10/12/14 09:48
Driving climate action
Scotland’s greenhouse gas savings.
Scotland’s tough action on climate change has resulted in a cut in greenhouse gases that is equivalent to taking 70 million cars off the road for a year.
Scotland’s Minister for Environment and Climate Change Aileen McLeod has revealed the figure at UN climate talks in Lima in Peru.
Scotland has saved a total of 176 Mt CO2e since 1990, and is over halfway to meeting its world-leading target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 42 per cent by 2020.
Dr McLeod said:
“We know the world is getting warmer and action is needed to tackle climate change.
“Scotland has world-leading ambitions which have already resulted in the equivalent of 70 million cars being taken off the road for a year. If all the those cars were lined up bumper to bumper they would stretch for almost 180 thousand miles - far enough to go from Edinburgh to Lima and back 14 times.
“This is very encouraging, but climate change is not something that the Scottish Government can tackle alone. It needs action from every individual and every government.
“We know our targets are not easy, but it is clear the international community needs to match our world-leading climate change ambitions if we are to stand a good chance of agreeing a new international treaty next year that will limit global temperature rise to no more than 2 degrees Celsius.”
Assumed average annual emissions per UK car (average of petrol and diesel) is 2.51 tonnes CO2e; assumed average car length of 4057mm.
Lima is the last full session of Conference of the Parties (COP) session before the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) gathers in Paris 2015 to agree a new global climate treaty.
The Scottish Government has in place a comprehensive package of policies and measures to meet emission reduction targets which includes expanding renewable energy production, improvements in energy and resource efficiency in households and industry, transition of transport to a lower carbon basis, expansion of renewable sources of heat, and sustainable land use.