Significant Progress Made on Emissions

Greenhouse gas emissions in Scotland, including international aviation and shipping, have fallen by more than 18 per cent since 1990, according to latest official statistics published today.

Published figures for greenhouse gas emissions in Scotland indicate that total emissions, which include international aviation and shipping, were 56.9 million tonnes CO2 equivalent (Mt CO2e), compared with 61.0 Mt CO2e in 2006 - a 6.8 per cent reduction on 2006 figures.

This means that compared to the 1990 baseline of 70.0 Mt CO2e, greenhouse gas emissions in Scotland have fallen by 18.7 per cent.

Stewart Stevenson, Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change, said:

"These figures for 2007 are good news, which show that we are making continued progress in reducing our emissions against the 1990 baseline. However, the data also demonstrates the size of the task now facing us - and the rest of the world - in reducing emissions.

"The Scottish Government's commitment to making progress is demonstrated by the fact that, in the past year, we have passed our own world-leading Climate Change Act, which clearly sets out the Scottish Government's commitment to making the changes we need.

"In 2010, which is the first year for the emissions targets contained in the Act, we will outline the plans and proposals that we will adopt to set us on a trajectory towards a low-carbon future."

As a party to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the UK is required to submit to the UNFCCC an annual inventory of greenhouse gas emissions. UK inventory data from 1998 onwards has been disaggregated to provide detailed emissions data for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The greenhouse gas emissions data for all four countries of the UK will be published through the National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory (NAEI) website on September 24, 2009.

While the accuracy of the data used in the regional inventories is improving year on year, the estimates are subject to greater uncertainty than the equivalent UK estimates. Uncertainties arise due to uncertain or unavailable regional data.

Improved data collection and estimation techniques lead to periodic revisions of historic data which make it inappropriate to use data contained in reports from previous years for comparative purposes.