Scotland exceeds 2020 emission target six years early

Scottish Climate Change Secretary, Roseanna Cunningham, has today confirmed that Scotland has exceeded its 2020 target to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 42% – six years ahead of schedule.

According to the latest climate change statistics, Scotland’s emissions have dropped by 12.5% year on year to 41.9 million tonnes carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2e) in 2014. This represents a fall of 45.8% from the 1990 baseline.

The figures reveal that Scotland leads the rest of the UK as a whole, with a 39.5% reduction in Scottish source emissions between 1990 and 2014 in comparison to the UK’s 33% cut over the same period.

The statistics also show Scotland as one of the leading countries in Western Europe for cutting emissions.

Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform said: “Scotland is making outstanding progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. These statistics show that we not only met the annual 2014 emissions reduction target but also exceeded the level of our world-leading 2020 target for a 42% reduction, six years ahead of schedule.

“The reduction in residential emissions in 2014 may have been due to people turning down their heating. This underlines that small individual actions, if repeated on a large scale, can have a big impact in tackling climate change

“This is an especially important time for climate change, in light of the international agreement reached in Paris last December and it is great news that Scotland continues to show ambition and demonstrate the progress that can be made.

“We will continue to rise to the challenge and the First Minister has already confirmed that the Scottish Government plans to establish a new and more testing 2020 target. We are not complacent and we will continue to take action and encourage others to do their bit to tackle climate change.”

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