SNP bid for renewables target going backwards

A KEY renewables target has been missed by the Scottish Government just days before Cop26 begins.

Earlier this week, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said Scotland must lead by example in the transition to using renewable fuels.

The Scottish Government had aimed for 11 per cent of non-electrical heat generated by renewables by 2020. But a report found efforts had gone backwards, with 6.6 per cent in 2019 down to 6.4 per cent last year,.

Scottish Tory energy spokesman Liam Kerr said: ‘The SNP need to come clean and provide real details of how they are going to get Scotland’s drive to net zero back on track. With Cop26 in a few days this is further evidence that Nicola Sturgeon’s rhetoric far outweighs her own government’s ability to deliver on climate change.’

The target was set in the 2009 Climate Change (Scotland) Act.

A progress report for the Scottish Government from The Energy Saving Trust said: ‘The decrease in renewable heat output and progress towards the renewable heat target between 2019 and 2020 is largely due to changes in operation at a small number of very large biomass sites.

‘Their reduction in output masked the growth in output from new biomass installations and those of other renewable technologies.’

The Government’s own progress report said: ‘Whilst biomass and biomethane dominate renewable heat generation, there has been a steady growth in heat produced by heat pumps. Heat pumps saw the largest increase in number of installations and output, with an additional 3,020 installations contributing to an additional 83GWh of output, compared with 2019.

‘This brings the total heat output from heat pumps in Scotland to 390GWh and the total number of installations to around 21,000.’

But under the latest strategy to decarbonise buildings, which is being overseen by Green minister Patrick Harvie, one million homes and 50,000 other premises will need to transition to low-carbon heat by 2030.

Labour MSP Monica Lennon said: ‘Despite all their warm words, the SNP’s track record on the environment is one of failure.

‘Being a world leader on the environment requires deeds not words.’

Holly O’Donnell, climate and energy manager at WWF Scotland, said: ‘The pandemic will have disrupted progress in 2020 but even before this, the rollout of energy efficiency, heat pumps and heat networks was too slow.’

A Scottish Government spokesman admitted that ministers must ‘go further and faster’ on renewables but added: .‘The small decline in renewable heat from 2019-2020, largely driven by reduced output from large biomass systems at industrial sites, should be seen in the context of a difficult year for the Scottish economy due to the pandemic.’

‘Track record is one of failure’