December 14th, 2009

The eyes of the world are on Copenhagen at the moment as the global powers meet to try to hammer out a deal on climate change.

All this talk of carbon emissions, greenhouse gases and melting icecaps might seem far removed from our own daily lives.

But there are things we could be doing and action we should be taking to play our part in this fight, and I had a couple of reminders of that this week.

One of the messages coming from environmental campaigners is the need to get people out of their cars and of course public transport has a major part to play in that.

But buses not turning up and rising fares are two important barriers preventing us achieving that aim.

This week, we had a debate on the concessionary travel scheme, which is been a major boon for pensioners who now enjoy free travel all over Scotland and we need to ensure that this continues.

But many disabled people face isolation and restrictions to their independence because the scheme doesn’t extend to them.

In Parliament, we took the first steps to putting that right this week.

I would agree that any measures to get people using public transport are to be welcomed, which is why I am support a bill put forward by my colleague Charlie Gordon MSP.

This bill seeks to regulate bus provision to bridge those gaps in services that have resulted from years of privatisation.

It is not acceptable that people are unable to take a bus to church on a Sunday, or to visit a fiend at hospital just because their journey isn’t profitable enough for the bus companies.

So I was happy to lend my support to that bill, just as I was glad to vote for extending access to the concessionary travel scheme to those who need it.

While the big ideas are discussed in Copenhagen, action at home can make them a reality.