What actions are the SNP taking in Government to combat climate change?

In May 2016 Nicola Sturgeon appointed Scotland’s first ever Cabinet Secretary for the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform, showing the importance the SNP place on the environment and our ambitions in this area.

The Scottish Government remain well on track to achieve a 42 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. Scotland is outperforming the UK as a whole and most western European nations. Only Sweden and Finland have achieved greater cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.

In the next year we will introduce a Climate Change Bill to set more ambitious targets to reduce carbon emissions – aiming for a cut of at least a 90 per cent cut by 2050.

We will build on our work to create a cleaner, greener Scotland with new Low Emission Zones in our four biggest cities to improve quality of life and contribute to the international campaign to reverse global warming. The first Low Emissions Zone will be established in Glasgow by the end of next year.

The Scottish Government aim to phase out new petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2032 – eight years ahead of the target set by the UK government. This will be delivered by electrifying the road network and doubling investment in Active Travel to £80 million per year from next year.

The Scottish Government will establish a £60 million Innovation Fund to find new ways to deliver low carbon infrastructure such as electric vehicle charging or sustainable heating systems.

We have also exceeded our target of producing 50 per cent of electricity from renewables by 2015. We will now go further. By 2030 we expect to have wholly decarbonised the electricity sector, through increased use of renewables and technologies that remove carbon from the atmosphere.

The SNP Scottish Government has distributed £6 million to projects in Africa through the Climate Justice Fund, the first in the world when it was established five years ago, and we are now set to double the fund to £12 million. The Fund seeks to mitigate the damage caused by climate change on the world’s poorest communities, which are often hit hardest by its impact. SNP MPs will continue to call on the UK government to match Scotland’s ambition by establishing a Climate Justice Fund.