Holyrood urged to move faster to cut emissions despite fall

The Scottish Government has been urged to move faster on cutting national emissions.

According to the latest Greenhouse Gas Statistics report, Scotland’s greenhouse gas emissions fell by nearly 2% in 2023, but climate activists have said progress is “too slow”.

The country’s emissions have fallen 51.3% from 1990 levels.

Claire Daly, head of policy and advocacy at WWF Scotland, said: “These reductions are simply not enough.

“The pace of change is too slow to meet our climate ambitions. Again, emissions from transport, buildings and agriculture remain largely unchanged and far too high.

“Every year of inaction makes the path to a safer, fairer future even harder to reach.”

Large reductions from electric generation, sharp rise in aviation

The report showed a “very large reduction” in emissions from the electricity generation sector, with reductions also seen across fuel supply, buildings, transport, industry, and waste.

Emissions from the agriculture sector were “essentially unchanged” between 2022 and 2023.

However, the data showed a sharp rise of 18.6% in international aviation and shipping emissions, as flights and shipping rebounded to pre-pandemic levels.

It means the sector’s emissions have risen by a third (33%) since 1990.

With emissions from aviation and shipping rising, Oxfam Scotland called for a “fair tax” to be levied against the “super polluting private jets choking Scotland’s skies”.

Jamie Livingstone, head of the charity in Scotland, said: “Falling emissions are welcome, but in a race against time, we’re simply not moving fast enough due to a lack of investment in major polluting sectors”.

‘Net-zero is just another empty slogan for the SNP’

The Scottish Conservatives have slammed the SNP over slow movement on reducing admissions.

The party highlighted that the government scrapped its 2030 interim emissions reduction target following advice it was beyond what could be reasonable achieved.

“The SNP are full of hot air when it comes to climate change,” Scottish Conservative shadow energy and net zero secretary Douglas Lumsden MSP said.

“Nationalist ministers love to boast that they are world-leading on this issue, but they can’t even meet their own emissions targets and their sheer incompetence forced them to dump them all altogether.

“We all want to address climate change, but the truth is net zero is just another empty slogan for the SNP.”

However, acting net-zero secretary Gillian Martin said the figures confirm that Scotland “yet again leads the rest of the UK in cutting emissions”, led by significant decreases from electricity generation and industry.

Martin also emphasised the “positive actions” the Scottish Government has already taken towards reaching the target of net zero by 2045 – including extending free bus travel and “record levels” of tree planting and peatland restoration.

“We are not complacent and recognise that our transition to a net-zero, climate-ready Scotland will require genuine transformation across our economy and society from transport and heat in buildings to land use,” she said.

“That’s why the Scottish Government has committed introducing a Heat in Buildings Bill this year, which will set a target for decarbonising heat by 2045; why we will abolish Scotrail peak rail fares in September; and why we have increased funding for low carbon and climate positive activities to £54.4m, supporting a switch to zero emission vehicles and the decarbonisation of our buses.”

Martin also stressed the importance of action from Westminster, saying: “It is also vital that the UK Government, which holds key policy and funding levers to deliver Scotland’s net-zero future, acts on these at pace to deliver our climate targets and those for whole of the UK.”