Scotland will outline plans to ‘catch up’ with missed emission targets ahead of COP26

Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, has said that there is “no excuse for failing to act” on climate change in a speech ahead of the landmark summit set to kick off in Glasgow on 31 October.

She said that a failure to act on climate change will be a “betrayal of young people around the world”.

She explained that the Scottish government would outline plans to “catch up” with its missed emissions reduction targets later this week.

She explained: “Our ability to do that depends on our own climate credibility – Scotland cannot urge other countries to set and meet ambitious targets if we fail to do that ourselves.”

The Scottish government has of achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045.

While year-on-year emissions continue to fall, 2019 figures showed that emissions fell 51.5% against the baseline, well short of the 55% target.

Sturgeon pressed that “each and every country gathered round the negotiating table” is aware or the urgency of this issue, and that there is therefore “no excuse for failing to act.”

She warned that: “The hard fact is this: ‘Keeping 1.5 alive’ – which has become the strapline almost for Cop26 – is vital. It mustn’t become a face-saving slogan. It must be real.

“And both in the run-up to and at Cop itself, there needs to be a significant uplift in ambition from the world’s biggest-emitting countries to make that real.”

Sturgeon said that “justice and fairness will be central to Scotland’s whole approach to Cop26”, vowing “work to ensure that leaders of my generation understand that failure to act now would be a betrayal of young people around the world”.

Her speech comes the same day that Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned a press conference of children that the summit is “… going to be very, very tough.”

He went on: “I’m very worried, because it might go wrong and we might not get the agreements that we need… It’s touch and go… it’s very, very far from clear that we will get the progress that we need.”