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1 October 2013

(S4T-00464) Emissions Targets

1. Claudia Beamish (South Scotland) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the publication of the report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, what action it is taking to ensure that all relevant policies and proposals are properly costed and acted on to ensure that annual emissions targets are met. (S4T-00464)

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Stewart Stevenson (Banffshire and Buchan Coast) (SNP):

Does the minister recall that one of the key contributions to the considerations of the IPCC was the seminal report by Sir Nicholas Stern? That report identified that the costs of not dealing with climate change were some 10 times greater than those of dealing with climate change. Does the minister agree that all Governments should still take notice of that, as climate change is both an environmental and an economic disaster that could engulf the world?

The Minister for Environment and Climate Change (Paul Wheelhouse): I agree 100 per cent with what Stewart Stevenson has said. Nicholas Stern identified the fact that countries that act quickly will prevent much greater cost to their economies in the longer term. That is why, when we engage on international issues to do with climate change, we stress to other countries what Scotland is doing not just because we want to talk about a positive story in Scotland, but in an effort to get across the fact that there are advantages in moving quickly to implement climate change mitigation measures. As well as saving their economies cost in the long run, the creation of a low-carbon economy or an economy that is circular in its handling of waste will give rise to economic opportunities that will help to generate jobs, investment and prosperity. As the member quite rightly identifies, as a society we would face huge costs if we were not to act now to tackle what is a fundamental problem.

The IPCC report indicates that temperature rises of up to 4.5°C could occur. I hope that I do not have to tell members what devastation temperature rises of that scale would cause, not just in Scotland but in our key markets around the globe. A sea-level rise of 0.82m might have a devastating impact even in Scotland, especially on some of our smaller islands such as the Uists and the Shetland islands, where many areas are low lying and much of our heritage is vulnerable to rising sea levels. We all have an interest in dealing with the issue, from the point of view not just of protecting society from devastating change, but of exploiting the economic opportunities that arise from that.

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