Yousaf mocked for dropping climate targets in ‘accelerated’ green plan

Humza Yousaf and his Green coalition partners have been mocked after insisting they were pursuing an “accelerated response to the climate emergency” by abandoning a greenhouse gas target.

The First Minister admitted that his government was scrapping Nicola Sturgeon’s promise to cut Scotland’s carbon emissions by 75 per cent by 2030 after experts warned it was unachievable.

He said it would be replaced by “an accelerated climate change proposal and plan”, including a controversial measure to impose a new carbon tax on large country estates.

Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, said during First Minister’s Questions: “Only Humza Yousaf could believe that slamming on the brakes – because that is exactly what the SNP is doing this afternoon – is an acceleration.”

Mr Yousaf retorted that Labour had “dumped” its £28 billion green investment plan. Sir Keir Starmer announced in February that it was being cut to £15 billion per year.

But there was widespread hilarity among opposition MSPs when Ariane Burgess, a Green backbencher, asked Mr Yousaf “how the Scottish Government plans to accelerate action to ensure that Scotland achieves net zero by 2045”.

Presiding officer Alison Johnstone, Holyrood’s version of the Commons Speaker, was forced to intervene as the chamber erupted with laughter.

Màiri McAllan, the SNP’s net zero secretary, later unveiled the updated climate change plan to cut greenhouse gases, including some different targets.

She insisted the final goal of Scotland being net zero by 2045 – five years ahead of the rest of the UK – would remain. However, the Scottish Government’s annual and interim targets will also be scrapped and replaced with a system measuring emissions every five years.

Jamie Livingstone, the head of Oxfam Scotland, said: “The Scottish Government’s abandonment of its legal 2030 and annual emissions reduction targets is a reprehensible retreat caused by its recklessly inadequate level of action to date.”

He added: “The announcement of largely recycled measures represents baby steps forward rather than the giant leaps needed and are a thinly veiled distraction from ministers’ failure to deliver their existing climate commitments.”

Imogen Dow, the head of campaigns for Friends of the Earth Scotland, said: “SNP and Green ministers choosing to scrap these climate commitments is the worst environmental decision in the history of the Scottish Parliament.”

Ms Sturgeon boasted that her SNP administration was a global leader on climate change when the targets were introduced in 2019, saying they were the “most stretching” in the world.

But the UK’s official climate watchdog said last month that the current rate of progress in cutting greenhouse gases would have to be increased by a factor of nine for the 2030 target to be met.

In a report, the Climate Change Committee said this level of increase was “beyond what is credible” and was double the most “ambitious” scenario it had modelled if stringent measures were introduced.

The assessment found Scotland’s annual target for cutting emissions was missed again in 2021 – for the eighth time in the last 12 years – after greenhouse gas levels rose by 2.4 per cent as the economy rebounded from the pandemic.

Unveiling a “new package of climate action measures”, Ms McAllan said a target of installing 24,000 more charge points for electric vehicles by 2030.

She also pledged to publish a “route map” to deliver a 20 per cent cut in car use and a plan to “explore” creating a national integrated ticketing system for all public transport.

Ms McAllan said a consultation would also be launched this summer on imposing a carbon land tax on large estates to incentivise peatland restoration, tree planting and renewable energy generation.

She insisted the “severe budgetary restrictions imposed by the UK Government” and the “continuing constraints of devolution” meant Scottish ministers were trying to “deliver societal and economic transformation with one hand tied behind our back”.

Patrick Harvie, one of two Green ministers in Mr Yousaf’s government, said: “The package of new climate measures announced today is absolutely critical, to ensure that Scotland gets back on track and can meet net zero, becoming one of the first countries in the world to end our contribution to climate change in a just and fair way.”

However, Stephen Young, the director of policy at Scottish Land & Estates, said: “It would appear the Scottish Government is seeking to punish those who are already making the greatest contribution.