Heat in Buildings: Warm words and targets not enough without action
The Scottish Government is watering down its Heat in Buildings Strategy and stripping away almost all of its serious policy measures, says Scottish Green Co-Leader Patrick Harvie.
This follows a Ministerial statement in which the Scottish Government dropped the most significant measures in the Bill and delayed it further.
The Bill, which was under development by Mr Harvie in his time as a Minister, and was on track for introduction in November last year, was intended to focus on improving the energy efficiency of our homes and changing to clean heating systems.
The Bill was included in the Scottish Government’s September 2024 Programme for Government, after the Greens were out of government. No explanation has been given today for what has changed since September.
Mr Harvie said:
“If climate policy over recent years has taught us anything, it's that warm words are not enough and that setting targets is utterly meaningless without action and leadership from the Government. Yet that's what the SNP are now proposing to repeat.
“The Heat in Buildings programme was one of the very few parts of Scottish climate policy that was being praised by the independent Climate Change Committee. Yet the Scottish Government is now stripping out almost all of the serious policy measures, and is admitting that this means significant progress won't be made in the near future.
“This will keep more people stuck on gas, which is bad for our planet and will continue to punish people all across our country by forcing them to fork out while the fossil fuel companies post record profits.
“It will also mean even more challenging emission cuts will have to come from other sectors, or the new Climate Change Plan will fail too. And the Government seems to have no idea how to answer this question.
“The SNP are confirming once again today that on their own, they are only too ready to water down climate policy, and yet another target will be set up to fail.”