Climate change chief: Scotland still failing to make progress on cutting emissions

The chief executive of the Climate Change Committee has said the Scottish Government is failing to make immediate progress with cutting emissions.

Emma Pinchbeck, who took over from Chris Stark as the head of the watchdog last year, said Scotland had failed to deliver on the “short-term stuff” required to meet the overall goal of reaching net zero by 2045.

The CCC will publish its latest advice for the Scottish Government next month, a year on from the decision to scrap annual and interim targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The decision followed an intervention from the CCC, which said the 2030 target (of reducing emissions by 75 per cent against 1990s levels) was “beyond what is credible”.

In an interview with Holyrood, Pinchbeck said Scotland had “not made progress on the short-term stuff to deliver on any targets”.

Asked whether reducing emissions by 95 per cent by 2045 could be considered a success, Pinchbeck said: “This is a politician’s answer, but I wouldn’t deal in a hypothetical like that.

“Our job is to advise them on the target… If you’re making really good progress on decarbonisation, that’s great. I don’t want to speculate on where [Scotland] may or may not get to. The much more important thing for the Scottish Government to focus on right now is progress right in front of their faces in the next five to 10 years.

“Long-term goals are important… but Scotland, as with Westminster, has not made progress on the short-term stuff to deliver on any targets. I don’t like entertaining hypothetical conversations about 2050 because we’ve got lots of short-term action to do and that’s where the focus should be.”

Due for publication on 21 May, the CCC’s upcoming Scotland report is expected to include advice about reducing emissions associated with heating in homes.

Last year Audit Scotland, the public spending watchdog, warned it would be impossible to completely phase out fossil fuel heating systems such as gas boilers by 2045 without a “significant increase in the scale and pace of activity”.

The Scottish Government has already committed £1.8bn in this parliament to delivering its Heat in Buildings strategy, with the total cost to the public sector, businesses and homes in the long run currently estimated to be around £33bn.

While the issue is a huge challenge across the UK, there are particular difficulties in Scotland with large parts of the urban population living in ageing tenements.

On the closure of the Grangemouth oil refinery and the need for a ‘just transition’, Pinchbeck said: “Deindustrialisation is not a successful decarbonisation strategy.

“Sensible governments move early to do something for those workers and those industries. Industrial strategy isn’t technically in the CCC’s mandate, but we’ve said that alongside a decarbonisation strategy you need a strategy for those industries and those communities that will need additional support.

“The public thinks the transition needs to be fair but they recognise there are communities that will not benefit from this transition. If you’re in Aberdeen, for example, the transition away from oil and gas feels very different than it will UK-wide.”