Scotland could fall short on climate targets
More progress needs to be made on reducing emissions from sectors like farming and transport
Scotland could miss its climate target if it fails to take more action to cut its emissions, its official climate advisors have said. Last year, Scotland set itself an ambitious goal to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045, five years earlier than the rest of the UK. But it must now strengthen its climate change policies in order to meet the target, the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) said. "The spotlight is now on Scotland's plan to deliver meaningful reductions across all sectors of the economy, including from buildings, road transport, agriculture and land use," said Lord Deben, chairman of the CCC, which advises the UK and its devolved parliaments on climate change. "Their contribution to reducing emissions is vital to Scotland's success."
While Scotland has been a leader in renewable electricity and reducing emissions from waste, less progress has been made on cutting its emissions in sectors such as transport and agriculture. REAL ACTION NEEDED Last year, the CCC told the UK government that there is a growing gap between its climate ambition and the policies which have actually been put into place. The UK is still off track on its legally binding carbon budgets due to slow progress on transport, buildings, agriculture and land use, it said. The progress of Scotland, and the wider UK, on the climate front, is particularly significant this year since they will host the major COP26 UN climate conference in November. Both the UK and Scotland's credibility, as president and host of the conference respectively, rest on "real action at home", the CCC said. The conference will take place in Glasgow and is seen as a key deadline for countries to raise the ambition of their goals. Current pledges put the world on track to raise global temperatures by 3°C, not the 1.5°C or "well below 2°C" that the Paris Agreement promises. "This is the COP at which the Paris Agreement is really going to begin," said Caroline Rance, climate and energy campaigner at Friends of the Earth Scotland. "We really need Glasgow to deliver the increases in ambition that are going to close that gap to get anywhere near close to meeting that 1.5°C goal." Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon highlighted the November summit as a key date for the year ahead in her New Year's message, saying it will give Scotland the chance to lead by example. But Rance says Scotland, and other industrialised nations, is not doing enough to tackle the climate crisis. "They're still not contributing their fair share," she says.
“The spotlight is now on Scotland’s plan to deliver meaningful reductions across all sectors of the economy”