(Bloomberg) — The Scottish government has scrapped a plan to cut carbon emissions by 75% by 2030, admitting the target is unachievable and needs to recalibrate its approach to tackling climate change.
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Speaking to the Holyrood Parliament in Edinburgh, the Scottish National Party’s net zero secretary Mairi McAllan said the government remains committed to eliminating greenhouse gas emissions by 2045 but will have to devise a new path to get there.
The move comes a month after the UK Climate Change Committee warned that Scotland is unlikely to meet its 2030 target of cutting emissions by three-quarters on 1990 levels because the required acceleration of cuts is not “credible”.
McAllan outlined a raft of measures to tackle vehicle and agricultural emissions, as well as a new system of carbon budgets, and tried to blame central UK government funding cuts for the withdrawal.
“We’re being held back,” McAllan said. “We try to achieve social and economic transformation with one hand tied behind our back.”
The announcement could also damage relations with the Scottish Green Party, which is joining the Scottish government after agreeing a power-sharing deal with the SNP in 2021. The agreement they reached includes a pledge to take steps “to accelerate our transition to net zero. ”
McAllan did not say which target will replace the 2030 target, but instead announced plans to introduce a system of five-year budgets that – if modeled on the UK’s national approach – would describe the total amount of carbon Scotland could emit over consecutive five years. annual periods up to and including 2045.
She promised to publish the government’s final energy strategy “this summer” and also announced plans to:
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roll out a further 24,000 electric vehicle charging points by 2024, quadrupling the total to ease “range anxiety” among drivers
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exploring setting up a Scotland-wide integrated ticketing system for all public transport
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publish a roadmap to reduce car use by 20%
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pilot a program to roll out methane-suppressing food products and additives to reduce livestock emissions
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consultation on a new carbon land tax for large estates
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require farms receiving government support to conduct carbon audits by 2028
“We accept the CCC’s recent restatement that Parliament’s interim target for 2030 is out of reach,” McAllan said. “We must act now to chart a course to 2045 at a pace and scale that is achievable, fair and just.”
–With help from Ellen Milligan.
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