The Scottish Government has withdrawn its 2030 net zero target after evaluations deemed it unrealistic.
The Scottish Government has officially revised its net zero emissions target after acknowledging that the goal of reducing carbon emissions by 75 percent by 2030 is not attainable. Net zero secretary Mairi McAllan announced the change in Holyrood on Thursday.
This decision arrives in the wake of the independent Climate Change Committee's (CCC) assessment last month, which deemed the 2030 target "now beyond what is credible." This body criticized the Scottish Government's progress, highlighting that only a fraction of their key recommendations had seen sufficient advancement.
The Scottish Government will also be abolishing its legally binding annual targets, which have been missed for two-thirds of the past 12 years. Despite this decision, Scotland's target to reach net zero by 2045 remains in place.
In response to the announcement, Net Zero Watch, a campaign group, expressed support for the Scottish Government's decision. The group's director praised Scotland for confronting the reality of the situation and predicted a wider shift away from "virtue-signalling climate targets." Harry Wilkinson, head of policy at Net Zero Watch, criticized the broader European political landscape for its reluctance to adjust decarbonisation policies, which he claims are harming economies.
McAllan attributed part of the failure to meet the targets to the actions of the UK central government. She cited a "challenging context of cuts and UK backtracking" as contributing factors and urged Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) to join in requesting the UK Government to reverse capital cuts that impede Scotland's environmental efforts.
The CCC's stark analysis last month underscored the enormity of the challenge, noting that emissions reduction would need to increase dramatically in the next decade to achieve the 2030 target. Only a handful of the CCC’s 2022 Scottish Progress Report recommendations saw notable progress, indicating a significant disconnect between goals and outcomes.
Furthermore, the Scottish Fiscal Commission (SFC) characterized the 2030 interim target as a "fiscal risk," predicting that meeting net zero would require significant financial investment. The SFC estimated that an average annual spend of £1.1 billion, constituting 18 percent of Scotland's capital budget, would be needed by 2050.
