'Humiliated' SNP to scrap 2030 climate action target

SNP ministers have been accused of an “abject humiliation” as a legal climate target is set to be officially scrapped today.

Ministers will scrap a key legal climate change target and bring forward a host of key measures to ramp up action in a significant climbdown by the SNP-Green government at Holyrood.

SNP Net Zero Secretary Mairi McAllan is set to confirm that a commitment to reduce 1990 levels of emissions by 75 per cent by 2030 will be removed from legislation, subject to the approval of MSPs.

An insider told The Scotsman that in order for the plan to be produced and legally-sound, the legislation will require “serious surgery” while Ms McAllan is set to point the finger at a lack of climate ambition in Westminster as she calls for all parties to “put politics aside” and “reject culture wars” by backing her plans to get progress back on track.

Mairi McAllan. Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

The Scottish Conservatives have branded the U-turn an “abject humiliation” for the SNP and Greens.

But Ms McAllan, who is set to announce a host of policies to push forward progress, has insisted it will be done in an “ambitious and fair” manner.

Ministers have been forced to act after a scathing report from the independent watchdog, the Climate Change Committee (CCC), last month concluded that the 75 per cent target being met in just six years time is no longer feasible.

SNP Rural Affairs Secretary Mairi Gougeon and SNP Net Zero Secretary Mairi McAllan (Photo: Andrew Milligan/PA Wire)

The CCC raised concerns at the time of the target being embedded into law in 2019, but MSPs agreed to raise ambition with the legal target.

The Scotsman understands that today’s announcement will also “include a major focus on actions” to ramp up progress in reducing emissions - with transport and agriculture set for more severe improvements.

Ms McAllan delayed the publication of her updated climate change plan, which was promised by November last year, and is still yet to materialise.

The Scottish Government has a legal duty to produce a strategy that forms a path for meeting the 2030 target and the 2045 net zero target.

Mairi McAllan. Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

It is believed ministers are still confident the 2045 net zero target remains on track but issues have emerged over “the numbers stacking up in the real world”, according to a Scottish Government source.

It is now understood that the 2030 target will be scrapped in order to allow ministers to bring forward an updated climate change plan and keep within their legal requirements.

Ms McAllan said that the “twin crises of climate change and nature loss” is the “defining global issue of our era”.

Campaigners have demanded more climate action from the Scottish Government (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

She added that “in Scotland, we have much to be proud of when it comes to our progress thus far” as progress has moved “halfway to net zero”.

But she warned that “climate backtracking at Westminster, UK Government financial mismanagement, and the continuing constraints of devolution means that we are trying to deliver the societal and economic transformation demanded by the climate emergency with one hand tied behind our back”.

Ms McAllan added: “Whilst we are faced with a UK government which is rowing back on climate action, and hostile to measures already adopted by nations across the world like the Deposit Return Scheme, the progress we have made since Scotland declared a global climate emergency in 2019 and since Glasgow hosted COP26 in 2021 is now at risk. This cannot continue. The future of our planet and the security of future generations is far too important.

“Tackling climate change is an environmental imperative and our moral obligation. However, done correctly, it can also present perhaps the single greatest social and economic opportunity of many generations in Scotland.

“To achieve this, our work must be taken forward in a way that is ambitious and fair, which empowers communities and recognises the different needs of rural, island and urban areas.

“This Government is absolutely committed to tackling the climate crisis with the urgency and pace which is required. However, to do so we need collective will and a common sense of priority. I call on all parties in the Scottish Parliament to put politics aside, to reject culture wars, and to back our efforts. This is our collective mission in which we cannot fail.”

Scottish Conservative MSP Douglas Lumsden

Ms McAllan had previously suggested that legislative options were being considered by ministers, and that move is set to be confirmed this afternoon when she gives a statement to Holyrood.

Speaking in Holyrood following the publication of the CCC’s report last month, Ms McAllan admitted that “all options, including legislative action, are part of active consideration by the government in how to respond”.

But Chris Stark, the CEO of the CCC and the former director of energy and climate change at the Scottish Government, has warned that altering the Climate Change Act is not a simple task.

He told The Scotsman that “loosening the targets is actually really challenging under the Climate Change Act”, deliberately “to bind, not the government of the day, but future governments continuing into the future to keep them on the path”.

Scotland has missed eight of the last 12 annual targets and a Scottish Government source told The Scotsman that after good progress was made on decarbonising the energy system, the “hard work” was still to do.

The insider admitted that the CCC’s report and assessment of the target was “very stark”, despite praise for the £33 billion blueprint to decarbonise buildings.

It is understood that transport and agriculture could be set for tougher actions and policies, but one insider told The Scotsman that “nothing is off the table”.

Douglas Lumsden, Scottish Conservative shadow net zero, energy and transport secretary, said the U-turn “amounts to an abject humiliation for the SNP-Green government”.

He added: “For all the boasting about their supposed environmental credentials, the reality is a succession of missed targets – and being forced to throw in the towel on this flagship pledge represents the biggest failure of the lot.

“This climbdown is not a surprise, given the damning report from the Climate Change Committee, but it is symptomatic of a nationalist coalition that routinely over-promises and under-delivers.

“Mairi McAllan must be cringing at the thought of delivering this statement after her absurd claim that world leaders were seeking out the Scottish Government for advice on reaching environmental targets.”

The U-turn could put strain on the power-sharing arrangement between the SNP and the Scottish Greens.

Since the CCC report essentially concluded the 2030 target was not feasible last month, Green MSPs have been more vocal about the lack of progress from SNP ministers.

Patrick Harvie, who is a government minister responsible for plans to decarbonise heating, has said SNP ministers have been “patting each other on the back” for setting ambitious climate targets while being responsible for a failure in bringing forward enough action.

He added that when targets were agreed “we didn’t have consensus on the actions that were necessary to reduce emissions on transport, to reduce emissions on land use, from industry, for the way we heat our homes”.

He added: “As a result of that, too many of those sectors have seen flatline emissions instead of the cuts that we needed.”