The Scottish Government has “no intention to change” target dates for key environmental policies including the switch away from gas boilers, First Minister Humza Yousaf has declared.
Mr Yousaf accepted his Government would need to consider the implications of changes in target dates announced last week by Rishi Sunak but insisted that in Scotland the “plans remain unchanged”.
His comments came after the Prime Minister announced he was pushing back the end point for the sale of petrol and diesel cars, which had been planned for 2030, by five years to 2035.
Meanwhile, a ban on the installation of new gas boilers was delayed 10 years until 2035 for England.
Read more: Scotland's climate plan could be delayed after Sunak's net zero U-turn
The Scottish Government does not have the power to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars – with the policy reserved to Westminster.
Nicola Sturgeon pledged to “phase out the need” for new petrol and diesel vehicles by 2030, with Scottish Government officials suggesting the strategy was a mixture of incentivisation and infrastructure improvements.
The Scottish Government ambition was essentially about making electric vehicles the natural choice for consumers by 2030, but this has been thrown into doubt by Rishi Sunak pushing the ban from 2030 to 2035.
On Thursday, the First Minister’s spokesman acknowledged that the Internal Market Act could rule out divergence between the Scottish and UK governments on certain policies, such as new cars and a ban on fossil fuel gas boilers.
Read more: Analysis: Humza Yousaf will need to be unpopular to lead world on climate change
The Scottish Government’s Net Zero Secretary Mairi McAllan has already criticised the timescale changes as “an unforgivable betrayal of current and future generations”, claiming Mr Sunak had “put the UK on the wrong side of history” in the fight against climate change.
She has also suggested that the Scottish Government's updated climate change plan, expected to be published by November, could be delayed due to the change in direction by the UK Government.
Mr Yousaf has now insisted there was “no intention to change” the current Scottish Government policy on heating systems – which sets out that from next year new buildings should use a “zero direct emissions heating system”, such as a heat pump or heat network.
Speaking after attending UN climate talks in New York last week, Mr Yousaf said discussions there had focused on “how the world needs to do more, not less, in the face of a climate catastrophe”.
Read more: Analysis: What message does Rishi Sunak's watered-down net zero strategy send?
The First Minister insisted: “So, Scotland isn’t looking to roll back on any of its measures.
“What we have to look at is the detail of the Prime Minister’s statement and understand how that might affect any of our climate ambitions here.
“But we certainly won’t be looking to roll back or abdicate our political responsibility in the way the Prime Minister clearly is.
“There’s no intention to change.”
Asked about the Scottish Government's pledge to end the "need" for new petrol and diesel cars by 2030, Mr Yousaf said: “There’s certainly no intention to roll back.”
He added: “We do have to look at what the implication would be of the UK deciding to roll back, deciding to delay that phasing-out.
“There’s no intention to roll back but we do have to look at the implication of what the Prime Minister has announced.”
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