God Bless Scotland!
Jun 29th, 2009 by Richard
Scottish lawmakers have signed into law the world’s toughest climate regulations. The landmark legislation includes binding goals to cut greenhouse gases by 42 percent* by 2020 from 1990 levels, which knocks Germany into second place in the race to set the most ambitious GHG reduction targets. Scotland’s bill does hold an option to delay meeting these ambitious targets if the road to Copenhagen turns into a dead end. The Scottish bill is comprehensive, and even includes steps to curb shipping and aviation emissions.
Environmental campaigners are thrilled by Scotland’s initiative which comes just days after they denounced targets set by Russia and Japan. “At least one nation is prepared to aim for climate legislation that follows the science,” said Kim Carstensen, head of the Global Climate Initiative of the WWF International environmental group.
_____________
* By comparison, Canada is promising to cut GHG emissions by 2 percent by 2020, using 1990 as a baseline.
