This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Plans to reduce greenhouse gases
19/01/2004
Scotland's energy intensive industries will be consulted on
plans to reduce carbon dioxideemissions, it was announced today.
Electricity generators, oil refineries and
manufacturing plants are among those being asked to
contribute towards reductions.
The Executive is joining the UK Government in
consulting on a plan whichsets out how greenhouse gas emission allowances will
be allocated to operators covered by the EU Emissions
Trading Scheme (EU ETS) which begins in 2005.
The EU ETS is the most significant measure in the
EU Climate Change Programme. It targets the largest
industrial emitters of carbon dioxide, allowing them to
trade emission allowances and make reductions where
they are most economically viable.
This will distribute the cost of emission
reduction, ensuring the overall level of carbon
emissions is reduced at the lowest unit cost to
industry.
Deputy Environment Minister Allan Wilson
said:
"The Scottish Executive is fully committed to
ensuring that we play our part in reducing the levels
of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere.
"We have, on the whole, a good record for
environmental management with the majority of our
industries fully behind measures to ensure we retain and
enhance our environment. Like the Executive, industry is
aware that climate change is a global threat to
whichScotlandis not immune.
"Most significantly forScotland, we expect an increase in the risk of winter
flooding and, recently, we heard predictions that some
species could become extinct as a result of climate change.
That is why action must be taken now to tackle the causes
of climate change.
"The Executive welcomes the EU Emissions Trading
Scheme as an important element of the EU climate change
policy. It will deliver real emission reductions and
do so cost-effectively."
The Executive has been working with the UK Government
and other devolved administrations to introduce the EU ETS
across theUKand has been closely involved in the development of
the National Allocation Plan.
The provisional allocation of allowances for the
first phase is consistent with an overall reduction
inUKcarbon dioxide emissions of 16.3 per cent on 1990
levels by 2010.
The Executive fully supports the UK Government's
firm commitment to the national goal of moving towards
a 20 per cent reduction in emissions of carbon dioxide
by 2010.
The overall level of allowances to be allocated in
theUKin phase two of the Scheme (which runs from 2008-12)
will be strengthened to be consistent with the trading
sector's contribution to achieving the 20 per cent
goal.