The Scottish Government’s final Climate Change Plan was published on 28 February, setting out how it aims to meet its current emissions reduction target of 80% by 2032.
In the ministerial foreword, Roseanna Cunningham, cabinet secretary for environment, climate change and land reform, described the decarbonisation plans as “ambitious”.
“By 2030, Scotland’s electricity system, already largely decarbonised, will be increasingly important as a power source for heat and transport. System quality and resilience will be ensured through diverse generation technologies, including gas generation, increased storage, smart grid technologies and improved interconnection.”
She said emissions from electricity generation are expected to fall by 28% over the lifetime of the plan, and that her Government would continue to support “the development of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) as a vital technology to meet our long-term emissions reductions targets.”
The plan also envisages significant decarbonisation of transport by 2032 with emissions reducing by 37%. By then, said Cunningham, “low emission cars and vans will be widespread and becoming the norm and freight infrastructure will feature more efficient HGVs operating from out of town freight consolidation centres.”
In the industrial sector the plan is said to be broadly consistent with the existing EU and UK regulatory frameworks, and anticipates a fall in industrial emissions of 21% over its lifetime through a combination of fuel diversification, cost saving energy efficiency and fuel recovery, and participation in the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS). “We will continue to press the UK Government for clarity on its plans for emissions trading as it prepares to leave the EU.”
In the waste sector, she said, emissions will fall 52% over the lifetime of the Plan, while “landfilling of biodegradable municipal waste will have been phased out by 2021.” In the longer term, the plan aims to deliver emissions reductions through a circular economy approach, with more productive businesses and reduced reliance on scarce resources.
Responding, Jenny Hogan, Deputy Chief Executive at Scottish Renewables, said: “We welcome the overall ambition set out in the Plan and the reiteration of the target to deliver half of all Scotland’s energy from renewables by 2030.
“We are however disappointed to see a significant drop in ambition in decarbonising the heat sector, with the majority of effort pushed back to after 2025. The carbon targets for both the heat and transport sectors are lower than those recommended by the Government’s independent advisors, the Committee on Climate Change.
“We need robust policies in place now to capitalise on Scotland’s world-leading renewable energy industry and to get a head start on cutting carbon in two of the toughest sectors to do so: heat and transport.”
