The first minister has ended the SNP's power-sharing deal with the Scottish Green Party.
The chaos unfolded last week after the first minister admitted Scotland won’t meet its climate targets, which had called for a 75% reduction in carbon-dioxide emissions compared to 1990 by 2030 as a milepost on the way to net zero by 2045. The government is all but giving up, abandoning concrete annual emissions goals in favor of vaguer multiyear emissions “budgets.”
A recent report from the U.K.’s Climate Change Committee, a quasi-governmental body that supports climate action, highlighted the steep cost of rushing to meet the 2030 goal. Emissions from building heating were supposed to fall 71% by 2030 compared to 2020.
That would require installing more than 80,000 heat pumps each year to replace natural-gas-fired boilers for home heating and hot water. In 2023 Scots installed 6,000 heat pumps.
To reduce road emissions, Scotland would need to install roughly 24,000 charging points for electric vehicles by 2030, the committee estimates. Installations as of 2022: 4,000.
Scotland missed its emissions-reductions targets for eight of the last 12 years.
The SNP took politics in Scotland to the extreme, from trampling over women’s rights via their gender Bills, to going full authoritarian nutjobs over Covid, and punishing free speech opinions by law.
I truly hope that the party crashes and burns.
Kind of ironic when one realizes that the air circulates around the planet and emissions produced in Scotland are like an ant on an elephant’s behind compared to the emissions produced elsewhere by the big emission producing countries. No amount of emission reduction by Scotland will make any difference other than put Scots out of work and make goods produced in Scotland more expensive.
@YouthfulHareLibertarian2wks2W
The same is true for the larger US-any "gains" we might make are wiped out in 1 day by China and India coal plants. Also, CO2 isn't a pollutant....pretty important to have!
@DejectedHouseRepublican2wks2W
Net Zero programs have also made a mess in England and Germany.
Voters in the U.S.A. should get rid of Joe Biden this November to avoid having this country fall into the same "Net Zero" bog that is consuming those three countries.
@LazyPloverForward2wks2W
Net Zero is a war against the West’s ability to defend global civil liberties.
De-industrializing the West with Net Zero will insure the globe suffers someday soon a Tsunami of Tyranny - all of it with no free speech and horrific, horrific global pollution. Net Zero is designed to destroy the bedrock foundation of freedom.
@ISIDEWITH2wks2W
Should the urgency of climate change force countries to meet their targets no matter the cost, or is it acceptable to adjust goals based on feasibility?
@9LVQN862wks2W
i think its acceptable to adjust goals based on feasability
@ISIDEWITH2wks2W
What's your opinion on the balance between ambitious climate targets and the practical challenges of meeting them?
@9LVPPV92wks2W
While ambitious climate targets are necessary to drive action and combat climate change it is crucial to approach them with a realistic and practical mindset to ensure
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