Charity warning over Scots carbon emmissions targets

Carbon emissions produced by the average person in Britain in the first fortnight of 2020 will outweigh those created by the citizens of seven African countries in an entire year, a charity has said.

Someone living in the UK will take just five days to emit the same carbon as someone in Rwanda does in 12 months, according to findings by Oxfam Scotland.

By 12 January, the average person’s emissions will have overtaken the annual per capita emissions of a further six African countries: Malawi, Ethiopia, Uganda, Madagascar, Guinea and Burkina Faso.

The charity said Scottish ministers must be “deadly serious” about tackling climate change and use this year’s UN Climate Summit in Glasgow to inspire emissions-cutting policies.

Oxfam Scotland said while the Climate Change (Scotland) Act passed by MSPS in 2019 strengthened legal emission reduction targets, the Scottish Government “must now redouble its efforts to make substantial progress” during the next decade.

The head of Oxfam Scotland, Jamie Livingstone, said: “The sheer scale of global inequality when it comes to carbon emissions is staggering.

“It’s a shock to realise that in just a few days our highcarbon lifestyles at home produce the same emissions as the annual footprint of people in some of the world’s poorest countries.

“We need bold new year resolutions from our political leaders to get us on track to meeting targets.”