SNP 'slowing' climate action as MSPs approve targets before seeing strategy to achieve them
MSPs have approved Scotland’s watered down climate targets despite having not yet seen the Scottish Government’s blueprint for how the aims will be met
SNP Climate Secretary Gillian Martin has insisted Scotland’s net zero 2045 has “never been in question” as she faced criticism MSPs have been pressured into agreeing watered down targets without yet knowing if they can be achieved.
Ms Martin’s carbon budget targets were approved by MSPs, and her government will now press ahead with publishing the delayed climate change plan that will chart a course of how the new targets will be met.
The Scottish Government was forced to admit that the previously-agreed legal target to cut 1990 levels of pollution by 75 per cent by 2030 was no longer achievable. The 2030 target has been lowered to 57 per cent as an average aim from 2026 and 2030.
The targets, now approved by MSPs, states that emissions will be cut by 69 per cent by 2035 as a five-year average measure between 2030 and 2035, 80 per cent by 2040 and 94 per cent in the five years up to and including 2045 when net zero will be achieved.
Ms Martin told MSPs that if they had chosen not to agree the targets, there was a “very high and real risk” that any carbon budgets cannot be put in place before January 1, when they are poised to begin, and warned she would be “unable to finalise our next climate change plan” before May’s election.
The cabinet secretary insisted that she still intends to publish a draft climate change plan in the “autumn” and the final version “by the end of this parliament”.
But Scottish Conservative net zero spokesperson, Douglas Lumsden, warned MSPs were being asked to approve targets they “don't know if they are going to be achievable or not” and essentially “approve uncosted” carbon budgets.
He added: “This is writing a blank cheque for unlimited costs to meet these arbitrary targets.”
Mr Lumsden claimed that the regulations were being “rushed through the parliamentary process” and were “in serious threat of running out of parliamentary time”.
He told MSPs that he was “mystified” that the targets had to be approved before the climate change plan was made public, accusing SNP ministers of “agreeing targets while we have no idea of how this government intends to meet them”.
READ MORE: Paul Wilson: The burning question John Swinney must answer in Aberdeen on SNP net zero policy
But Ms Martin has faced criticism over a lack of action from the Scottish Government and a pledge to reject recommendations from the independent Climate Change Committee, particularly over agriculture.
Greens climate spokesperson, Patrick Harvie, pointed to a “lack of urgency” from SNP ministers - highlighting reneged plans to cut road traffic, replace gas boilers with heat pumps and land use.
He added: “On all three of these key issues, far from accelerating action to make up for lost ground, the SNP is slowing down.
“So far, there is no indication anywhere of any alternative actions that can compensate for the watered down climate change policies.
“I cannot begin to see how any climate plan they produce in these circumstances can get Scotland back on track in cutting emissions.”
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