Scottish government ditches flagship climate change target as it accepts it is ‘out of reach’
The Scottish government has ditched its flagship target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 75% by 2030 after accepting that it is now “out of reach”.
However, an “unwavering commitment” to achieve net zero by 2045 will remain.
Mairi McAllan, minister for wellbeing economy, net zero and energy, announced the move in an update to Holyrood on Thursday as she set out the government’s next steps on tackling climate change.
The decision comes following a damning report from the Climate Change Committee (CCC) last month which said the 2030 target was now “beyond what is credible”.
Ms McAllan said: “In this challenging context of cuts and UK backtracking, we accept the CCCs recent re-articulation that this parliament’s interim 2030 target is out of reach.
“We must now act to chart a course to 2045 at a pace and scale that is feasible, fair and just.”
Mairi McAllan, minister for wellbeing economy, net zero and energy. Pic: PA
Scotland has missed eight of the past 12 annual targets for cutting planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions.
The CCC said in order for Scotland to achieve its goal of cutting harmful emissions by 75% by 2030, the rate of emission reduction in most sectors would need to increase by a factor of nine in the years up to the end of the decade.
The Scottish government was the first in the world to declare a climate emergency.
Ms McAllan set out a new package of climate action measures.
The Scottish government intends to:
• Triple the number of electric vehicle charge points across Scotland – an increase of around 24,000 – by 2030.
• Explore a new national integrated ticketing system for public transport, which would enable passengers to use one system for all elements of a journey.
• Work with businesses to support the transition away from petrol and diesel vans.
• Take forward a pilot scheme with a number of farms to establish future appropriate uptake of methane-suppressing feed products or additives. Proportionate carbon audits will also be required by farms receiving public support by 2028 at the latest.
• Accelerate its regional land use partnerships, with up to three new areas coming into the initiative over the next year.
• Accelerate peatland restoration by investigating how partial re-wetting can co-exist with continued agricultural activity and access to support, including investment of up to £1m in pilot projects.
• Launch a consultation this summer on carbon land tax on the largest estates, considering regulatory and fiscal changes that could further incentivise peatland restoration, afforestation and renewable energy production.
• Consider the recommendation from the green heat finance taskforce to review and publish, by the end of 2024, analysis of how non-domestic rates reliefs can better support Holyrood’s climate ambitions and encourage investment in energy efficiency and clean heating systems.
• Publish its final energy strategy and just transition plan this summer, followed by draft plans for transport, agriculture and land use, and buildings and construction. After the publication of a just transition plan for Grangemouth, the government will co-develop a just transition plan for Mossmorran.
• Redouble efforts to ensure net zero is fully considered in its workforce, spending, policy development and structures, starting with the full rollout of a net zero assessment in the Scottish government from the end of 2024.
• Work with COSLA to understand wider public sector spend and opportunities for action.
• Propose the establishment of a four nations climate response group, with a remit including climate financing and the balance of reserved and devolved powers.
Ms McAllan said the “severe budgetary restrictions imposed by the UK government” and the “continuing constraints of devolution” meant the Scottish government was trying to deliver “societal and economic transformation with one hand tied behind our back”.
She warned “full delivery” of Holyrood’s plans would depend on Westminster “reversing the 9% cut to our capital budget”.
Ms McAllan said: “This government and parliament rightly has high ambitions, and it is beyond doubt that investing now in net zero is the right thing for our environment, our society and our economy. But we are being held back.
“So, I am asking MSPs across this chamber to work with us to call on the UK government to reverse Scotland’s capital cut.”
Read more:
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Scottish Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie said he was “angry and disappointed” over the decision.
He added: “We must see urgent and accelerated climate action across all areas and levels of government, and those parties who vote for targets but then block the action needed to reach them will have no credibility.
“I have no doubt that if successive Scottish and UK governments had taken the actions needed at the time, as Greens consistently urged, we would be on track for that 2030 target.
“The fact that we aren’t is exactly why we need to focus on delivering real change and ramp up climate action.”
