Earlier this month the European Union’s climate change service reported that it was likely that 2024 will once again be our planet’s warmest year, meaning that the last year where a cooler than average year was recorded was 1976. Which in Scotland, for those of us a certain age, was the one we remember as the warm sunny one.

The science – and impact – of our temperature trajectory is however no laughing matter, and so we look to governments, scientists and engineers across the world to try and slow down the ever-increasing heating.

Welcome news only a few weeks before as the Scottish Government announced the outcome of the Scottish Zero Emission Bus Challenge (ScotZEB2), with no less than £42 million of grant funding helping to deliver 252 zero emission buses to our roads. What’s not to like about an initiative to incentivise one of the most environmentally friendly modes of transport that people can choose, further encouraging commuters to ditch the car and travel by bus with zero CO2?

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Well, with a burgeoning bus manufacturing industry in Scotland and indeed the wider UK it would be good to see as many of these 252 taxpayers funded buses built locally. We know competition is both healthy and essential, but it must be based on a level playing field particularly when you consider a scenario where yours and my taxpayer money could be spent without the wider societal benefits that we should expect.

I’d like wherever possible that buses funded by Scottish taxpayers be built in Scotland – or the UK - securing skilled well-paid jobs, with wider people and business benefits flowing down to a local supply chain that wins too.

Within section 23 of the ScotZEB2 guidance for bids, the guidance clearly stipulates adherence to Scottish Government’s Fair Work First principles. This rightly outlines the need to follow the policy of high quality and fair work to qualify for grants, other funding and contracts.

What this means in practice is being a real living wage employer, working together with trade union colleagues, investing in workforce development and ensuring employees have top class facilities to work in. However, this only applies to manufacturers with operations inside the UK borders, which begs the question – why one rule for Scottish manufacturing and another for everyone else? If this is about a race to the bottom on costs, why include such a stipulation when clearly it may not be applied fairly to all?

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Instead of creating a high standard of fair work within employers applying for these public sector grants and contracts, the move in fact penalises Scottish industry and potentially rewards overseas organisations for their ability to bypass the rules and undercut in price. The outcome of such a pattern could in future risk driving much needed contracts away from Scottish industry, along with the high-quality Scottish jobs that are placed at risk as a result.

My next concern talks to the principle at the very heart of this intervention: de-carbonisation of transport to meet our net-zero ambitions. In a scenario where we are importing zero-emission vehicles more generally, I asked our net zero support colleague to give us an estimate on what the carbon cost of a typical global shipping journey might be for a bus, based on a fair, conservative basis.

Assuming an average bus weighs 15 tonnes, and travels around 12,000 nautical miles if this route comes from China, that’s a conservative 2.1 tonnes of carbon dioxide per bus, or over 500 tonnes for all 252 buses. And if we convert that to an average UK commute in a diesel car that’s the equivalent of two million miles in a diesel car, or a carbon cost of one quarter of a million average commutes. Like any bulky item, it underlines the reason why distance from manufacture to place of use is critical, and why as many of these buses manufactured in Scotland – or the UK – is the best answer for both our economy and our planet.

I hope that ScotZEB2 supports the Scottish economy and climate action targets, encourages inward investment and growth within the zero-carbon vehicle supply chain. It’s a programme of ambition for all the right reasons, but the direction of travel must deliver quality employment and net zero ambitions too.

Paul Sheerin is the chief executive of Scottish Engineering