MSPs set to vote on scrapping key climate change targets

MSPs will vote later on whether to amend climate change legislation to drop key pledges for reducing emissions.

The Scottish Government said earlier this year that it would scrap the 2030 goal of reducing emissions by 75 per cent against 1990s levels after admitting it was unattainable.

The government wants to replace its yearly and interim targets for reducing emissions with a new system of targets based on five-year carbon budgets.

It followed an intervention from the independent Climate Change Committee which said the government’s 2030 target was “no longer credible”.

MSPs will vote on the Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets) (Scotland) Bill, which amends the original 2009 legislation.

The bill also changes the deadline for the Climate Change Plan, which must be laid before parliament as soon as possible after the first carbon budgets have been set.

The Scottish Government has insisted that its overall target – of reaching net zero emissions by 2045 – remains in place.

Speaking ahead of the vote in parliament later, Scottish Labour’s net zero spokesperson, Sarah Boyack, said: “This is a day of shame for the SNP government, whose inaction has left our climate targets in tatters.

“The SNP cannot make the same mistakes again – this bill must be backed up with a real plan to meet our remaining targets and ensure our homes, transport and communities can deliver the just transition we urgently need.”

Scottish Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie, previously a government minister, said there had been years of collective failure on the issue of reducing emissions.

He said: “We should not be in this position. The fact that we are underlines the vast scale of failure going back to before these targets were set 15 years ago. All politicians bear a shared responsibility for what has happened, or, rather, what has not happened. 

“Far too many have celebrated the targets while blocking the action needed to reach them. The result is that we are far behind where we need to be, and, with global temperatures rising, we cannot afford to repeat this failure.”