Scotland is expected to announce a dramatic watering down of its key climate targets tomorrow, Sky News understands.
The Scottish government will deliver a ministerial statement at Holyrood after a report from the Climate Change Committee (CCC) said the aim of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 75% by 2030 is out of reach.
Scotland has missed eight of the past 12 annual targets and its wider plans are “beyond what is credible”, according to the independent experts.
Reacting, campaign organisation Friends of the Earth Scotland, described the decision as “the worst environmental decision in the history of the Scottish parliament”.
Ministers and government officials have refused to comment tonight on suggestions its ambitions will be weakened but multiple sources are widely expecting a U-turn.
In a damning report to the Scottish parliament last month, the CCC said: “The Scottish government is failing to achieve Scotland’s ambitious climate goals.”
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Former first minister Nicola Sturgeon, who announced the initial climate plans, rejected suggestions she had “overcooked” the ambitions when asked at a COP26 event in Glasgow in 2021.
Net Zero Secretary Mairi McAllan will deliver the update in Edinburgh on Thursday afternoon.
Mark Ruskell, climate spokesperson for the Green Party, which is in partnership with the SNP in government, said: “We are absolutely determined to accelerate the urgent and substantial action needed to tackle the climate crisis as laid out by the CCC recently, and fully expect the Scottish government to respond to that challenge.”
“This is a pivotal moment for us to ramp up the kind of meaningful change that will put us on track to achieve net zero by 2045 at the latest, in the face of a complete reversal of climate action from the UK government.”
