Stop Climate Chaos Scotland (SCCS) has published an assessment of the Scottish Government’s progress on delivering key climate commitments, alongside the coalition’s priorities for policies that would secure a greener, fairer, healthier Scotland.
The assessment notes that major commitments from the current government climate plan are off track, with 11 out of 20 showing little or no progress.
The findings were similar for the package of climate policies announced by the Scottish Government in April 2024. Despite saying these should leave “no doubt about the seriousness with which the Government treats the climate and nature crises and about our readiness to act to deliver”, analysis for SCCS shows that since the announcement there has been little or no progress on 10 of the 14 measures.
SCCS – Scotland’s climate coalition, with over 70 members – stressed the urgent need to accelerate delivery of these existing commitments, as well as pointing to new actions that can be taken to make our homes warmer, public transport easier and cheaper to use, and to reduce waste. These policies would help to create new jobs and industries, and reduce ill-health costs to the NHS.
Mike Robinson, Chair of SCCS, said:
“Climate remains one of the Scottish Government’s top four stated priorities, and some welcome progress has been made in shifting to cleaner power. However, our analysis shows meaningful progress has stalled over recent years. Business too has back-pedalled on commitments they made so publicly ahead of the Glasgow climate COP26 in 2021. We need this to change to meet climate commitments and help Scots build a robust economy and protect our health and our homes.”
“With 2024 the hottest year on record, recent incidents of storm damage and flooding in Scotland, and 2025 starting with the devastating wild fires in Los Angeles, we urgently need rhetoric and pledges to be backed up with action and funding.”
“The actions we are calling for would also deliver significant and much needed benefits to people’s lives, jobs and communities. This year the government will publish a new climate plan, and this is a key opportunity to make new commitments – but we can’t wait for that. We need to see progress during 2025 in all arenas, from skills development and funding through to heating, farm subsidies and transport.”
Government commitments SCCS would like to see brought forward quickly include:
- Reducing car-km by 20% by 2030
- Delivering the Heat in Buildings Bill
- Accelerating the restoration of peatland
- Delivering a national integrated ticketing system for public transport
- Developing high level principles of air departure tax
- Developing measures to switch from internal combustion engine to zero emission vans and other vehicles
- Changes to the Whole Farm Plan so that it supports climate and nature friendly farming
- Delivering a Just Transition Plan for the Mossmorran gas plant
SCCS is calling for the following new policies to be included in the new Climate Change Plan, or election manifestos:
- Cut the carbon impact of food production
- Set up a Carbon Emissions Land Tax
- Introduce carbon and material footprint targets
- Ban the destruction of unsold goods
- Set an end date for fossil fuel production and use
- Decarbonise Scotland’s homes
- Make bus travel free for all
- Introduce a fair Private Jet Tax and then reduce wider aviation demand