Lorna Slater and Patrick Harvie, Scottish Greens co-leaders, and Ms McAllan on Thursday.
Friends of the Earth Scotland branded the announcement “the worst environmental decision in the history of the Scottish parliament”.
Imogen Dow, head of campaigns, said: “Instead of using the past decade to deliver warm homes, reliable public transport and a fair transition away from fossil fuels, inept, short-termist politicians have kept millions of people trapped in the broken status quo that only benefits big polluters.”
Ms Dow called for the delayed Climate Change Plan to be published and urged the government to apologise for their “colossal climate failure”.
She added: “Instead of significant response and a ramping up of action, the Scottish government has presented a weak package of re-heated ideas, many of which were already pledged years ago and never delivered.”
The head of Oxfam Scotland described it as a “reprehensible retreat”.
Jamie Livingstone added: “With scientists linking deadly heatwaves in West Africa to climate change and Dubai drowning in a deluge of rain, the urgency of climate action couldn’t be clearer.
“The announcement of largely recycled measures represents baby steps forward rather than the giant leaps needed and are a thinly veiled distraction from ministers’ failure to deliver their existing climate commitments.”
First Minister Humza Yousaf with Smart Green Shipping CEO Diane Gilpin. Pic: PA
Diane Gilpin, CEO and founder of Smart Green Shipping, met with Humza Yousaf on Wednesday as the first minister officially “launched” a 20-metre wingsail that will take to the seas for tests later this year.
It is hoped wingsails will help transform the way many commercial ships are powered and reduce fuel emissions.
Ms Gilpin said Holyrood’s rollback was “disappointing”, but “targets are just that – targets”.
She added: “We need to focus on solutions that are driving us towards net zero.
“Scotland is still setting an example for other countries, with initiatives in place to fund and support first-movers and a great deal of ambition and collaboration, including the citizens’ Climate Assembly, designed to engage the public in making decisions to tackle climate change.
“By continuing its focus on tangible solutions, Scotland will regain its status as a leader in net zero.”
Investment firms with Bitcoin-focused treasuries are front-running global Bitcoin adoption, which may see the world’s first cryptocurrency soar to a $200 trillion market capitalization in the coming decade.
Institutions and governments worldwide are starting to recognize the unique monetary properties of Bitcoin (BTC), according to Adam Back, co-founder and CEO of Blockstream and the inventor of Hashcash.
“$MSTR and other treasury companies are an arbitrage of the dislocation between the bitcoin future and todays fiat world,” Back wrote in an April 26 X post.
“A sustainable and scalable $100-$200 trillion trade front-running hyperbitcoinization. scalable enough for most big listed companies to move to btc treasury,” he added.
Hyperbitcoinization refers to the theoretical future where Bitcoin soars to become the largest global currency, replacing fiat money due to its inflationary economics and growing distrust in the legacy financial system.
Related: Crypto sentiment recovers, but weekend liquidity risks remain
Bitcoin’s price outpacing fiat money inflation remains the main driver of global hyperbitcoinization, Back said, adding:
“Some people think treasury strategy is a temporary glitch. i’m saying no it’s a logical and sustainable arbitrage. but not for ever, the driver is bitcoin price going up over 4 year periods faster than interest and inflation.”
Back’s comments come nearly two months after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order to establish a national Bitcoin reserve from BTC forfeited in government criminal cases.
Related: Serbia’s Prince Filip says Bitcoin is being stifled, expects huge rally
Global firms continue Bitcoin accumulation
Continued Bitcoin investments from the likes of Strategy, the largest corporate Bitcoin holder, may inspire more global firms to follow suit.
Strategy’s approach is proving to be lucrative, with the firm’s Bitcoin treasury generating over $5.1 billion worth of profit since the beginning of 2025, according to Strategy’s co-founder, Michael Saylor.
Japanese investment firm Metaplanet, also known as “Asia’s MicroStrategy,” adopted a similar strategy, since surpassing 5,000 BTC in total holdings on April 24, Cointelegraph reported.
