Bill to cut carbon emissions 80% by 2050

The Times
June 24, 2009

Angus Macleod, Scottish Political Editor

MSPs put Scotland on course yesterday to go further than any industrialised nation in cutting greenhouse gas emissions after they unanimously passed a Climate Change Bill that set targets for cuts at 42 per cent by 2020 and 80 per cent by 2050.
The Bill seeks to impose controls on international aviation and shipping emissions, proposes the electrification of railways and greater use of power generated by low-carbon methods.
The Bill was broadly welcomed by environmental campaigners, but some groups were concerned that SNP policy on road building and a reliance on coal-fired power stations as an alternative to nuclear could hinder attempts to meet the targets.
Kim Cartensen, leader of WWF's Global Climate Initiative, said that the Bill set an example for developed countries, sparking new hopes that world leaders would be able to agree on a climate change deal in global talks in Copenhagen later this year.

“Scotland becomes the first developed country to meet the demands of science and developing nations, which want the richer countries to take responsibility for bringing the world to dangerously high emission levels,” Mr Cartensen added. “At least one nation is prepared to aim for climate legislation that follows the science. This new law sets a benchmark that every industrialised country will need to live up to.”
Environmental campaigners have claimed that scientific evidence suggests that industrialised countries need to reduce emissions by 25 to 40 per cent, compared to 1990 levels, by 2020, in order to curb rising global temperatures.
MSPs passed the landmark Bill after days of inter-party wrangling and one-upmanship. Scottish government ministers had, until a few days ago, been backing an interim target of 34 per cent cuts by 2020; but when Labour and other Opposition parties threatened to support a 40 per cent interim target, they relented.
But before doing so, in a clear attempt to outflank the other parties, the SNP government put down its own amendment to the Bill to have the interim target set at 42 per cent.
The interim target set in the UK Bill is 34 per cent - although the target in the Scottish Bill is subject to agreement on a global 30 per cent target at the Copenhagen conference.
The Scottish Bill goes further than the UK one because it includes emissions from international aviation and shipping.
The Scottish legislation also sets the goal of providing low-carbon electricity by 2030, through increased renewables and clean fossil fuels, utilising carbon capture and storage technology. It also calls on the public to change to low-carbon road vehicles and for electrification of the country's rail network by 2050. Another aim is low-carbon heating for homes and business headquarters by 2050.
Some campaigners are sceptical over whether the 42 per cent target will be realised, saying it carries with it a host of caveats and conditions.
The Scottish Greens failed in an attempt to set a 90 per cent target by 2050. In a statement issued shortly before the Bill's final legislative stage was agreed, Patrick Harvie, the Green Party's co-convener in Scotland, said: “One minute they pledge tough action and the next they're opposing public transport projects and ramming through a road-building campaign that Margaret Thatcher herself would have had qualms about.
“The SNP's real priority on energy is to rip up Scotland's countryside for opencast coal, the dirtiest fuel possible, and to cross their fingers that carbon capture works.”
Labour attempted to claim credit for the raising of the interim target to 42 per cent with Iain Gray, the Scots Labour leader, describing it as “an astonishing U-turn” which had been brought about by pressure from his party and the Green lobby.
MSPs also agreed to Tory amendments to the Bill to enable council tax discounts to be given for energy-efficiency measures and backed a minimum one-off council tax discount of £50.