Eco-friendly efforts of Clydebank and Milngavie residents praised by Gil Paterson

GIL Paterson MSP has welcomed news that Scotland has exceeded its world leading climate change targets – six years early.

New figures show that Scotland exceeded the 2020 target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 42 per cent in 2014.

The SNP MSP told how Scotland continues to outperform the rest of the UK, with a 39.5 per cent drop in Scottish source emissions between 1990 and 2014 compared to the UK’s 33 per cent reduction over the same period. 

The Clydebank and Milngavie representative said: “Thanks to the efforts of the constituents and others across Scotland we have made this brilliant achievement. 

"The eco-friendly efforts of my constituents must be commended, and we are reaping the rewards because of them. 

"Let’s continue and get emissions down further across the constituency and the whole of Scotland.”

Scotland is one of the leading countries in Western Europe for reducing emissions.

The latest climate change statistics show Scotland’s emissions, for reporting against targets, have fallen by 12.5 per cent year on year to 41.9 million tonnes carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2e) in 2014.

This is a reduction of 45 per cent from the 1990 baseline.

Commenting on Scotland’s climate change efforts, Mr Paterson added: “Scotland is making outstanding progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. These statistics show that we not only met the annual 2014 emissions reduction target but also exceeded the level of our world-leading 2020 target for a 42 per cent reduction, six years ahead of schedule.

“The reduction in residential emissions in 2014 may have been due to people turning down their heating. This underlines that the actions of someone in Strathkelvin and Bearsden, if repeated on a large scale, can have a big impact in tackling climate change.

“With climate change one of the defining challenges of our time, there is a real need to cooperate with our neighbours and internationally – which is one of the reasons why Scotland and the UK are better off remaining in the European Union.”