Government criticised for missing emissions target

Deputy Business Editor, Sunday Herald

Wednesday 18 July 2012

SCOTTISH ministers have been accused of lacking ambition over making housing and transport more environmentally friendly after it emerged the country missed its targets for carbon emissions in the first year they had been set in law.

cold SNAP: The Scottish Government blamed extreme winter weather in 2010 for the increase in emissions. Picture: Marc Turner

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Steven Vass

Although Environment and Climate Change Minister Stewart Stevenson blamed an excessively cold winter for emissions of greenhouse gases rising 6% to 55.7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2010, opponents insisted the results would have been better if the Government had been more aggressive in reforming high-emissions areas like transport and housing.

With emissions up 2% year-on-year even after the European emissions trading scheme is taken into account, it means Scotland missed its first target under the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009, although there are no penalties for doing so.It also throws the country off course in its goal of cutting carbon by 42% over a 30-year period by 2020. Mike Robinson, a board member of environmentalist coalition Stop Climate Chaos Scotland (SCCS), said: "If we start out by not even hitting the first year's target, it's a very poor precedent. There might be mitigating circumstances, but this reinforces a need to see a consistent programme for work with our homes and energy efficiency. There's not enough ambition in terms of bringing about reductions."He acknowledged rules to make new homes more carbon efficient and a new Scottish Government consultation into improving existing homes were "steps in the right direction", but complained about huge delays to get things implemented. "We need to be moving much more quickly with things like draught-proofing, cavity-wall insulation and alternative heating. We could easily lose five or 10 years here."On transport, which together with housing makes up close to half of all emissions, he called on the Government to take more of a lead in improving the behaviour of drivers. SCCS's demands include reduced speeds, car-sharing and increased spending on cycle infrastructure. The third major challenge is power generation, where the moves away from coal-fired power, new carbon capture technology and the next phase of European emissions trading, which starts next year, are all likely to make a difference to figures in the coming years. The Scottish Government was able to claim 2010's figure looks like a blip, since the UK Department for Energy and Climate Change's indicative 2011 figures show emissions will have fallen 7% year-on-year. It also pointed out 62% of Scottish households are now in homes with good energy efficiency ratings, compared to 55% in 2009. The Scottish Government intends later this year to put before Parliament a set of proposals and policies to cut emissions and outline the targets for the next decade. Scottish Labour's Climate Change spokeswoman, Claudia Beamish, MSP, said: "Today's figures show that while the Scottish Government has been talking up Scotland's world leading climate ambitions they have failed to deliver on the very first target under the Climate Change Act. "These figures must be a wake-up call to the SNP Government that targets alone will not reduce our emissions – they must be backed by strong action and a determined effort by all Government departments and agencies working together or we will continue to miss every target until 2020."Mr Stevenson said: "We always knew it would be a challenging path to follow when these [targets] were set and year-to-year fluctuations were inevitable."Scotland faced its coldest winter temperatures in almost a century – and quite rightly people across Scotland needed to heat their homes to keep warm and safe."The longer-term trend reveals Scottish greenhouse gas emissions have fallen by around one-quarter since 1990, signalling we are still on track to achieve the 2020 target."

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Government criticised for missing emissions target

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