LONDON, April 18 — Scotland today scrapped its target to cut climate-damaging greenhouse gas emissions by 75 per cent by 2030, but said it still intends to meet a 2045 net zero target.
The move came in response to a critical report published last month by the independent Climate Change Committee (CCC), which said Scotland was so far behind that meeting the 2030 target was no longer credible.
“We accept the CCC’s recent re-articulation that this parliament’s interim 2030 target is out of reach,” Mairi McAllan, the Net Zero Secretary for Scotland’s devolved government, told the Scottish parliament.
McAllan said Scotland was constrained by cuts to the capital funding it receives from the central British government and an overall weakening of climate ambition by British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
Scotland’s semi-autonomous government in Edinburgh has control over some elements of climate and environmental policy, but others - most notably, almost all energy policy - remain under the control of the British government in London.
In September, Sunak pushed back climate targets on phasing out new petrol cars and gas-powered domestic heating boilers, saying Britain could afford to make slower progress because it was ahead of its peers on cutting emissions. — Reuters
