Annual Climate Change Targets
Sat., October 11, 2008. 21:44.
Now a certainty, but at what level?
Today's late conversion by the Scottish Labour Party to the idea of binding annual targets for climate change emissions makes the inclusion of targets within the forthcoming Holyrood Climate Change Bill a certainty. (1)
Patrick Harvie MSP said:
"This welcome switch in Labour's position means there is now at last a clear majority in Parliament for binding annual reductions in Scotland's emissions. Despite the SNP's attempts to backslide on their manifesto commitment, it's now certain that the Scottish Climate Change Bill will have significantly sharper teeth than the Westminster legislation.
"Annual targets are the best way to hold government properly to account. They will focus the Scottish Government's attention on the need to turn around their transport and energy policies in particular. The public and the NGOs have rightly put pressure on Parliament to act, and now they can be reassured that Parliament will apply that same pressure to the SNP.
"The key question now, though, is what level will those reductions be set at? Greens argue that 3% a year would be inadequate, and that we need to look towards 4.5% a year to meet our international obligations and to secure the competitive advantages around a faster move to a low carbon economy."
Notes
1. Sarah Boyack MSP said today: "I back [Oxfam's] call for the Scottish Government to set mandatory annual reductions in emissions", while the Scottish Green Party's 2007 mini-manifesto on climate change argued for annual cuts averaging 4.5%. In a Holyrood debate on Climate Change in May 2008, Alison McInnes MSP said: "It is not just the Liberal Democrats who see the necessity for annual targets." In the same debate Tory MSP Gavin Brown said: "Mandatory annual targets are important if we are to make serious progress towards the 80 per cent figure."
Contact the Scottish Greens' press team on 07909 933 074.