Unite the Union has today (18 April) responded to the latest setback for the Scottish government over its climate change policies saying its greenhouse emissions and green jobs policies need a ‘reality check’. 

The Scottish government announced in parliament that it has ditched its target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 75 per cent by 2030. The annual emissions reduction target has been missed in eight of the last 12 years. 

The independent climate change committee’s recent report noted that the annual targets for reducing emissions had “repeatedly been missed”, and the measures required to hit the 75 per cent target by the end of the decade were "beyond what is credible". 

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said:
“The Scottish government ditching its emissions target is the latest setback in a growing list of failed green policies. The repeated inability to meet its own emissions and green jobs targets is inextricably linked. Government ministers need a reality check. 

“The fact is you can’t meet emissions targets unless there is a coherent energy strategy in place and government ministers at Holyrood and Westminster have abysmally failed to deliver that.”

 In February, Unite published survey findings involving its Petroineos oil refinery members based at the Grangemouth complex. The survey showed that the workforce emphatically believe there has been a collective failure to support them following the announcement by Petroineos in November last year to begin transitioning its Grangemouth refining operations. 

The survey found that only 3 per cent expressed any confidence in the ongoing “just transition” plans for oil and gas workers; and 88 per cent said that politicians were ‘not doing enough to support and protect jobs at Grangemouth’. 

The Scottish government’s U-turn follows the recent figures published by the Office of National Statistics which revealed that the estimated number of jobs created in low carbon and renewables sector has contracted over the last year. 

Overall, low carbon and renewable energy employment was estimated to stand at 25,700 in 2022 which is substantially down from the 29,700 estimated jobs in 2021.

The overall jobs total in 2022 stands barely above the jobs total estimate in 2014 of 23,200. In the offshore wind sector, 3,100 jobs were estimated for Scotland in 2022, down from 3,200 jobs in 2021. 3,100 jobs were also estimated for the onshore wind sector in 2022, down from 3,500 in 2021. 

The figures are in stark contrast with the SNP-led Scottish Government in 2010 promising 28,000 direct jobs in the offshore wind industry alone by 2020, and a further 20,000 jobs in related industries. 

Unite Scottish secretary Derek Thomson said: “Let’s remember that the Scottish government boasted that the offshore wind sector would create around 48,000 direct and indirect jobs by 2020. The latest figures estimate that only 6,200 people work directly in both the onshore and offshore wind sectors. 

“Given this lamentable record it is hardly surprising that Scottish oil and gas workers have no faith in plans for a just transition for their jobs.”