Scotland passes world's "most ambitious" climate bill

Businesses in Scotland can expect to face significantly more demanding carbon emissions targets than their counterparts in the rest of the UK, after the Scottish Parliament passed a climate bill that is far more stringent than that adopted by Westminster.

As with the UK bill, the Scottish legislation sets a target of cutting emissions 80 per cent by 2050, but that target includes emissions from international shipping and aviation, while the UK will not formally decide whether international emissions are included until 2012.

Moreover, the Scottish bill sets significantly more demanding medium-term targets, requiring a 42 per cent cut in emissions by 2020. In contrast, the UK's recently released carbon budgets require emissions to be cut by 34 per cent below 1990 levels by the later date of 2022.

Scotland's climate change minister Stewart Stevenson hailed the bill as the "most ambitious and comprehensive piece of climate change legislation anywhere in the world", adding that while challenging the targets would help to create tens of thousands of new jobs.

The bill was passed a week after the Scottish government released a wide-ranging new strategy designed to ensure the emission targets are met through a huge increase in renewable energy capacity, reductions in energy demand and the mass rollout of electric vehicles.

The strategy sets a goal of ensuring all of Scotland's electricity comes from low carbon sources such as renewables or carbon capture and storage plants by 2030, and outlines plans for a raft of new initiatives, including proposals for tighter building regulations, expanded insulation programmes and new efforts to promote adoption of low carbon vehicles.

Stevenson said the bill would deliver "clear economic benefits and help maintain a thriving economy".

"Harnessing the energy related opportunities presented by Scotland's natural capital can create tens of thousands of green jobs as we move to 2050," he added. "These are jobs for the future: jobs in our rapidly expanding renewables industry; in developing and applying clean fossil fuel technology; in energy efficiency and microgeneration; and in the developing sustainable transport industry."

Scotland is fast emerging as one of the UK's clean tech hubs and the government has consistently talked up the country as an ideal location for both wind and marines renewables. It also recently announced ambitious plans to halve the amount of construction waste sent to landfill by 2012 and establish a zero-waste strategy.