Scotland hit its 2020 greenhouse gas targets in 2014, the government announced today.  Its data suggest a 12.5% year on year reduction in adjusted emissions to 41.9 million tonnes carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2e) in 2014, a reduction of 45.8% from the 1990 baseline.
In terms of source emissions, the year-on-year fall was 8.6%, with Scotland down 39.5% on 1990 levels.
Climate change secretary Roseanna Cunningham said the figures showed that Scotland was outperforming the rest of the UK but accepted that such a significant annual drop could partially be down to householders using less heat. Scotland recorded its warmest year on record in 2014, with average temperatures at 8.4C, a degree higher than the previous record in 2006.
Nevertheless, Cunningham welcomed the “outstanding progress” in achieving emissions targets six years ahead of schedule and said that the country would “not be complacent” in achieving a new, more challenging 2020 target.
See the dataset here.
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