Climate Change: Scotland’s 2030 target unreachable say experts – BBC.com

Scotland’s flagship 2030 target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions is now out of reach, the government’s independent advisers have warned.

The Climate Change Committee (CCC) said the measures that would be needed to achieve the target by the end of the decade were “beyond what is credible”.

It accused ministers on “failing” on ambitious goals and urged them to focus instead on hitting the target “at the earliest possible date”.

The Scottish government says the target was always challenging and that it is decarbonising faster than the UK average.

Scotland has missed eight of the past 12 annual targets for cutting planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions.

The latest figures – for 2021 – show emissions were 49.2% lower than the baseline year of 1990. The target for 2030 is 75%.

The independent committee – which advises the UK and devolved governments on climate change – has repeatedly warned that the 2030 interim target was at risk.

It previously accused the Scottish government of losing its lead over the rest of the UK on tackling the issue.

Scientists have warned that this is a crucial decade for keeping global warming below 1.5C, a goal world leaders agreed to in 2015.

The committee’s assessment said the Scottish government’s actions “continue to fall far short” of what is legally required to reach the targets.

It adds that most key indicators of delivery progress are off track, significantly so across a number of areas.

These include electric van sales, tree-planting and recycling rates.

Heat pump installations were at half the recommended level in 2023, with just 6,000 fitted.

That will need to increase by a factor of 13 – to 80,000 annually – by the end of the decade.

The CCC said there had been no progress in recycling rates over the past 10 years.

New electric car sales in Scotland are lower than for the UK as a whole although public charge point provision is on track.

But the CCC warned that reliability needed to improve at those chargers.

Chris Stark, chief executive of the Climate Change Committee, said ministers had just not done the job of putting the policies in place.

He said: “This is the first time, anywhere in the UK, that we’ve said there’s a target that can’t be met.

“It’s a shame we have to give that message to the Scottish government but what’s behind it is a lack of progress all round.”

Scotland’s emissions reduction target for 2030 is tougher than for the UK as a whole.

The Scottish Parliament legislated to cut greenhouse gases by 75% compared with the UK’s target of 68% by the same date.

Friends of the Earth Scotland said “the chickens have come home to roost” since ministers had failed to introduce policies to tackle clime change.

Oxfam Scotland described it as a betrayal to both future generations and communities in poorer countries already facing the “catastrophic consequences of climate change”.

Net Zero Secretary Mairi McAllan responded: “The Climate Change Committee have always been clear that meeting the legislated 2030 target – agreed by Parliament on a cross party basis – will be extremely challenging, and may not be feasible.

“We remain fully committed to meeting our target of net zero emissions by 2045.”