SCOTTISH ministers will go ahead with converting two major roads into dual carriageways – despite Nicola Sturgeon declaring a “climate emergency.”

The Scottish Greens have called on the government to use the estimated £6 billion being spent on the roadworks on improving the Highland railway line instead.

But at FMQs, Deputy First Minister John Swinney argued that “the government has to take forward its agenda in a sustainable way” while insisting that the work on the A9 and A96 must go ahead.

Mr Swinney, who was standing in for Ms Sturgeon during the D-Day commemorations, said: “Anyone who is familiar with the A9 and the A96 will know that both of these roads have, by their current construction and by the volume of their use, very serious and alarming safety records.”

Scottish Greens co-convener Patrick Harvie said: “The single track Highland mainline railway, which runs parallel to the A9, has been described as an antiquated embarrassment. Dualling that line and electrifying it could be done for a far lower cost than the government’s road-building scheme.”