Written Question · S5W-19585 · Session 5
What its response is to the article in The Ferret claiming that Scotland’s climate change targets are not world leading.
The question
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the article in The Ferret claiming that Scotland’s climate change targets are not world leading.
The answer
The Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets) (Scotland) Bill proposes targets to reduce actual emissions of all greenhouse gases by 56% by 2020, 66% by 2030 and 78% by 2040. The Scottish Government is unaware of any other country that has statutory targets for all greenhouse gases as ambitious as these for the years outlined.
The Bill also proposes a target to reduce actual emissions of all greenhouse gases by 90% by 2050. That will mean achieving 100% reduction of carbon dioxide by the same date, which means that Scotland will be carbon-neutral.
In addition, the Bill proposes that annual targets are set mechanistically by calculating percentage figures that would create a “straight line” of targets between the 2020, 2030, 2040 and 2050 targets. Annual targets mean that progress has to be immediate and constant. The Scottish Government is unaware of any other country that has statutory annual emission reduction targets.
There are several other factors that make Scotland’s climate change targets world leading:all of the targets include all greenhouse gases.all of the targets include emissions from land use, land use change and forestry.all of the targets include a fair share of emissions from international aviation and shipping.none of the targets can be met through the use of international off-set credits, unless Ministers bring forward affirmative procedure secondary legislation, which the Parliament then approves. The proposal in the Bill is that a maximum of 20% of the year on year change to be accounted for by credit purchase. Based on current information, that limit means that less than 0.2 megatonnes per year can be accounted for in this way for any year from 2020 to 2050. (Sweden’s legislation allows for up to 15% of the overall target to be made up through credits. If Scotland followed this approach, come the 2040s more than 50 times the limit proposed in the Bill could be accounted for through credits.)
The Scottish Government is unaware of any other country that has such an ambitious, comprehensive and stringent set of targets that must be met through domestic effort alone, and therefore considers that the targets set out in the Bill are world leading.
The Bill also proposes a target to reduce actual emissions of all greenhouse gases by 90% by 2050. That will mean achieving 100% reduction of carbon dioxide by the same date, which means that Scotland will be carbon-neutral.
In addition, the Bill proposes that annual targets are set mechanistically by calculating percentage figures that would create a “straight line” of targets between the 2020, 2030, 2040 and 2050 targets. Annual targets mean that progress has to be immediate and constant. The Scottish Government is unaware of any other country that has statutory annual emission reduction targets.
There are several other factors that make Scotland’s climate change targets world leading:all of the targets include all greenhouse gases.all of the targets include emissions from land use, land use change and forestry.all of the targets include a fair share of emissions from international aviation and shipping.none of the targets can be met through the use of international off-set credits, unless Ministers bring forward affirmative procedure secondary legislation, which the Parliament then approves. The proposal in the Bill is that a maximum of 20% of the year on year change to be accounted for by credit purchase. Based on current information, that limit means that less than 0.2 megatonnes per year can be accounted for in this way for any year from 2020 to 2050. (Sweden’s legislation allows for up to 15% of the overall target to be made up through credits. If Scotland followed this approach, come the 2040s more than 50 times the limit proposed in the Bill could be accounted for through credits.)
The Scottish Government is unaware of any other country that has such an ambitious, comprehensive and stringent set of targets that must be met through domestic effort alone, and therefore considers that the targets set out in the Bill are world leading.
In the Official Report
No contribution in the Official Report cites S5W-19585 by reference.