Nicola Sturgeon's claim to be world leader on climate change 'in tatters' after watchdog report

Nicola Sturgeon's claim to be a world leader on tackling climate change is "in tatters" after the UK's independent watchdog found her government is missing most of its green targets and has no "clear delivery plan" for how they can be achieved.

The First Minister repeatedly boasted about her government's "world-leading" climate change targets at the Cop26 and Cop27 climate change summits, urging global leaders to "match their rhetoric with reality."

But independent advisers the Climate Change Committee (CCC) said Ms Sturgeon's government has missed seven of 11 of the targets, with progress having "largely stalled in recent years" and no "coherent explanation" being offered by ministers.

In a deeply embarrassing conclusion for the SNP and its Scottish Green coalition partners, the detailed assessment warned their government's "trend of failure will continue without urgent and strong action."

In particular, it found "glaring gaps" in the coalition's plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 75 per cent by 2030, a target it predicted would be missed by a wide margin.

While emissions fell in 2020, the committee said this was "largely due to travel restrictions during the Covid-19 pandemic" and forecast they would "rebound" when the following year's figures are calculated.

Scotland's previous lead over the rest of the UK in cutting emissions has evaporated, it warned, and plans to decarbonise transport are falling behind other parts of the country, with sales of electric cars higher in England.

Scotland's "consumption emissions" - the amount associated with public spending on goods and services - were found to be 22 per cent higher than the UK average in 2018.

In a damning assessment of the SNP-Green coalition's plans to force homeowners and businesses to replace their gas boilers, the committee found its policies were "wholly inadequate" to meet its targets.

Similarly, the 230-page assessment said it was "not clear" how ministers' plan to cut agriculture emissions would be met and warned that targets for restoring peatland carbon stores were being missed by more than half.

The committee said "closer cooperation" with the UK Government was required in some areas, particularly decarbonising industry, but there was "little evidence" of this happening and this was "undermining the achievement of Scotland's more ambitious short-term goals."

The CCC is an independent statutory body that advises the UK Government and devolved administrations on their emissions targets. It is chaired by Lord Deben, who as John Gummer was Environment Secretary in John Major's Government.

He said: "In 2019, the Scottish Parliament committed the country to some of the most stretching climate goals in the world, but they are increasingly at risk without real progress towards the milestones that Scottish ministers have previously laid out.

"One year ago, I called for more clarity and transparency on Scottish climate policy and delivery. That plea remains unanswered."

Colin Smyth, Scottish Labour's new zero spokesman, said: "This damning report leaves the SNP-Green government’s empty rhetoric in tatters."

The CCC review noted the SNP-Green coalition's adoption of "bold emissions reduction targets" but said they could only be "applauded" if they were actually achieved.

It found emissions had fallen by 59 per cent between 1990 and 2020, meeting an interim target for a 56 per cent drop but only thanks to a "substantial contribution from the effects of the pandemic, and it is unlikely that that the target would have been met without them."

There is a "significant risk" that Scotland will fail to meet its annual targets in the 2020s, it concluded, warning that: "Policies and plans are not yet sufficient to speed things up to the required rate."

While Ms Sturgeon's government has a "laudable aim" of cutting car kilometres by 20 per cent by 2030, the assessment said there was no strategy with "sufficient levers to deter car use".

The CCC said the targets for replacing gas boilers in homes with low carbon forms of heating such as heat pumps "imply around double the annual deployment rates we considered realistic, even in our most ambitious scenario."

Michael Matheson, the SNP's Net Zero Secretary, said: "Progress has been made – Scotland is already more than halfway to net zero – but we are now entering the most challenging part of the journey to date, with a need to halve our emissions again within the next eight years."

The Scottish Greens claimed the report was out of date as it was based on a climate strategy drawn up before they joined the SNP in power.