Reducing greenhouse gas emissions - proposals and policies: report

Introduction

The Scottish Government’s commitment to ending Scotland’s contribution to global emissions as soon as possible, and by 2045 at the latest, is unwavering.

We are already halfway to our goal of becoming net zero by 2045. This is a significant milestone, and we can rightly be proud of the action undertaken to reduce emissions to this point.

Since 2019, we have launched the world’s largest floating offshore wind leasing round, moved to ban some of the most problematic plastics, created four Low Emission Zones, deployed the most comprehensive network of public vehicle infrastructure in the UK outside of London, and designated 37% of our seas as Marine Protected Areas.

The Scottish Government has also extended free bus travel to under-22s and, in the last year, planted 75% of all new forests in the UK – more than the other UK nations combined. Last year also saw the highest amount of degraded peatland being restored in a single year, with over 10,000 hectares set on the path to recovery in 2023/24.

We are also leading from the front on the international stage, including by helping to break a 30-year impasse on funding for Loss and Damage, recognising that climate change cannot be addressed by domestic action alone.

However, from the very start we have known that meeting this goal would not be easy and this is especially true as we enter the second half of our journey to net zero, with some of the most difficult challenges still ahead of us.

In 2019, the Scottish Parliament set hugely ambitious emissions targets, on a cross party basis, to forge our journey to net zero. This ambition recognised that tackling climate change is the fight of our lifetime, with implications for generations to come. The Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 (“the 2009 Act”), as amended, established a framework of interim emission reduction targets lower than the baseline of 56% by 2020, 75% by 2030 and 90% by 2040. Alongside these, statutory annual targets were plotted in a straight line between the interim targets.

These targets were ambitious; the Climate Change Committee’s (CCC’s) view was that our 2030 target was likely to be beyond what was achievable given it went beyond the level they advised.

It was right to strive to go as far as possible in this period to help accelerate action, but regrettably, in March 2024, the CCC rearticulated that Parliament’s interim 2030 target is out of reach. We recognise the CCC’s position that, despite our decarbonisation progress, our near term targets are now considered undeliverable.

This comes after Scottish Greenhouse Gas Statistics for 2021, laid in Parliament on 20 June 2023 under section 33 of the 2009 Act, noted the outcome of the 2021 annual emissions reduction target. Using the reporting basis for assessing progress to statutory targets, the Official Scottish Greenhouse Gas Statistics for 2021 show that Scotland’s emissions were 49.9% lower than the 1990 baseline. The statutory annual target for that year of a 51.1% reduction was therefore narrowly missed by 1.0 Megatonnes of CO2 equivalent (MtCO2e).

More recently, on 18 June 2024, the report for the 2022 annual emissions reduction target was laid in Parliament. The Scottish Greenhouse Gas Emissions Statistics for 2022 showed that Scotland’s emissions were 50.0% lower than the 1990 baseline for 2022. The statutory annual target for that year of a 53.8% reduction was therefore missed by 3.2 MtCO2e.

Despite the disappointment in missing these annual targets, we recognise the importance of the news that Scotland is halfway to net zero.