. While applauding Scotland’s progress in meeting its greenhouse gas emission targets and highlighting its progress, the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), said Tuesday that the Scottish government should implement congestion charges to achieve its targets. If the Scottish Government is to meet future goals, it will need to improve key policies according to the authors. The report stated that Scotland has been a leader in many areas of emission reduction. Source: Committee on Climate Change Scotland was praised for deploying renewable electricity generation capacity, which accounted for 44% of all electricity consumption in 2013. It has also made good progress in installing community and locally-owned energy projects, where capacity has increased by 40% since 2012. The CCC wrote in a statement: “Scotland is on track to meet its 2020 energy consumption target early, with energy demand down almost 12% compared to a 2005-2007 baseline.” Missed legislated target However, in spite of these achievements, Scotland missed its legislated 2012 target of 53. 226 MoCO2e decreased by 4.5%, or about 2.8 million tonnes. Recent improvements in how emissions are estimated (Scottish greenhouse gases inventory) have made a big difference. Scotland wouldn’t have achieved its 2012 target without those changes. The CCC states that progress in reducing emissions from transport and agriculture has been slow. Similarly, government targets for carbon sinks (such as forests), have not been met. Source: Committee on Climate Change Cycling. According to Scottish statistics only 1% of journeys in 2013, were made by a bicycle, the same as in 2003.. The 2020 target of 10% is clearly not going to happen. The household waste rate was 42 percent, which is 1% more than the . “This shows that Scotland has missed the second Zero Waste Plan target for 2013 (50%); however 9 out of 32 of Scotland’s councils have met the 50% target,” the report informed. The EU directive that 95 targets 2020. has continued to improve car efficiency in 2013,. The CO2 intensity for new private cars decreased from 133.0 to 128.3 (gCO2/km) in 2013,, which was a decrease of 3.5%. It was lower than the United Kingdom but more so than Northern Ireland or Wales. Agriculture: Emissions in agriculture fell by 0. 87 Since 2006., the MtCO2e has fallen by 0. It is difficult to evaluate this target due to the many changes to the method used to calculate agricultural emissions. Tree-planting: rates are far below those seen in the 1970s. Scotland till has a long way to go to meet its 10,000 hectare anual target. In 2012, about 7,000 hectares of new forest were planted, increasing to just over 8,000 in 2014. In order to meet its 100,000 hectare target for 2020, tree planting rates will need to increase considerably. CCC recommends that the Scottish Government consider additional measures beyond those currently in place. CCC suggests that the Scottish Government agree on a timeline and process to help them assess the impact of better inventory data, which is anticipated later in the year. The report says that it will be difficult to meet future targets and will need additional measures in many sectors, including energy efficiency, transport and land use. Even though there have been some positive developments, it is still difficult to meet the ambitious targets set by the Scottish Government. Matthew Bell, Chief Executive of CCC said that he had met with many stakeholders in Scotland during recent months. They have all commented positive on the Scottish targets for greenhouse gas reduction. (Stakeholders can be those that influence or are directly affected by a project, business, etc. They are not easy to achieve, but they place Scotland at the top of the list. To meet that goal, both the Scottish government and the wider society must consider additional measures in the future. The Report also stated that congestion charges could be used to encourage behavior change. The CCC has reported that congestion charging is a successful method of reducing vehicle traffic in the UK’s two largest cities, London and Durham.
