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Scotland has ditched ambitious climate change targets as being “out of reach”, after the UK’s Climate Change Committee said it would not be able to meet them because of insufficient delivery on reducing emissions.
In an embarrassing climbdown from goals branded as world leading by former first minister Nicola Sturgeon, the government shelved its statutory goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 75 per cent by 2030 from 1990 levels.
The Scottish goal for 2030 went beyond the rest of the UK’s 68 per cent target over the same period.
The UK commitment is also one that the Climate Change Committee has said it has “low confidence” would be met, after UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced a series of U-turns on key green measures.
“In this challenging context of cuts and UK backtracking, we accept the CCC’s recent rearticulation that this parliament’s interim 2030 target is out of reach,” said Mairi McAllan, Scottish minister for wellbeing economy, net zero and energy, on Thursday.
McAllan said the government would introduce a new legislative package of climate action measures seeking to sustain its commitment to a target of achieving net zero by 2045.
Initiatives include quadrupling the number of electric vehicle charging points by 2030 and an integrated ticketing system for public transport as the government aims for a 20 per cent reduction in car use.
She also said there would be consultation this summer around a carbon land tax on the largest Scottish estates to incentivise peatland restoration and forestation.
The admission of failure on Scotland’s pledge comes after the hottest year on record. Each of the past 10 months has also been the hottest, leaving scientists unnerved by evidence the world is warming faster than expected.
When Glasgow hosted the UN COP26 climate summit in 2021, Sturgeon said Scotland could lead the world into a green revolution.
“Scotland is halfway to net zero . . . but the hard work is still to come after years of missed opportunities,” said Mark Ruskell MSP, climate spokesperson for the Scottish National party’s coalition partners, the Scottish Greens.
The CCC described the removal of Scotland’s 2030 target as “deeply disappointing”, saying interim targets and plans to deliver on them are what makes any net zero commitment credible.
The climate plan announced by Sturgeon in 2019 had “no comprehensive delivery strategy”, the CCC said in its report last month.
The Scottish government had missed the legally binding annual emissions target eight times in the past 12 years, it said. A delay in the Scottish government’s draft climate change plan last year had left the required acceleration in emissions reduction “beyond what is credible”.
Douglas Lumsden, Scottish Conservative shadow secretary for net zero, energy and transport, described the move as an “abject humiliation” for an SNP-Green government that boasts about its “supposed environmental credentials” but “routinely over promises and under delivers”.
Polling by the non-profit climate research advocacy group Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit and Focaldata of 1,010 adults in Scotland, found that 73 per cent of Scots supported the longer term target of reaching net zero greenhouse gas emission by 2045.
“For all the Scottish government’s strategies and visions, tangible progress decarbonising the everyday economy — how we heat our homes, how we get around, and the food we eat — has been glacial,” said Dave Hawkey, senior research fellow at IPPR.
Additional reporting by Attracta Mooney in London
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