EU emissions targets should be tougher

Scotland's environment minister Roseanna Cunningham says the EU's current 2020 carbon emissions reductions target is too low.


The minister will meet with EU Climate Action commissioner Connie Hedegaard in Brussels tomorrow (February 8) to press her argument.

She believes the current reduction target should be raised from the current 20% to 30%. Scotland is seeking to reduce carbon emissions by 42% by 2020 and 80% by 2050.

She said: “”We want the EU to rise to Scotland’s challenge and demonstrate real leadership by setting tougher targets, which would help fast-track the economic benefits that a low carbon global economy would deliver.

According to the Scottish government, Scotland has an estimated quarter of Europe’s wind and tidal energy capacity and a tenth of its wave resource and as such an attractive destination for low carbon investment.

The minister said: “Our Low Carbon Economic Strategy highlights that we could almost double the number of jobs in the low carbon economy to 130,000, while attracting billions of pounds of new investment to Scotland.”

Alison Brown

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