‘Litany of broken climate promises’ by Scottish Government

Climate campaigners have highlighted a ‘litany of broken climate promises’ by the Scottish Government on the first anniversary (18/4/25) of Ministers’ decision to scrap its crucial 2030 commitments to cut climate emissions.
 
In May 2024 the official advisors at the Climate Change Committee warned of a ‘vacuum of ambition’ around Scotland’s climate plans.  Now campaigners have examined 19 climate policies promised by Ministers last year and found that just 3 had been fully delivered. 
 
The measures across public transport, nature friendly farming and transition planning were supposed to help Scotland catch up after falling behind on climate targets and whilst they were labelled desperately weak when announced, they had still not even been delivered. 

Analysis of the 19 measures: 
• 8 measures have not been delivered
• 4 have been partially delivered 
• 3 have been delivered
• 4 cannot be judged because of insufficient information or lack of clarity of intended outcome 
 
View the analysis: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ogRFMdSFsYSLi2napw6kNzq5C3kfAg7pSswmcvqcbRY/edit?gid=0#gid=0 
 
Throughout the past year the Scottish Government has further undermined climate progress and protecting people from the cost of living crisis, by reintroducing peak fares on trains, slowing the pace of action on removing fossil fuel heating systems from buildings and failing to deliver a final Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan ( the draft version was published when Nicola Sturgeon was First Minister.)
 
 Friends of the Earth Scotland’s head of campaigns Caroline Rance said:
 
“As First Minister, John Swinney has gone from bad to worse on climate action. One year on, we still have no climate targets, there has been next to no climate action and there is no direction.

“With this package of catch up measures, Ministers deliberately set the bar low and they have still failed to clear it. This lack of delivery represents another lost year of climate action and is compounding the harm caused by the original disastrous decision to break climate promises and scrap 2030 goals. 

“As a result of this litany of broken climate promises, people in Scotland will be trapped for longer in a car-choked transport system, suffering in cold, draughty homes and without a credible transition plan for mega polluters like Mossmorran.  

Io Hadjicosta, Climate and Energy Policy Manager at WWF Scotland said:

“Despite strong words from the First Minister about how seriously his government takes the climate emergency, in the past year we’ve seen little evidence of this.
“What we have seen is our carbon emissions veering further off track, our countryside burning, and the Scottish Government watering down or abandoning policies that would reverse the trend. 

“We need a Heat in Buildings Bill that will release the poorest in society from volatile fossil fuel prices and help them insulate their homes.  We need a system that supports nature and climate friendly farming.  

“In short, a year on from the scrapping of the climate targets, we are in a perilous state, and the fairer and greener Scotland promised to us is disappearing before our eyes.”