STURGEON DENIES EMISSION TARGETS ARE ‘OVERCOOKED’
FM stands by ‘ambitious’ bid for greenhouse gas reductions
NICOLA Sturgeon has denied ministers ‘overcooked’ Scotland’s emissions targets, claiming they are merely ‘ambitious’.
The First Minister yesterday hit back at experts who questioned the Scottish Government’s bid to reduce emissions by 75 per cent by 2030.
During an interview at the New York Times climate hub at Cop26 in Glasgow on Wednesday, Miss Sturgeon was asked about criticism from Chris Stark, the chief executive of the Committee on Climate Change.
He claimed that the Government might have ‘overcooked its emissions reduction targets, particularly the 75 per cent number’. Asked if this was ‘fair criticism’, Miss Sturgeon said the targets were ‘ambitious’ and ‘among the toughest in the world’.
Scotland has also pledged to be net zero by 2045 but the past three years of targets have been missed.
Miss Sturgeon said: ‘In a context of too much under-ambition, if I am going to be criticised on the climate challenge, I’d rather be criticised on being over-ambitious than under-ambitious, because even if our determination is to meet that 75 per cent target by 2030, but say we only get to 70 or 72 or 73, that’s probably further than we would have got had we only set a target of a 60 per cent reduction, let’s say.’
Miss Sturgeon added: ‘I think the whole world needs to challenge itself to get to where we need to be much quicker and to go much further. The science is telling us we are running out of time and the planet is in serious trouble, and if we don’t limit global warming to 1.5C the impact is catastrophic.
‘We have an obligation to raise our ambition as much as we possibly can. I will defend our ambition and I will do my damnedest over the next few years to make sure we hit those targets.’
In the interview, Miss Sturgeon was asked to ‘climb off the fence’ about the proposed Cambo oilfield development near Shetland. Last month she said Scotland must ‘be careful’ not to leave communities behind as it transitions away from oil and gas, and failed to demand plans for the site are scrapped.
Yesterday she said: ‘I don’t think I am on the fence. I don’t think Cambo should just get the green light. Cambo got a licence about 20 years ago that, unlike new licences, doesn’t have to go through any climate assessment, and it absolutely should as a minimum, it can’t just be given the green light.’
She added: ‘Our current reality is that we are dependent on oil and gas for our energy needs.
‘We need to make sure when we move away from oil and gas that we look at renewable alternatives and that we are not just simply replacing domestic production with imported production – that would be counterproductive in the point of view of the environment.
‘We also need to make sure that we are able to create new job opportunities for the 100,000 people in Scotland whose jobs depend on oil and gas.’
Meanwhile, Scottish Greens coleader and Government minister
‘I don’t think I am on the fence’
Patrick Harvie said Greenpeace does ‘certainly have the right to criticise’ Miss Sturgeon over her position on Cambo.
This was despite a row between his party and the environmental campaigning group.
Lib Dem leader Ed Davey, who will be at Cop26 this weekend, yesterday said he personally has done more for the environment than the Scottish Green Party.
He said he was ‘really disappointed that the Scottish Greens turned up at Glasgow to talk about nationalism and independence when it is the most significant climate change summit probably we’ve ever had’.
Asked whether he felt he had done more for the environment than the party he said this was ‘demonstrably the case’, citing his previous job as secretary of state for energy and climate change.