As Asia’s largest corporate Bitcoin holder, Metaplanet plans to acquire 21,000 BTC by 2026.
US financial institutions may also have more confidence in adopting Bitcoin after the US Federal Reserve withdrew its 2022 guidance discouraging banks from engaging with cryptocurrency. “Banks are now free to begin supporting Bitcoin,” Saylor said in response to the guidance withdrawal.
“Banks will now be supervised through normal processes, signaling a more open regulatory environment for digital asset integration,” Nexo dispatch analyst Iliya Kalchev told Cointelegraph.
Magazine: Altcoin season to hit in Q2? Mantra’s plan to win trust: Hodler’s Digest, April 13 – 19
SEC Commissioner and head of the crypto task force, Hester Peirce, says US financial firms are navigating crypto in a way that’s similar to playing the children’s game “the floor is lava,” but in the dark.
“It is time that we find a way to end this game. We need to turn on the lights and build some walkways over the lava pit,” Peirce said at the SEC “Know Your Custodian” roundtable event on April 25.
The lava is crypto, says Peirce
Peirce explained that SEC registrants are forced to approach crypto-related activities like “the floor is lava,” where the aim is to jump from one piece of furniture to the next without touching the ground, except here, touching crypto directly is the lava.
“A D.C. version of this game is our regulatory approach to crypto assets, and crypto asset custody in particular,” she said.
Peirce said that, much like in the game, firms wanting to engage with crypto must avoid directly holding it due to unclear regulatory rules. “To engage in crypto-related activities, SEC-registrants have had to hop from one poorly illuminated regulatory space to the next, all while ensuring that they never touch any crypto asset,” Peirce said.
Peirce said that investment advisers are often unsure which crypto assets qualify as securities, what entities count as qualified custodians, and whether “exercising staking or voting rights” could trigger custody violations.
“The twist in the regulatory version is that it is largely played in the dark: burning legal lava and no lamps to illuminate the way.”
Peirce also said that a broker or ATS that cannot custody or manage crypto assets will struggle to facilitate trading, making it unlikely for a “robust market” to develop.
Echoing a similar sentiment, SEC Commissioner Mark Uyeda said at the event that as more SEC registrants work with crypto assets, it’s essential that they have access to custodial options that meet legal and regulatory requirements.
Uyeda said the agency should consider letting advisers use “state-chartered limited-purpose trust companies” with the authority to hold crypto assets as qualified custodians.
Related: Blockchain needs regulation, scalability to close AI hiring gap
Meanwhile, the recently sworn-in chair of the SEC, Paul Atkins, said that he expected “huge benefits” from blockchain technology through efficiency, risk mitigation, transparency, and cutting costs.
He reiterated that among his goals at the SEC would be to facilitate “clear regulatory rules of the road” for digital assets, hinting that the agency under former chair Gary Gensler had contributed to market and regulatory uncertainty.
“I look forward to engaging with market participants and working with colleagues in President Trump’s administration and Congress to establish a rational fit-for-purpose framework for crypto assets,” said Atkins.
Magazine: Bitcoin $100K hopes on ice, SBF’s mysterious prison move: Hodler’s Digest, April 19 – 25
Politics
Labour and Reform in battle for Runcorn by-election seat – but disillusionment could be eventual winner
On the banks of the Mersey, Runcorn and Helsby is a more complicated political picture than the apparent Labour heartland that first presents itself.
Yes, there are industrial and manufacturing areas – an old town that’s fallen victim to out-of-town shopping, and an out-of-town shopping centre that’s fallen victim to Amazon.
But there are also more middle-class new town developments, as well as Tory-facing rural swathes.
Space Cafe director Marie Moss says a sense of community has faded
One thing this area does mirror with many across the country, though, is a fed-up electorate with little confidence that politics can work for them.
In the Space Cafe in Runcorn Old Town, its director Marie Moss says many in the region remember a time when a sense of community was more acute.
