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Showing 33 of 2,354,908 contributions. Latest 30 days: 0. Coverage: 12 May 1999 — 25 Mar 2026.
Roseanna Cunningham SNP Committee
01 Sep 2020
Climate Change Act 2008
The tax proposal removes all flexibility, because a single way of managing the issue would be applied across the board. An ETS works on a much more flexible basis. Fundamentally, the tax proposal creates a big problem. The level of emissions reduction is less certain with the...
Roseanna Cunningham SNP Committee
21 Mar 2017
Subordinate Legislation
My point is that we will be dealing with the carbon accounting regulations in respect of the EU ETS for some time yet; indeed, the time lag means that we will be discussing the 2017 situation in 2019. The fact that we could, in theory, be out of the EU ETS by 2019 does not mea...
Roseanna Cunningham SNP Committee
01 Sep 2020
Climate Change Act 2008
Emissions trading is a devolved function—what is in effect covered by the ETS is devolved. A carbon emissions tax would be Treasury led, which would immediately remove from us any real engagement in that regard. What is being proposed, on the face of it, is a reserved carbon ...
Roseanna Cunningham SNP Committee
08 May 2018
Climate Change Bill
Yes, we intend to measure progress with targets that are based on actual emissions by removing the current accounting adjustment to reflect the operation of the EU ETS. Apart from anything else, we have no indication of what, if anything, is going to happen with the EU ETS. Th...
Roseanna Cunningham SNP Committee
21 May 2019
Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
The European Union ETS is under active discussion and is subject to consultation, which the committee might wish to look at. The matter is devolved, but Scotland is not big enough to be an emissions trading market in practical terms. That is why we think that staying in the Eu...
Roseanna Cunningham SNP Committee
23 Feb 2021
European Union Exit
On chemicals, we have been fully engaged with DEFRA and the Health and Safety Executive on the development and launch. For example, we have participated in the current REACH substance registration prioritisation exercise. We have also been fully involved in on-going parallel w...
Roseanna Cunningham SNP Committee
21 Feb 2017
Draft Climate Change Plan (RPP3)
As one might expect, discussions are on-going about the future that Brexit might bring. At this stage, it is a little difficult to ascertain how things will work. I think that I indicated in my statement to Parliament that the climate change plan is drafted on the basis of our...
Roseanna Cunningham SNP Chamber
06 Mar 2018
Climate Change (Emissions Reduction)
It is fair to say that the EU ETS is the single most important policy instrument in driving down industrial emissions, and we continue to call for clarity from the UK Government as it prepares to leave the EU. Until last week, there had been almost no response whatsoever to th...
Roseanna Cunningham SNP Chamber
12 Jun 2018
Scottish Greenhouse Gas Emissions 2016
Not directly. We want to make the change because it is the right thing to do for transparency and accountability; it in no way changes our support for participation in the EU ETS. Under the Climate Change Act 2008, emissions trading is devolved. We hope to be fully involved in...
Roseanna Cunningham SNP Committee
01 Sep 2020
Climate Change Act 2008
I can well understand why Finlay Carson wants to put a rosy glow on what is in front of him, but, unfortunately, he has not been the one involved in all our attempts to negotiate sensibly through this. The linkage question is absolutely on point with my concerns. A linking ag...
Roseanna Cunningham SNP Committee
21 Mar 2017
Subordinate Legislation
Obviously, that is a possibility that we have to live with at the moment. I have had some conversation with my Westminster counterpart, and it is fair to say that thinking at the UK Government level has not crystallised around anything in relation to that particular area. At t...
Roseanna Cunningham SNP Chamber
31 Oct 2017
Greenhouse Gas Emissions (Annual Target 2015)
Graeme Dey is correct to raise the EU ETS, which is currently the world’s largest carbon market. It means that there is a level playing field for businesses throughout the EU and it protects us against carbon leakage, which is a considerable matter that needs to be addressed. ...
Roseanna Cunningham SNP Committee
01 Sep 2020
Climate Change Act 2008
I am as comfortable as I can be. The proposed 5 per cent cap is tighter than it would have been in the EU ETS—I remind everyone that it is an interim cap. I argued for that tightening of the emissions cap. I am happy that I have, at least, managed to secure that over a long pe...
The Convener: SNP Committee
11 Jan 2005
Smoking, Health and Social Care (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
I have a question for the two other officials. I was interested in the Scottish Parliament information centre's briefing on the smoking ban, page 12 of which deals with deaths relating to environmental tobacco smoke. I am curious about the fact that three different figures are...
Roseanna Cunningham SNP Chamber
14 Jun 2016
Greenhouse Gas Inventory 2014
I welcome the member’s welcome for the figures, but I am not entirely sure whether he is questioning me about the overall issue of APD or APD in respect of Scottish Government activities. I have responded to Mark Ruskell on the wider issue of APD. A balanced decision must be m...
The Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform (Roseanna Cunningham) SNP Committee
25 Oct 2016
Greenhouse Gas Emissions Targets and Climate Change Adaptation
At the moment, the short answer is that we do not know. We are not in a position to understand exactly how that is going to proceed. Obviously, it is vital for us to try to glean some information on that, but at this point it is too early to say what the situation will be. We ...
