Scot Lib Dems: Draft Climate Change plan “timid and lacking ambition”

Scottish Liberal Democrat MSPs have used today's debate on the environment to brand the Scottish Government's draft climate change plan "timid and lacking ambition".

This came after a number of critical Holyrood committee reports. The Scottish Government's draft plan failed to take account of the impact of proposed cuts in Air Passenger Duty and targets for renewable heat and transport are unambitious.

Scottish Liberal Democrat transport spokesperson Mike Rumbles MSP said:

"This draft plan is timid and lacking ambition. All it took was a few Heathrow receptions at the SNP conference and the Scottish Government decided to fly an Airbus A380 through our climate change commitments.

"Air travel is the highest emitter of carbon dioxide per passenger kilometre. These reports show that cutting aviation taxes as the SNP intend will have a massive negative impact on carbon levels.

"This plan is an opportunity to makes Scotland a world leader in sustainable transport. Instead this plan barely scratches the surface. "

Scottish Liberal Democrat energy spokesperson Liam McArthur MSP said:

"Experts across the country warn that this plan is not ambitious enough.

"In particular, far more needs to be done to ensure that Scotland is pushing forward on renewable heat projects, a sector responsible for a significant percentage of the country's emissions but where progress has been slowest."

"Scottish Liberal Democrats will be working to keep SNP Ministers' feet to the biomass boiler and install some green backbone in this SNP Government.

http://www.scotlibdems.org.uk/scot_lib_dems_draft_climate_change_plan_timid_and_lacking_ambition