Meeting of the Parliament

Meeting date: Tuesday, May 7, 2019

Official Report 1144KB pdf

Committee Announcement

The next item of business is a committee announcement. I call the convener of the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee, Gillian Martin, to make an announcement on its new inquiry into the report of the Committee on Climate Change.

As convener of the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee, I welcome the opportunity to update members on the committee’s recent work and its future plans, particularly in the light of developments last week on climate change, which is the biggest environmental and societal challenge that we face.

The committee concluded its consideration of the Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets) (Scotland) Bill and reported at stage 1 in March. However, before the committee moves to the amending stage of the bill, we agreed to consider and report on the advice on climate change targets from the United Kingdom Committee on Climate Change, which was released last week, on 2 May. That advice, which was published in the light of the Paris agreement and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change special report, which was released in the autumn of last year, recommends that Scotland should now set a target for net zero emissions of all greenhouse gases by 2045, provided that the UK-wide ambition is raised to net zero by 2050.

In our stage 1 report, we recommended that the bill should reflect the most ambitious targets that are set out in the advice from the CCC and that a revised climate change plan should be delivered within six months of the bill receiving royal assent. Therefore, we welcome the Scottish Government’s speedy response to the CCC’s advice. On the same day that the CCC’s advice was published, the Government lodged a package of amendments to the bill, and the First Minister committed to updating the climate change plan in line with our schedule recommendations. If those amendments are agreed to at stage 2, they will implement the CCC’s advice by setting a target date of 2045 for net zero emissions of all greenhouse gases and increasing the 2030 and 2040 interim targets to 70 per cent and 90 per cent reductions respectively.

Increasing our climate change ambitions offers clear potential for innovation, jobs, the economy, the environment and the wellbeing of the people of Scotland and beyond. We therefore welcome the Government’s quick and decisive action.

We also recommended in our stage 1 report that the bill’s journey through Parliament be timetabled to accommodate thorough and detailed scrutiny of the CCC’s advice. We therefore plan to hear evidence from the Committee on Climate Change next week and from the Scottish Government before we hear from two panels of stakeholders to explore their response to the CCC’s advice and the impacts of that advice, and their views on the Scottish Government’s response. Our committee will produce a report that is drawn from those sessions before we move to the amending stage.

As all members of our committee have agreed, we need to raise our ambitions to tackle the single greatest threat to our existence on this planet and the most significant intergenerational justice issue of our day. With the CCC’s timely advice and the Government’s swift response, we welcome the opportunity to explore in the coming weeks how we will do that.