Roseanna Cunningham SNP Chamber
13 Jun 2017
Greenhouse Gas Inventory 2015
That is an interesting question from David Stewart, and I will speak to officials with regard to whether what he suggests is a feasible option, as I do not know off the top of my head. He is absolutely right to highlight the importance of the EU ETS and the considerable degree...
Roseanna Cunningham SNP Committee
27 Jun 2017
Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform (General Update)
It is not the case that we feed things in and press a button and all the information chunters out of the other end in 20 minutes. Running the model is more complex than that. A run has been done without the ETS to see how that impacts, and other such runs will be done. I do no...
The Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform (Roseanna Cunningham) SNP Chamber
08 Nov 2017
Portfolio Question Time · Climate Change (Impact of Brexit)
To date, the Scottish ministers have had no formal discussions with UK ministers on the impact of Brexit on climate change policy, nor have we seen UK Government reports or impact assessments, in spite of repeated requests. In May 2017, I wrote to Nick Hurd, the UK’s former c...
The Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform (Roseanna Cunningham) SNP Chamber
06 Mar 2018
Climate Change (Emissions Reduction)
In 2009, the Scottish Parliament unanimously passed the most ambitious climate change legislation anywhere in the world. Eight years later, I am laying the Scottish Government’s third report on policies and proposals for meeting the statutory emissions reductions targets from ...
Roseanna Cunningham SNP Chamber
06 Mar 2018
Climate Change (Emissions Reduction)
Carbon leakage is a tricky concept. It occurs when industry simply relocates to jurisdictions with lower decarbonisation and emissions ambitions, and it results in the displacement of emissions rather than any overall reduction. Were businesses to move their operations, that w...
Roseanna Cunningham SNP Committee
04 Dec 2018
EU Exit and the Environment
I would not argue that there are any actual guarantees about anything at the moment. Where there is agreement between both Governments about where powers to set environmental standards lie, there is broad agreement that they will return to Scotland—if that is where they have c...
Roseanna Cunningham SNP Committee
30 Apr 2019
EU Exit and the Environment
Regarding no deal, we have continued to work on some of the key areas that we had raised in previous sessions. From our perspective, chemicals, waste, water and the EU ETS issue were the four key areas that impacted on us. Some of that work will still be germane to a deal, a...
Roseanna Cunningham SNP Committee
30 Apr 2019
EU Exit and the Environment
Yes. I take the same view on the issue as I took with the EU ETS. It would be far better to stay in the scheme, rather than having to set up an ersatz version of a scheme that has been working well. I would say the same for REACH and any similar scheme. It goes back to the...
Roseanna Cunningham SNP Committee
30 Apr 2019
EU Exit and the Environment
We have not done such an analysis, because our view from the outset has been that we need to continue to be involved with those bodies. That issue was raised at the DEFRA DA meeting and supported by my Welsh counterpart Lesley Griffiths. Continued participation in the European...
The Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform (Roseanna Cunningham) SNP Chamber
12 Jun 2019
Scottish Greenhouse Gas Emissions 2017
The year 2019 is a significant one for Scotland’s response to climate change. It marks the 10th anniversary of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009, with its world-leading targets, and it will be the year in which we collectively make a step change in our response to the glo...
Roseanna Cunningham SNP Chamber
12 Jun 2019
Scottish Greenhouse Gas Emissions 2017
I thank Maurice Golden for the welcome for a significant part of the figures that have been published. I would want to say, as he might expect, that I think that Scotland is a major country and that, while the UK seeks to reach net zero emissions by 2050, Scotland doing so by ...
Roseanna Cunningham SNP Committee
15 Jun 2020
Environment Bill
There are no common frameworks in existence yet, although they are being discussed in relation to a number of areas. In reality, the closest that we are to having one is in relation to the ETS, which I have referred to but which is outside the scope of the bill. That is probab...
Roseanna Cunningham SNP Committee
01 Sep 2020
Climate Change Act 2008
We will obviously have to look at it all very carefully. The UK ETS works on the basis of a UK-wide cap for a UK-wide market, and the UK targets are somewhat different. As we have discussed, an emissions trading scheme allows the market to determine where to cost-effectively r...
Roseanna Cunningham SNP Committee
01 Sep 2020
Climate Change Act 2008
If Mark Ruskell can come up with a solution that involves getting the UK Government to do what we want it to do, and to do it now, I will be pleased to hear it. The reality is that we are trying to do the very best that we can do given what we are currently having to deal with...
Roseanna Cunningham SNP Chamber
11 Nov 2020
Portfolio Question Time · Climate Change (United Kingdom Government Investment)
As I indicated in my earlier answer, a great deal of work is being done, including on the joint UK emissions trading scheme. Working together can be stymied by indecision on the part of the UK Government, which has, over this entire period, reserved the fallback option of a ca...
Roseanna Cunningham SNP Committee
15 Feb 2021
Budget 2021-22
I have to go back to Finlay Carson’s challenge around industrial decarbonisation, which he specifically referenced. It is really important to remember that that is not wholly in the Scottish Government’s gift. It is part and parcel of one of the issues that we grapple with in ...
