UK Climate Change Committee voices concern over Scotland’s progress on decarbonising buildings and reliance on unproved technologies
Scotland has finally produced realistic short-term plans on cutting its climate emissions, but there is “real concern” about the credibility of its overall strategy, the UK’s climate policy watchdog has found.
Nigel Topping, the chair of the UK Climate Change Committee, said there were “flashing amber lights” about the quality and seriousness of some of the Scottish government’s medium- and long-term proposals to reach net zero by 2045.
He said the committee was “really pleased” that in November last year the devolved government in Edinburgh replaced its increasingly unachievable annual targets with five-year emissions reduction plans, known as carbon budgets.
Those more flexible plans mirror the system used at UK level. Until they were scrapped, Scotland missed eight of its 12 annual targets and had to abandon its efforts to cut emissions by 75% by 2030.
