THE SCOTTISH Government should have had bolder climate ambitions in its budget, Scottish Labour have claimed.
Claudia Beamish MSP said the SNP did not go far enough to tackle fuel poverty, energy efficiency or creating skilled green jobs in the financial statement set out last week.
The Scottish Labour environment spokeswoman said the SNP had chosen to re-announce pledges on a Low Carbon Fund, Green Jobs Fund and a Green Jobs Workforce Academy rather than making firm commitments to kickstart a green recovery.
Ms Beamish said: “The SNP Government had an opportunity to do so much more. With the eyes of the world on Scotland’s climate action this year, a bolder budget could have delivered action for warmer homes, green jobs and climate recovery.
“Action on the climate emergency cannot be stalled as we deal with the health and economic crises. The recovery from lockdown must be just and work to urgently reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
“Today, 613,000 households are in fuel poverty in Scotland with 311,000 in extreme fuel poverty. Given the scale of unmet need, the current budget is far less than experts suggest is required to tackle fuel poverty in Scotland.
“This investment should be doubled to at least £244 million for the coming year to see a step change in energy efficiency activity, with a focus on early action on retrofitting to secure local jobs, prevent rising long-term costs, and tangibly improving the lives of people living in fuel poverty.”
It comes as the Scottish Government highlighted the green elements of the budget, claiming a record £1.9bn was being invested in tackling climate change and creating green jobs.
Holyrood officials pointed to spending plans announced by finance Secretary Kate Forbes last week to spend £1.6billion to “transform hear and energy efficiency of buildings”.
It is claimed the investment will support up to 5000 jobs and help tackle fuel poverty in Scotland.
The budget also included plans for a £250m peatland restoration programme, and £70million to improve waste and recycling infrastructure across the country.
Scottish Government Environment Secretary Roseanna Cunningham said:”This is a Budget which rightly focuses on tackling the COVID-19 crisis and supporting our people, health service and economy in the immediate term, but it also lays the foundations to rebuild a fairer, stronger, and greener Scotland.
“Our commitment to ensuring Scotland’s recovery from COVID-19 is green has been prioritised despite the significant financial challenges of COVID-19, delays to the UK Budget, the UK Government Spending Review worsening our capital position and key powers remaining reserved to Westminster.
“2021 is a vital year for climate action and COP26 in Glasgow puts Scotland at the centre of a global to protect our people and planet.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel