Global pledge on climate crisis

Scotland has joined a coalition of countries, cities and companies working towards net-zero transport ahead of the 2050 Paris Agreement target.

Climate Change Secretary Roseanna Cunningham signed the Transport Decarbonisation Alliance (TDA) Charter at the COP25 (Conference of the Parties) UN Climate Summit in Madrid.

Ms Cunningham attended roundtables and bilateral meetings with other nations to discuss ways to tackle the global climate emergency and the annual general assembly of the Under2 Coalition – comprising global devolved, regional and local governments, including Scotland.

She said:

“I was proud to travel to Madrid to promote Scotland’s new legally binding target to become a net-zero society by 2045, and the efforts we are making to tackle the climate crisis.

“Scotland is a world leader on climate change and I was pleased to meet many leaders and stakeholders from across the world to share our progress and future ambitions– not least to completely end Scotland’s contribution to climate change within a generation.

“The only way we can successfully tackle the global climate emergency is for all nations to work together to exchange ideas and agree shared actions. That is why I was pleased to represent Scotland at this critical summit and I look forward to deepening and strengthening international relations still further at this critical time for climate action.”

Background

The TDA is seeking to pave the way for an accelerated and irreversible worldwide transformation towards a net-zero emission mobility, to be achieved ahead of the 2050 targets set by the Paris Agreement. This will be done by:

• facilitating discussion on decarbonisation in the context of global, regional, national, local and corporate policy processes on transport and climate change
• demonstrating that decarbonisation is technically feasible, economically attractive, and brings broad social and environmental benefits
• advocating acceleration and engaging progressively a growing number of actors in ambitious action on climate change by sharing experiences and best practices

 The Scottish Government has set out a suite of ambitious measures aimed at decarbonising the transport system, including phasing out new petrol and diesel cars in Scotland by 2032, and decarbonising public sector fleets by 2030, the rail network by 2035 and internal scheduled flights by 2040.

A formal decision on the UK’s bid to host COP26 in November 2020, with Glasgow as the host city, is expected by the end of this week.