Scotland misses annual emissions target for the third year in a row
Scotland has again missed its annual target for cuts to greenhouse gas emissions, new official figures reveal.
It is the third year in a row the Scottish Government’s climate change goals have been missed.
The latest statistics show emissions in 2019 were 51.5 per cent lower than 1990 baseline levels. But that figure falls short of the national target, which demands a 55 per cent reduction over the same period.
The Scottish Government has set a legal target to slash greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2045, five years ahead of the UK deadline for the same result.
Source emissions in 2019 were lower than the previous year, but only because 2018 figures have been revised upwards.
The report also shows Scotland’s natural assets, such as peatlands and forests, are now considered to be a source of emissions rather than acting as a carbon sink to absorb them due to their degraded state.
Transport remains responsible for the biggest share of the country’s total emissions, followed by the business and agriculture sectors.
The Scottish Government has come under fire over the failure from opposition parties and environmental organisations.
Fabrice Leveque, head of policy for WWF Scotland, said: “Despite some positive progress in key sectors, including transport and heat, the pace continues to fall short of
where we need to be if we’re to meet our net zero ambitions.
“It’s critical that transformative action is taken, especially in agriculture, where emissions are flatlining.
“Peatlands have the potential to lock away huge amounts of carbonbutduetotheirdegraded state they’re releasing this back to the atmosphere. Increased effort in these areas could revitalise rural economies and restore our precious nature.”
Scottish Greens environment spokesman Mark Ruskell said ministers needed to “wake up” to the urgency required to curb global warming:
He said: “These latest stats show that Scotland is not cutting emissions fast enough to meet our international obligations. There must be a step change in Scotland’s policies to cut emissions, before it becomes irreversible.”
Monica Lennon, Scottish
Labour spokeswoman for net zero, energy and transport, said “rhetoric” was “not being matched by action”.
She said: “Empty promises and missed targets are not good enough in a climate emergency. In the year of COP26, when Scotland should be leading the world, we are instead failing on the basics. We need bold action now to get us back on track.”
And Scottish Liberal Democrat energy spokesman Liam
Mcarthur said the SNP’S “warm words will make for an even warmer planet”.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “The figures do show that we have already achieved significant progress in reducing our greenhouse gas emissions – we are now more than half-way to our target of becoming a netzero nation. This is something we can all be proud of.”
A window cleaner who was electrocuted at a cottage he bought with his wife had been playing with their baby girl in the sunshine moments before.
Daniel Mcfarlane, 36, died on June 1 while testing out new equipment with a colleague. The reach and wash system, for cleaning windows on tall buildings, had been extended and acted as a conductor for powerfromanoverheadpylon running over the house, giving both men a massive electric shock.
Minutes before, his wife, Ria, 40, had gone inside to feed 11-month-old Frankie-joy and thought it was a "sick joke" when Mr Mcfarlane’s colleague ran in to tell her what had happened.
She said the couple did not plan to have children but she is now finding being a mother is helping her cope with her loss.
She described her husband as her "total soulmate" and said the couple had a whirlwind romance, marrying less than two years after they met at a friend's wedding.
Mrs Mcfarlane, an accountant, said her husband was so savvy and responsible about risks that she struggled to believe water had hit a pylon, and said he would take his wedding ring off at work to avoid it getting caught.
She believes electricity may have arced and hit the equipment, causing a massive shock which killed Mr Mcfarlane and seriously injured his colleague.
The couple, who were married for seven years, moved intothecottagenearhaddington, East Lothian, in April.
Mrs Mcfarlane said: "We were at such a happy point in our lives, everything had just fallen into place.
"Even that day it was perfect, it was a really nice sunny day, Dan got home around 3pm.
"We were going to go out in the garden, I was going to have a glass of Prosecco, we had bought Frankie some stuff for her first birthday but decided to give it to her then instead.
"We got her a ball pool and we thought we'd give her that.
"Daniel had said to me 'I think you should have a glass of wine, you've not had one in ages' and had got some cans of Coke from the shop.
"He only got the equipment that day, it was too hot for
Frankie so I took her inside to feed her.
"Daniel's colleague came running in shouting 'me and Dan have been electrocuted' and I jumped off the bed.
"Dan was lying on the floor shaking, I thought it was a sick joke except he was struggling to breathe.
"I wasn't allowed to touch him but I had already done."
She said the aftermath was like a movie as 999 crews flooded the property including people in Hazmat suits, police vans and fire engines.
She believes her husband died at their home rather than at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh where medics continued to try to save him, but he was pronounced dead at 5:50pm. His funeral will be on Saturday.
Mrs Mcfarlane said: "We had just moved into the cottage, on April 30, I haven't even unpacked everything.
"When we got the cottage we were pinching each other saying 'stuff like this doesn't happen to us'.
"I think he died here, they said he died at the hospital but I just felt it, I felt like he'd gone.”