UK Government policies could “inhibit” Scotland from reaching its climate
change target, Roseanna Cunningham has claimed.
The Climate Change Secretary said Westminster has to take decisions in
reserved areas to enable Scotland to hit its proposed target of net-zero
carbon emissions by 2045.
She criticised current UK Government plans, including a VAT rise on some
types of renewable energy, as discouraging people to do their bit to fight
climate change.
Giving evidence to Holyrood’s Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform
Committee, Ms Cunningham said the UK Government plans to increase VAT on
renewable technologies including solar, wind, biomass and heat pumps from
5% to 20% on October 1.
She said: “If you are trying to get people to actually take these things
up, whether in domestic settings or in any other settings, jumping the VAT
from 5% to 20% is going to have the absolutely opposite impact to what you
want.
“It’s another example of the kind of thing which we have no control over
but nevertheless will have a very distinctive impact on decision-making at
the level of quite ordinary people who are hoping to be able to do the
right thing.”
She said further examples were the reserved areas of vehicle tax and the
need to decarbonise the gas grid.
Ms Cunningham added: “These are the kind of things that the Committee on
Climate Change is talking about that actually will inhibit us from reaching
our 2045 target, which would otherwise be possible if we could get the UK
Government to do that.”
Earlier this month, the Scottish Government agreed to a target of net-zero
emissions by 2045 – an aim described by experts as the “most ambitious in
the world”.
It followed recommendations set out by the Committee on Climate Change that
Scotland meet the target five years ahead of the UK in 2050.
The cabinet secretary said she had written to UK Energy and Clean Growth
Minister Claire Perry requesting an urgent meeting on climate change
following the report, but has since sent a further letter, believing the
response so far is inadequate.
Ms Cunningham said the response did not answer “any of the questions in any
meaningful way”.
She added “A letter has gone back so that the points in the original letter
are addressed which is to seek an urgent meeting and ways in which
Westminster and Holyrood could work together on this and indeed that will
include Cardiff as well as all of the targets within the UK are linked.
“We were given a proposed target of net zero by 2045 but it was quite
explicitly stated in the Committee for Climate Change advice that that
would necessitate their being changes taking place at the Westminster level.
“Our ability to achieve the target is dependent on Westminster doing what
is necessary and that is what I need to speak to them urgently about.”
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