🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Scotland – The climate leader who fell behind

This weekend I was exploring my favourite wild space, the River Findhorn, in North East Scotland, known for being one of the most unalterned and ecologically intact rivers we have. A rare glimpse into what a nature positive future for Scotland would look like.

As I walked along the banks of the deep gorge, surrounded by beauty and tranquillity, I couldn’t help but feel a surge of frustration. The country I call home, once a global leader in protecting places like this and setting ambitious climate and nature goals, has drifted so far off course.

Scotland downgrading its ambition

Scotland, the first country in the world to declare a climate emergency, once led the way on nature recovery and set the most ambitious net zero targets of any of the four UK nations. It pledged a 75% reduction in emissions by 2030 and to reach net zero by 2045.

Fast forward to April 2024, and the Scottish Government had missed multiple annual targets. The CCC described its plans as “beyond what is credible”, and the Government scrapped its 2030 interim target to reduce emission by 75%. It was a bleak picture: Scotland was off target and underperforming.

However, instead of responding with an urgent, joined-up plan to deliver its fair share of the UK’s NDC (our pathway to meeting the Paris Agreement), the Scottish Government published a climate plan that Friends of Earth Scotland said would “barely scratch the surface” of what is needed to cut.

This Draft Climate Change Plan (2026–2040) was published on 6 November 2025, which it claims will provide a roadmap for meeting Scotland’s carbon budgets and its legal net zero targets by 2045. Friends of the Earth Scotland were far from impressed, describing the plan as ‘dreadful’  and saying it “does nothing for households, workers and communities”. Hardly ringing praise for a Government once recognised for its leadership on climate.

So it is all as bad as critics are making out?

The biggest single critique is credibility. The independent Climate Change Committee (CCC) — the UK’s statutory climate advisers — has repeatedly argued that Scotland’s previous 2030 ambitions had become “no longer credible” without a sharp acceleration in policy delivery. The CCC warned that many sectors would need multi-fold increases in deployment rates to reach earlier targets. Echoing the Greta Thunberg COP26 speech, it’s a lot of “blah, blah blah”.

Professor Piers Forster (then interim chair of the CCC) summed up this gap between action and ambition:

“Scotland has laudable ambitions to decarbonise, but it isn’t enough to set a target; the Government must act. There are risks in all reviewed areas… We need to see actions that will deliver on its future targets.”  

The focus on Implementation was shared by Stop Climate Chaos Scotland’s Dr Mike Robinson, who summarised the plans under delivery:

“Publication of this long-awaited draft plan represents a step forward but if positive intentions are not matched with urgent delivery the plan risks being meaningless… This plan must now undergo robust scrutiny to test its effectiveness, feasibility and ambition.”  

Reliance on unproven or speculative technologies

Unfortunately, Scotland has fallen into the same trap that the UK’s Carbon Budget Delivery and Growth Plan did, with an overdependence on carbon capture. Stop Climate Chaos Scotland echoed the words of of Friends of the Earth Scotland’s Caroline Race, who said: 

“The carbon capture pipe dream is unrealistic as ever, only pushed slightly further into the future.”  

Joined Up approach

Despite concerns about the climate change plan, many conservation NGOs including Scottish Wildlife Trust welcoming its progress on recognising the role of nature recovery in delivering our climate goals, saying:

“We also commend the Government’s commitment to investing in nature-based solutions to help reverse nature decline and restore biodiversity – and we look forward to holding the Government to account on this”

A joined-up plan to meet climate targets and restore nature is welcome progress and a key objective of the Climate and Nature Bill. The question remains whether this progress on nature is sufficient, with NatureScot warning that the restoration targets (such as restoring 30% of degraded land by 2030) are behind schedule and underfunded.

If we are to meet our international commitments and secure a nature-positive future for generations to come, we need a truly joined-up plan. We must integrate plans not just on climate and nature, but align the ambition and delivery across all 4 UK nations.  

The Climate and Nature Bill provides science-led targets that all devolved parliaments can rally behind, ensuring that whether it’s the Carbon Budget Delivery and Growth Plan or Scotland’s Draft Climate Change Plan; we are collectively moving towards our fair share of international obligations.