Scotland needs to cut its greenhouse-gas emissions by at least 3.5% a year from 2020 to 2050 to ensure that it makes an appropriate contribution to wider global efforts to reduce emissions.
Reductions on this scale will mean that per-capita emissions in Scotland will fall from around 10 tonnes of CO2 equivalent (tCO2e) now to 2tCO2e in 2050.
The Committee on Climate Change (CCC), which was asked last year by the Scottish government to draw up a cumulative emissions budget for Scotland for the period 2010 to 2050, made the recommendation.
The CCC recommends a cumulative emissions budget of 1,250mtCO2e between 2010 and 2050, suggesting that this should be achieved via a 42% cut in emissions by 2020 relative to 1990 levels, a 60% cut by 2030, and an 80% cut by 2050.
