Geoff Keey Climate Blog: Scotland's 42% Target

A damn fine scotch

Geoff Keey

Scotland has adopted a 42% climate change target. That, and a wee rumour of free whisky, encouraged me to attend a side event organised by the Scottish Government.

Unfortunately there wasn’t any free whisky, but I did learn a lot about Scotland’s efforts to tackle climate change, efforts that New Zealand could definitely learn from. The Scottish Climate Change Minister Stewart Stevenson talked about Scotland’s new climate law and the strategy driving Scotland’s approach. He spoke about Scotland’s history of invention – which he admitted had helped create the problems the world now faces. He spoke about how Scotland wanted to drive technological change at home and encourage stronger efforts overseas through their example.

Minister Stevenson said how the Scots were not known for their optimism, before launching into talk about leadership and the need to make the most of opportunities. His comments, and those of a business representative, were remarkably positive and a real contrast to what I hear back home in New Zealand.

The Scottish Parliament has significant devolved powers and a wide range of organisations in Scotland have made the most of them. A coalition of over 60 environmental NGOs, church groups, unions and other organisations ran a campaign “Stop Climate Chaos Scotland.”

The result was a climate change law that was passed in June this year. The law requires Scotland to cut its emissions to 42% below 1990 levels by 2020. Eighty percent of this cut has to be done in Scotland– in contrast to New Zealand where the Government wants emissions to keep going up and to buy credits offshore to offset this Every year Scotland will have to report on progress and there are annual targets.

A big part of the Government’s approach is that Scotland aims to be the green energy capital of Europe. They’ve clearly looked at where they need to cut emissions and have decided to become leaders.

Scottish businesswoman Jane Wood from the organisation Scottish Business in the Community also spoke. Her presentation reminded me of the kind of things 42- Below (ironically!!) founder Geoff Ross has been saying back in New Zealand. She reminded people that climate change was the greatest threat to humankind and said Scottish business people wouldln't run away from the challenge of tackling it.

She seemed genuinely proud of the 42% target and said that it would create economic opportunities in renewable energy and create rural jobs in biomass and renewables. In a stark contrast to New Zealand economist lobbyists the NZIER, she said that they didn’t want to rely on international offsets. Jane Wood admitted that business needed to learn from mistakes and move forward towards a low carbon economy. She also said that the more ambitious Scotland is in tackling climate change, the more new investment it’ll get. Compared with the hand-wringing can’t do attitude of Business New Zealand, Federated Farmers and Greenhouse Policy Coalition, she was like a breath of fresh air.

One thing that should be a wake up call for New Zealand is Scottish plans to look at the supply chain for food. Scotland wants to work out the carbon footprint of food on the plate. As well as helping to tackle climate change, their hoping it will encourage farmers to diversify.

Given that Scotland has one third of Europe’s sheep and a fair few cows, I asked the Scottish Climate Change Minister whether they had advice to offer New Zealand on cutting emissions. His reply? When they have made developments in reducing emissions from cows and sheep, they will be happy to sell the technology to New Zealand.

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