Scotland Set to Abandon Interim 2030 Emissions Reduction Goal

Scotland is expected to abandon a key interim target on its road to 2045 net zero as the government is expected to scrap a goal for reducing emissions by 75% by 2030, BBC Scotland News reports.

The Scottish government is expected to announce changes to its climate change plan later on Thursday, but it will keep the net-zero target for 2045, according to the BBC.   

Scotland has a more ambitious target to reach net zero than the UK, which – like most developed economies – strives for net zero by 2050.

Under its current pathway to net zero by 2045, Scotland has interim targets to reduce emissions by 75% by 2030 and by 90% by 2040.

However, the UK’s Climate Change Committee said last month that “Scotland’s 2030 climate goals are no longer credible.”

The committee no longer believes that the Scottish Government will meet its statutory 2030 goal to reduce emissions by 75%, it said in March, citing continued delays to the updated climate change plan and further slippage in promised climate policies.

Scotland has been reducing emissions, but not fast enough to meet its goals, the committee noted.

Per the latest available data, Scotland missed its annual target for 2021, which was the eighth time in the past 12 years that Scotland has missed a target.  

Environmental organizations and charities commented on the BBC report that Scotland would become a “global embarrassment” if it scrapped its 2030 emission reduction target.

The government choosing to abandon its 2030 climate targets “would be the worst environmental decision in the history of the Scottish Parliament,” Friends of the Earth Scotland said. 

“The climate crisis demands urgent action now - not broken promises,” the campaigners added.

Jamie Livingstone, Head of Oxfam Scotland, commented, “With the world becoming a dirtier and deadlier place every day, any decision by Scottish Ministers to re-write Scotland’s climate rulebook would be an acute global embarrassment.”  

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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