a bit into the draft climate change plan. Annex 2 addresses sectoral changes. When it comes to transport, on page 51, it says:

“In order to achieve our Net Zero targets in relation to the transport sector, action will be required to be taken by all members of society, from the general public, businesses, public sector organisations as well as all levels of government”,

which seems to be a call to arms. Then, on page 28 of annex 3, the total gross cost for achieving net zero in the transport sector is shown as about £12.7 billion and the net cost as £6.9 billion.

Can someone help me understand who is paying the £12.7 billion? Where is it coming from and where is it going? On the basis that you have all read the paper, Adrian Davis, do you want to have a go at answering?

I understand that you did not write the plan, but you come to this meeting with a huge amount of knowledge. We are expecting everyone to read, understand and sign up to the plan, and not understanding or identifying the costs makes it more difficult for people. Do you want to have a go at that question, Sara?

In relation to the evidence that we have heard so far, I want to drag us back to the Highlands and Islands, which is the area that I live in. We do not have such transport routes. Yesterday, there were no trains and no buses. If I had jumped on a bicycle to get here, I would probably have got only as far as Aviemore by now. How do we sell this policy to the people who are not the low-hanging fruit, who might be penalised by some of the things that have been suggested?

Sara, do you want to have a go at answering that?