“People were very proud of their town… and that’s why people get upset and emotional as they remember that,” she says.
It’s this feeling of disenfranchisement and nostalgia-tinged yearning for the past that Reform UK is trading off in its targeting of traditional Labour voters here.
Party leader Nigel Farage features heavily on leaflets in these parts, alongside spikey messaging around migration, law and order, and Labour’s record in government so far.
Runcorn 2024 result
Taxi driver Mike Holland hears frequent worries about that record from those riding in the back of his cab.
A Labour voter for decades, he says locals were “made up” at last year’s election result but have been “astonished” since then, with benefit changes a common topic of concern.
“Getting a taxi is two things, it’s either a luxury or a necessity… the necessity people are the disabled people… and a lot of the old dears are so stressed and worried about their disability allowance and whether they are going to get it or not get it,” he says.
But will that mean straight switchers to Reform UK?
Taxi driver Mike Holland has voted for Labour for decades, but is now looking at the Lib Dems and Greens – or may not vote at all
Mike says he agrees with some of what the party is offering but thinks a lot of people are put off by Mr Farage.
He’s now looking at the Liberal Democrats and Greens, both of whom have put up local politicians as candidates.
Or, Mike says, he may just not vote at all.
It’s in places like Runcorn town that some of the political contradictions within Reform UK reveal themselves more clearly.
Many here say they were brought up being told to never vote Tory.
And yet, Reform, chasing their support, has chosen a former Conservative councillor as its candidate.
It’s no surprise Labour has been trialling attack lines in this campaign, painting Mr Farage’s party as “failed Tories”.
As a response to this, look no further than Reform’s recent nod to the left on industrialisation and public ownership.
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Read more:
Tough test for Labour after MP quits
MP jailed for late-night brawl
Local elections could re-shape politics
But head 15 minutes south from Runcorn docks, and this by-election campaign changes.
Rural areas like Frodsham and Helsby have, in the past, tended towards the Tories.
The Conservatives, of course, have a candidate in this vote, one who stood in a neighbouring constituency last year.
But Reform is now making a hard play for their supporters in these parts, with a softer message compared to the one being put out in urban areas – an attempt to reassure those anxious about too much political revolution coming to their privet-lined streets.
Labour, meanwhile, is actively trying to mobilise the anti-Farage vote by presenting their candidate – another local councillor – as the only person who can stop Reform.
Makeup artist Nadine Tan is concerned about division and anger in the community
The pitch here is aimed at voters like Frodsham makeup artist Nadine Tan, who are worried about division and anger in the community.
“I think they need to kind of come together and stop trying to divide everyone,” she says.
But like Mike the taxi driver five miles north, disillusionment could be the eventual winner as Nadine says, despite the “thousands of leaflets” through her door, she still thinks “they all say the same thing”.
One factor that doesn’t seem to be swinging too many votes, though, is the insalubrious circumstances in which the area’s former Labour MP left office.
Labour MP Mike Amesbury was convicted of punching a man in the street. Pic: Reuters
Mike Amesbury stepped down after being convicted of repeatedly punching a constituent in a late-night brawl outside a pub.
But across the patch, many praise their ex-MP’s local efforts, while also saying he was “very silly” to have acted in the way he did.
That may be putting it mildly.
But it’s hard to find much more agreement ahead of Thursday’s vote.
A constituency still hungry for change, but unsure as to who can deliver it.
Full list of candidates, Runcorn and Helsby by-election:
Catherine Anne Blaiklock – English Democrats
Dan Clarke – Liberal Party
Chris Copeman – Green Party
Paul Duffy – Liberal Democrats
Peter Ford – Workers Party
Howling Laud Hope – Monster Raving Loony Party
Sean Houlston – Conservatives
Jason Philip Hughes – Volt UK
Alan McKie – Independent
Graham Harry Moore – English Constitution Party
Paul Andrew Murphy – Social Democratic Party
Sarah Pochin – Reform UK
Karen Shore – Labour
John Stevens – Rejoin EU
Michael Williams – Independent
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