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Scotland’s greenhouse emissions from energy have fallen, but transport still a big emitter

Herald 16th June 2017, Sarah Beattie-Smith, Senior Climate and Energy Policy Officer, WWF
Scotland: THIS week the Scottish Government announced that it hit the
annual target for cutting climate changing emissions. The news that
emissions fell by three per cent from 2014 to 2015 was welcomed by us and
many other environmental groups.

It’s yet more evidence that we can meet ambitious targets and it should drive even stronger action to embrace the
benefits of a low-carbon Scotland – from cleaner air to job creation and
from improving health to cutting fuel poverty. The hit target shows that
real progress has been made on waste and on energy, particularly on
renewables, which now meet more than half of Scotland’s electricity demand.

That progress means that, for the first time, the energy sector is no
longer the biggest emitter.

That unwelcome honour now falls to transport –
a sector where emissions have barely changed in 30 years. Indeed, emissions
from transport went up by 0.4 per cent in 2015, largely due to increased
road traffic. Such poor progress on emissions underline the urgent need for
bold, transformative action.

Across the world, other nations are setting high ambitions on switching from polluting fossil-fuelled cars to low or
zero-carbon electric vehicles. In India, a target has been set to end the
sale of new petrol and diesel cars in favour of 100 per cent electric
vehicles by 2030. In Norway, that target is for 2025. In Scotland, our goal
is to phase out just half of fossil-fuelled vehicles by 2030, and only in
urban environments. That equates to only 27 percent of new cars being
electric by 2030.

If Scotland is to retain its reputation as a world leader
on climate change, we need to at least keep up with other nations, if not
exceed their ambition.
http://www.heraldscotland.com/opinion/15351342.Scotland_must_keep_up_the_pressure_on_climate_change/

June 19, 2017 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | climate change, UK