SNP net zero secretary Gillian Martin has denied “watering down” key Scottish government emissions targets.

After a string of warnings on the lack of progress to meet its target to cut carbon emissions by 75 per cent by 2030, independent experts at the statutory climate change committee in March reported intermediate goals had been missed in eight out of the last 10 years.

The committee went on to slam the then SNP-Green Scottish government for having “no comprehensive delivery strategy for meeting future emissions targets,” concluding that “the 2030 target is now beyond what is credible.”

Just weeks later the government conceded the goal was indeed “out of reach” and last week Ms Martin shepherded legislation through Holyrood to officially drop the target in the teeth of opposition from erstwhile coalition partners the Scottish Greens.

In an apparent echo of the climate change committee’s concerns on plans of action, Green co-leader Patrick Harvie argued: “The problem isn’t what’s in this Bill. The problem is what’s missing at the moment, and that is urgent policy action.

“I don’t expect a full climate change plan right now, but I do expect urgency.”

Despite the actions to drop the commitments that the SNP Scottish government once argued were “world leading,” Ms Martin flew to Baku, Azerbaijan, to join the Cop29 climate summit to urge other nations to follow Scotland’s example on aid.

Speaking from the conference this morning on BBC Radio Scotland, the net zero secretary emphasised that she was there to to show that Scottish government was “leading the way on loss and damage” and taking responsibility “as an industrial nation” by ploughing £10 million into aid for poorer nations often at the sharp end of the unavoidable effects of climate change, such as extreme weather and rising sea levels. 

But challenged on the SNP Scottish government’s abandonment of their 2030 target, she told listeners: “I don’t accept that we are watering down anything in terms of our climate change targets.

“We are committed to net zero by 2045.

“We have a 2045 target of net zero and we have a five-year carbon budget in place.”

In an apparent dismissal of concerns on government action to achieve remaining targets, she added: “There’s no watering down of ambitions or targets or action — it’s a case of going in line with the UK in five-year carbon budgets.”