Scotland has missed its target to reduce climate change gases for the third year in a row.
The latest figures show greenhouse gases rose by 0.8% in 2012, prompting calls for a major step change in government policy if “world leading” targets set by Holyrood in 2009 are to be achieved.
The Scottish Government said the increase was due to changes in the way emissions are measured and the country was still on course to achieve the agreed 42% gas reduction by 2020.
Emissions for 2012 were estimated at 55.6 million tonnes carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2e), higher than the 53.226MtCO2e target.
Environment Minister Paul Wheelhouse said the way emissions are calculated had been changed and even with last year’s increase emissions have fallen by 29.9% since the 1990 baseline year.
“I believe Scotland’s parliament and Scotland’s people should take heart from this,” he said.
“The trajectory is key. Having analysed the latest data, parliament can be assured we are more than halfway towards our interim target of a 42% emissions reduction by 2020.”
He announced the establishment of a Cabinet sub-committee on climate change to co-ordinate government efforts to reduce emissions. Other action includes new cycle paths, energy efficiency measures, transport planning, electric vehicles and district heating.
Labour environment spokeswoman Claire Baker said: “Significant action is needed before people start to wonder if we will ever meet our targets.
“The government must now drop their spin around their failures and come back to parliament in October with serious measures to tackle emissions in Scotland.”
Tory environment spokesman Jamie McGrigor said: “The SNP should be looking to nuclear power and fracking as ways of boosting energy production without harming the environment.
“The poor performance on this matter shows the Scottish Government is nothing like as serious as it professes to be on the environment.”
Liberal Democrat Alison McInnes said: “It seems SNP ministers still fail to understand that people will judge them on what they do, not what they say. There is no use in applauding world-leading targets if those world-leading targets are not being met.
“It was disappointing that these figures were met with more presentation instead of substance from the SNP.”
Gina Hanrahan, spokeswoman for the coalition group Stop Climate Chaos Scotland said: “It’s been a difficult start to the implementation of the Scottish Climate Change Act, but today’s announcements show the government is serious about getting us back on track to meet future targets.”
