Meeting of the Parliament 15 January 2019
It is fair to say that the IPCC’s 1.5°C special report, which was published last October, was a wake-up call for all of us—and if it was not, it should have been. The report brought significant clarity to the scientific evidence on the impacts of global warming, including a valuable summary of the evidence of the impacts at 1.5°C.
The report, along with two other reports that were published last year—the UN’s “Emissions Gap Report 2018”, which was published shortly before COP24 in Poland, and the Met Office’s UK climate projections 2018—helped to provide clarity on the Scottish, UK and global position that the world has already reached about 1°C of post-industrial warming; that we are on course for an alarming 3°C of warming; and that extreme weather events that are happening now can be attributed with confidence to warming on that scale. Given those facts, NGOs continue to claim that current national pledges are insufficient to keep temperature increases to the Paris goal of 1.5°C.
I have a lot of sympathy with the calls to set a zero emissions target in the Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets) (Scotland) Bill, but we must be realistic about the target dates that we set. That said, we all await with interest the views and advice of the UK Committee on Climate Change in the spring. The CCC will, I hope, set out a pathway for the nation to achieve carbon neutrality.
As we know, Scotland’s climate change plan has a headline target of achieving a 100 per cent reduction in carbon emissions as soon as possible. However, at this moment in time, the CCC advises that a 90 per cent reduction target for all greenhouse gases by 2050 is still the limit of feasibility.
That said, I was pleased to hear the cabinet secretary state in the chamber last November that if the CCC
“advises that even more ambitious Scottish targets are now credible, we will adopt them.”—[Official Report, 1 November 2018; c 47.]
It is clear that the Scottish Government wants to achieve net zero, but it must be done in a credible and socially responsible way. That is where the assistance of the just transition commission will come in. It will provide practical advice on promoting a fair, inclusive jobs market as we move to a carbon-neutral economy.
Before I turn to the just transition commission, it may be worth reminding the chamber that Scotland achieved a 49 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions against a 1990 baseline and that we recorded a 10.3 per cent year-on-year reduction in carbon emissions between 2015 and 2016. Of course, our country’s carbon footprint will also be reduced thanks to the six large-scale renewable energy projects that have been approved, not to mention the world’s first floating wind farm, and the country’s largest solar farm, which has been given the green light. Many people working on those projects have transitioned from the oil and gas industry.
We have spoken in the past about picking the low-hanging fruit when it comes to reducing the carbon footprint. However, one box that has not been ticked and which is, I believe, a piece of low-hanging fruit that we have missed, is tackling the 14,000 Scottish homes that still use coal as their primary heat source, as well as the 186,000 domestic properties that rely on oil or bottled gas. Scottish Renewables estimates that homes using coal emit, on average, more than four times as much carbon as those using electric heat pumps, biomass boilers or solar thermal panels.
Clearly, with the closure of Longannet, coal-powered electricity generation has already, thankfully, become a thing of the past in Scotland, but I believe that it is time that household coal heating was consigned to the dustbin of history, too. The short-term employment opportunities that such a commitment would create are high and would help to ensure that workers successfully transition as the employment landscape shifts.
We all want cleaner air, a healthier environment and less of the harmful emissions that cause climate change. Getting rid of coal as a household fuel will be a small but significant part of that. That issue was raised by Swedish academic Anders Wijkman when he gave evidence to our Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee before the Christmas recess. He said that there is a need for a Europe-wide discussion about support for communities that are reliant on the coal industry.
The just transition commission will be invaluable in the coming years as a more resource-efficient and sustainable economic model is introduced in what must be a fair and socially just way. We must be keenly aware of the potentially disproportionate impact that a badly managed transition could have on, for example, rural areas and on those working in the agricultural industry.
Clearly, food and farming have a crucial contribution to make in mitigating and starting to adapt to climate change, but let us not forget that the entire agricultural industry is made up of thousands of small and medium-sized enterprises.
It is fair to say that farmers get that they have to play their part, but first-class support and planning for transition in the agricultural industry is imperative. I would like to see a return to the old-fashioned Government agriculture advisers, who had a good rapport with the local farmers on their patch and gave them the advice that they required free of charge. I know that the free-of-charge element is a big ask, but I think that such a service will be crucial if we are to ensure that the agricultural industry is 100 per cent on board, because the policy decisions that could be made to secure reductions in emissions from agriculture will potentially have a major impact on the industry.
Ensuring that funding of the farming for a better climate initiative is significantly increased from the current very low £375,000 per annum, which Tavish Scott has already mentioned, will go some way towards helping to support change in the industry.
I have nearly run out of time—