Greenhouse gas emissions jump 5% in year

Published on Thursday 18 September 2008 22:19

SCOTLAND'S greenhouse gas emissions rose by more than 5 per cent in a year, new figures show.

Despite the Scottish Government's ambitions to reduce damaging emissions by 80 per cent by 2050, latest figures show they increased by 5.4 per cent between 2005 and 2006.

The main reason was a shift to a higher dependence on coal-fired power stations for electricity, because of fluctuating gas prices.

Environment groups have described the figures as a "wake-up call" and said they emphasised the need for new carbon-capture and storage technology to be used to clean up power stations.

In contrast, in England during the same period, emissions dropped by 1.4 per cent.

The energy sector accounted for 89 per cent of emissions in Scotland in 2006, with power stations alone creating 32 per cent of the carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere.

And whereas overall emissions fell by 13.4 per cent between 1990 and 2006, in transport they increased by 13.5 per cent.

Stewart Stevenson, climate change minister, said: "I am in no doubt about the serious challenge we face in combating climate change and in cutting emissions.

"This latest data illustrates the scale of action that is required."

Duncan McLaren, chief executive of Friends of the Earth Scotland, said it underlined the need to back clean coal technology.

"This confirms that plans to introduce any new unabated coal power … in Longannet in Scotland would endanger climate targets and the sooner both governments insist that any new coal plant is operating carbon-capture and storage from day one, the better."

Mr McLaren said he thought transport was the "big question mark" over the government's climate aspirations.

"The question is, how will they increase transport infrastructure and cut emissions from transport at the same time?" he asked.

Dr Sam Gardner, WWF Scotland's climate change policy officer, said the rise presented a "clear wake-up call for the Scottish Government" and that the Scottish Climate Change Bill, due to go before parliament later this year, needed to be as robust as possible.

A spokesman for the Scottish Government said it expected a large-scale carbon-capture and storage process to be up and running by 2015.