All eyes on Scotland as climate bill puts us at the forefront of change

YOUR editorial (25 June) rather misses the point of why people are calling the Scottish climate bill world-leading. You point out that some other countries and US states have also promised to reduced climate change emissions by at least 80 per cent by 2050. This is true but promises are one thing, putting targets in national legislation quite another.

We know of only one other 2050 target in law, the UK Climate Change Act. This started at 60 per cent of carbon dioxide but, in part due to pressure from the higher Scottish target, has also ended up as an 80 per cent reduction in all the greenhouse gases by 2050.

But 2050 is a long way off. The real test of climate promises is in the shorter term. This is why Scotland's 42 per cent target by 2020 is so important. It meets the challenge set by climate scientists and developing nations for industrialised countries to come forward with serious and urgent action.

The bill also includes the full impact of our share of international aviation and shipping, for the first time anywhere, and a limit on the use of carbon credits. This makes it the legislative benchmark that any other climate bill will be compared to. In the run-up to the UN talks in Copenhagen in December the world desperately needs some good examples.

DR RICHARD DIXON

Director, WWF Scotland

Dunkeld, Perthshire

The Scottish Parliament has adopted a law that we should destroy most of our economy. The correlation between energy consumption and wealth is one of the clearest in all economics. As part of what has correctly been called "the war against fire" they wish us to destroy 42 per cent of Scotland's fire-producing facilities over the next 11 years and 80 per cent by 2050.

In a display of added insanity they want to close down the only substantial other source of power – our nuclear generators. This will ultimately reduce us to a level of energy usage and standard of living unknown since Victorian times. We will sink into a third world society.

NEIL CRAIG

Woodlands Rd

Glasgow

We are in the middle of a recession, with Scottish industry faring even worse than that in England. Very few of the 35,000 wind industry jobs we were promised in 2000 ever materialised, and global temperatures are falling.

So what do our MSPs do? Tackle bank regulation? Work out how to get any industry, let alone the renewables industry, back in Scotland? Do anything to encourage an industrial entrepreneur to locate in Scotland?

No, on the day the independent Australian senator and engineer Steve Fielding concluded that global warming was "not real", our MSPs apparently have nothing better to do than to go out on a limb to make Scotland the laughing stock of the world and tackle a problem that doesn't exist.

MIKE HASELER

Poplar Drive

Lenzie, East Dunbartonshire

We in Scotland are less than 0.1 per cent of the world's population. What possible effect could we have on global warming? China and India will continue to refuse to participate, for they need energy to relieve their poverty.

Politicians want to believe in global warming because it gives them an excuse to tax us. Reducing energy output will seriously damage our recovery from recession. Do you believe these forecasts? They can't even predict tomorrow's weather.

GRAHAM DUNSTAN MARTIN

Mayfield Terrace

Edinburgh