Emissions Increase
Thu., September 18, 2008. 15:24.
Scottish Government offers "worthless promises", admits increase in climate emissions
Scottish Ministers today announced the most recent figures on Scotland's greenhouse gas emissions, which show a 5.4% increase in emissions between 2005 and 2006, largely because of the Scottish Government's continuing failure to provide enough support for renewables, combined with increasing dependence on coal power. (1) Scottish road transport emissions are the second largest contributor, increasing 11.5% over the year to 10 million tonnes of CO2. (2)
Despite this evidence of failure by the previous administration, the current Scottish Government are pressing on with virtually identical policies on transport and energy.
Patrick Harvie MSP said:
"This is dire news from the Scottish Government. The SNP claim to be world leaders on climate change, but all they have to offer is vague promises about future progress. These promises are utterly worthless, as their Ministers remain committed to building ever more roads, ever larger airports, and increasing Scotland's dependence on coal power.
"Climate change is now happening even faster than the scientific models predicted, and we need to see reductions in emissions of around 4.5% a year. Today's figures show that Scotland is heading in exactly the opposite direction, and yet the SNP are threatening to step on the accelerator.
"Next month the government will publish its National Planning Framework, and the key test of their response to climate change will be the proposals on airport expansion at Glasgow and Edinburgh - any political party supporting those plans will voluntarily sacrifice any credibility they had on climate change."
Notes
1. For the full figures, see: http://www.naei.org.uk/report_link.php?report_id=527
2. 2006 figure = 10,066 Mt CO2: see p9 of the report above. 2005 figure = 9,030 Mt CO2: see A.2.26 of the previous year's report, here: http://tinyurl.com/3qydy5
Contact the Scottish Greens' press team on 07909 933 074.