Scottish Government sets new carbon budgets

The Scottish Government has announced its new five-year carbon budgets. 

The new climate targets follow the announcement by former net zero minister Mairi McAllan in April last year that the government was scrapping its 2030 target to reduce emissions by 75 per cent. 

The new carbon budgets will limit the amount of greenhouse gases Scotland will emit in the years leading up to 2045, when it has a legal requirement to negate greenhouse emissions entirely. 

In the first five years, the new climate targets will see Scotland emit on average 57 per cent less carbon dioxide than in 1990.  

In the years following it will reduce more rapidly to 69 per cent between 2031 and 2035, 80 per cent in the five years following, and 94 per cent between 2041 and 2045.  

The proposals are set to be put before parliament and voted on after summer recess. 

If the plans are agreed, the Scottish Government will consult on and publish a new draft of the Climate Change Plan, which it says will outline the actions needed to reduce emissions to meet the first three budgets, as well as setting out the costs. 

Carbon budgets are part of the Scottish Government’s new approach to achieving net zero by 2045 after the Climate Change Committee (CCC) published a critical report in March last year which said reaching the 2030 milestone was no longer credible. These new targets align with the CCC’s advice published last month.

Climate secretary Gillian Martin said the new targets will “not ask the impossible of people” and will “not sacrifice people’s health or wealth”.