The Scottish Government’s climate change plan contains “false solutions” to meet its net-zero targets, a leading environmental group has claimed. The updated government plan includes pledges to increase woodland cover across Scotland from 18 to 21 per cent, and to restore 40 per cent of Scotland’s degraded peatland by 2032. There’s also a commitment to achieve a quarter of carbon emissions reductions through negative emissions technologies (NETs) by 2032. The term net-zero refers to a position in which carbon emissions going into the atmosphere are balanced by their removal by carbon sinks. But head of campaigns at Friends of The Earth Scotland (FoES), Mary Church, told The Ferret the commitment to achieve carbon emissions reductions through “unproven” NETs was “really worrying”. She also raised concerns over plans to sell Scottish woodland and peatland projects on the open carbon market. Church’s comments follow a report by Friends of the Earth International (FOEI) last week, which accused global governments and corporations of relying on unrealistic “carbon unicorns” to limit warming. The report argued the current global focus on net-zero pledges, carbon markets, and NETs are “part of the strategy basket of those fighting to maintain the status quo” on carbon emissions.
The Ferret 4th March 2021 read more »
The Scotsman will be hosting a webinar on kick-starting Scotland’s green economic recovery on Tuesday, March 23, at 2pm. Clean energy experts Morag Watson, director of policy for Scottish Renewables, NECCUS CEO Mike Smith and Richard Cockburn, partner at Womble Bond Dickinson, will discuss how to deliver genuine economic growth alongside environmental benefit for the whole nation.
Scotsman 5th March 2021 read more »