|PIC1|Scotland set itself the world's most ambitious greenhouse gas reduction targets after the Scottish parliament voted last month to cut the nation's CO2 emissions by 42 per cent by 2020 and at least 80 per cent by 2050.

The vote followed a huge push by Scottish campaigners, the Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund (SCIAF).

Chris Hegarty, SCIAF’s Advocacy Manager said, “The Scottish Parliament has voted for legislation that will be held up as an example to European and world governments ahead of the UN’s climate change talks in Copenhagen in December to replace the Kyoto Protocol.

“Uniquely, Scotland’s targets are guided by science as opposed to political expediency. They are based on what we have to do, rather than what we feel we can do. This is a positive and rational response to a global challenge, and we are calling on governments across the world to follow suit.

Scotland’s Climate Change Minister Stewart Stevenson said, “Climate Change is the most serious threat we face. The Scottish government is responding with the most ambitious and comprehensive climate change legislation anywhere in the world.

“As a country we are leading global action and expect others to follow our lead as we look to the international summit in Copenhagen this December.

"Setting ambitious targets is not an end in itself. It is delivery that matters and we have set out the steps we will take to deliver the scale of emissions reductions needed to safeguard our future and to position Scotland as frontrunner in developing a sustainable low-carbon economy.”

Another applause also came from the campaign coalition Stop Climate Chaos Scotland. It called the legislation "hugely significant" and said it set a new moral standard for the rest of the industrialised world.

The new legislation, which also includes counting emissions from aviation and shipping, comes ahead of December’s UN’s climate talks in Copenhagen in December, where campaigners say strong action on climate change can and must be taken.

The measures are tougher than the 34 per cent target set in the UK government's climate change act last year, which has no statutory annual targets.

It comes the day after the US stated that a 40 per cent cut by 2020 was “not on the cards”, developing nations have demanded this level of cut from rich nations.

A few days later, on June 26, in a landmark move US House of Representatives passed a Bill that will allow force cuts in domestic greenhouse gas emissions by 17 per cent in 2020 and 83 per cent in 2050 through an expensive cap-and-trade permit system on heavy emitters and the oil and gas industry.

Chris Hegarty said, “Countries such as China, India and many other developing nations are demanding that wealthy countries in Europe take strong action to reduce their own emissions and do not seek to off-load their responsibilities to poorer countries through carbon trading."

Hegarty said, “As Scotland has shown, it is possible for wealthy governments to take the strong action if they are sincere in addressing the problem.”

“All governments have a moral responsibility to address this problem before it gets much worse.”