Scotland's new emissions strategy too reliant on science fiction', critics say

"I think we made a big step forward in terms of realistically achievable budgets last year, and now at least, for the first time, we're in good shape. The committee estimates Scotland has realistic plans for 91% of the cuts it hopes to make by 2030 a very high confidence figure. We're really pleased with that one. And then it falls off a bit of a cliff."

"For the second carbon budget up to 2035, the committee believes Scotland has credible plans for just 64% of the cuts needed, while for the third budget, up to 2040, that figure dropped to 58%. Those targets are subject to significant risks or insufficient plans."

"The CCC said the areas of greatest concern included progress on decarbonising heating in buildings, particularly installing heat pumps, and the Scottish government's very heavy reliance in future on carbon capture and storage and unproved technologies to remove CO2 from the atmosphere with machines."

Scotland replaced its unachievable annual emissions targets with five-year carbon budgets in November, a positive step that mirrors UK-level systems. The Climate Change Committee confirms Scotland has realistic plans for 91% of emissions cuts needed by 2030, representing high confidence. However, credibility deteriorates significantly for longer-term targets. For the second carbon budget through 2035, only 64% of required cuts have credible plans, declining further to 58% for the third budget through 2040. Major concerns include slow progress on building heating decarbonization and heat pump installation, plus excessive reliance on unproven carbon capture and storage technologies and atmospheric CO2 removal methods.

Read at www.theguardian.com