Roseanna Cunningham SNP Committee
15 Feb 2021
Budget 2021-22
I will start. Obviously, we have had some exchanges already in the meeting that directly pertain to this part of the conversation, so I do not want simply to retread those exchanges. The threat at the moment is the continuing significant uncertainty about what will replace EU ...
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Committee

Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee 01 September 2020

01 Sep 2020 · S5 · Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee
Item of business
Climate Change Act 2008
Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading Scheme Order 2020 [Draft]
Cunningham, Roseanna SNP Perthshire South and Kinross-shire Watch on SPTV
The tax proposal removes all flexibility, because a single way of managing the issue would be applied across the board. An ETS works on a much more flexible basis. Fundamentally, the tax proposal creates a big problem. The level of emissions reduction is less certain with the tax. It is totally dependent on the right rate being set, and we do not have any proposals so far on what that rate would be. The ETS has an overall emissions cap, so it provides certainty on emissions reductions. It allows the market to discover the best way of doing that, and it encourages decarbonisation, whereas, as I have said, a static carbon tax, with rates set in legislation, would not ensure cost-effective decarbonisation. 11:15 It also would not link to the EU ETS market, which has been a big part of the discussion about the setting up of a UK ETS. In the EU ETS market, the carbon price changes daily in response to supply and demand, so the tax could lead to carbon leakage between the UK and the EU, which would be an extremely unfortunate outcome. As Stewart Stevenson indicated, participants can trade excess emission allowances in the ETS, creating a stronger financial incentive to decarbonise. There are a lot of areas in which the ETS is a far better mechanism, and it is the mechanism that BEIS is pursuing. However, we appear to have a UK Government that is pursuing two separate policy lines at the moment. In addition to the point that Stewart Stevenson made, there are other big differences between the two processes. I can be asked questions in the Parliament chamber about the operation of an ETS, but decisions about a carbon tax taken by the Treasury will remove that from us. It is an example of the removal of power from the Scottish Parliament.

In the same item of business

The Convener SNP
I welcome everyone back, and I thank Roseanna Cunningham, the Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform, for staying with us. She is ...
Roseanna Cunningham SNP
Emissions trading is a devolved function—what is in effect covered by the ETS is devolved. A carbon emissions tax would be Treasury led, which would immediat...
The Convener SNP
We scrutinise the ETS, but we have not scrutinised any proposed carbon tax.
Stewart Stevenson SNP
I want to move away from matters of process, which is what we have been talking about, to how the two alternatives compare against each other. If a tax appro...
Roseanna Cunningham SNP
The tax proposal removes all flexibility, because a single way of managing the issue would be applied across the board. An ETS works on a much more flexible ...
Finlay Carson Con
Given that there is a four-Administrations policy set out in the Government response on a UK ETS, I must admit that I am a bit disappointed that we are still...
Roseanna Cunningham SNP
I can well understand why Finlay Carson wants to put a rosy glow on what is in front of him, but, unfortunately, he has not been the one involved in all our ...
Finlay Carson Con
Let me get this right. You played your part in putting together the order for the UK ETS to align as closely as possible to the EU ETS. That should be welcom...
Roseanna Cunningham SNP
I am confident that it will allow the UK carbon market to function as successfully as it can, but we can all agree that the wider the carbon market, the more...
Mark Ruskell Green
I will move the questioning on from the constitution to the climate. At the moment, there is a big gap between the emissions that were produced by large indu...
Roseanna Cunningham SNP
I am as comfortable as I can be. The proposed 5 per cent cap is tighter than it would have been in the EU ETS—I remind everyone that it is an interim cap. I ...
Claudia Beamish Lab
I would like to pursue that a little bit further with you, in relation to the revised climate change plan. Will there be challenges in relation to Scotland’s...
Roseanna Cunningham SNP
We will obviously have to look at it all very carefully. The UK ETS works on the basis of a UK-wide cap for a UK-wide market, and the UK targets are somewhat...
Mark Ruskell Green
In all honesty, will it not set us back if we wait until 2024 to adjust the cap and get the right level in place? In effect, will it not mean that the rest o...
Roseanna Cunningham SNP
If Mark Ruskell can come up with a solution that involves getting the UK Government to do what we want it to do, and to do it now, I will be pleased to hear ...
The Convener SNP
I have one final question before we move on to the next item on the agenda. It is about the public-facing concordat among ministers from all four Administrat...
Roseanna Cunningham SNP
Are you talking about the framework outline agreement?
The Convener SNP
Yes.
Roseanna Cunningham SNP
I think that you may have already been sent a letter on that. I suspect that it is sitting in your inbox, because something was shared yesterday in that rega...
The Convener SNP
It does. Thank you. We move to the next agenda item. I invite the cabinet secretary to move motion S5M-22351. Motion moved, That the Environment, Climate ...
The Convener SNP
If members have no comments, I will put the question, which is that motion S5M-22351 be agreed. If anyone does not agree, please type “No” in the chat box. ...