SENIOR civil servants in the Scottish Government fear the radical Climate Change Bill passed last week could lead to a legal challenge blocking the proposed new Forth Road Bridge.
The bill – which compels ministers to deliver a 42 per cent cut in CO2 emissions by 2020 – could lead them to the courts if they pursue policies which cause them to miss their targets.
Now officials in Edinburgh are privately warning that the
new crossing, which will lead to a major increase in Scotland's carbon emissions – could fall foul of the act. Environmentalists say a group of green organisations may step forward with a legal challenge.
The new law, heralded as the most ambitious climate change legislation in the world when it was backed by MSPs last week, will force ministers to set annual targets for cutting emissions, the first of which must be published by June next year.
It also binds ministers to consult the independent UK Committee on Climate Change and publish its advice on their carbon-producing policies. If ministers are found to have ignored that advice, a legal challenge from green groups could be triggered.
Environmentalists claim that the £2.3bn Forth Road Crossing, which is planned to stand alongside the existing repaired road bridge, runs entirely counter to the act. Studies by Transport Scotland into its environmental impact are currently being carried out.
Civil servants say that if the bridge does go ahead, they would have to make massive cuts elsewhere in order to bring emissions down. One senior source said: "We will have to find other ways of cutting emissions."
The only practical option on the table at present is understood to be radical improvements to household energy efficiency. "But that would mean cladding every house in Scotland," he said. "And they won't like that in the New Town."
Sources say that such are the legal difficulties with the new bridge, officials may insist that ministers make it explicitly clear that they forced them to go ahead with the project, so they cannot be accused of having broken the law.
A Scottish Green Party spokesman warned last night: "If ministers don't see sense, then it might be down to the courts to make them see sense."
The 42 per cent target agreed by MSPs last week puts Scotland in the vanguard of greenhouse gas reduction. It was agreed in a hurriedly brokered deal between the parties after the SNP government was forced to push it up from its preferred 34 per cent by 2020.
As well as setting targets for emissions, the bill will enable council tax discounts to be given for energy-efficiency measures such as better insulation, with MSPs backing a minimum one-off discount of £50 for such measures.
But there is scepticism about whether Scotland can meet the targets. Ministers have already backed other road-building measures, such as the completion of the M74 motorway in Glasgow and the widening of the M9. They have also ruled out building new carbon-neutral nuclear power stations in Scotland, and have instead backed coal-fired power stations.
The pressure may be eased as a get-out clause in the bill allows Scottish ministers to reduce the target later this year if the UK government's advisory panel on climate change says it is unrealistic.
If not, ministers have less than a year to produce their first annual target on cutting emissions. Once the target is set, ministers have to put before the Scottish Parliament a detailed report saying how they are going to achieve it.
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: "This is scaremongering nonsense. The Scottish Government is committed to building a new Forth road bridge for the people of Scotland that will be toll-free and funded through traditional public procurement.
"Last year we announced a £35bn infrastructure investment programme for the next ten years, with £14bn being invested over the present spending review period."
