Scotland misses greenhouse gas emissions target
Scotland's target for cutting planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions has been missed after a bounce back following the pandemic.
Total emissions are now 49.9% lower than in 1990 but the benchmark for this year was a 51.1% cut.
It is the eighth time in 12 years that the legally binding target has been missed.
The Scottish government said it was disappointed but that it was "not far behind" where it should be.
Domestic transport is still the biggest source of emissions and is responsible for 26.2% of the total.
While the figure for transport has seen a 10% jump, emissions from cars are still 17.5% lower than 2019, the year before the pandemic.
Domestic aviation has remained the same as 2020 but is half the levels of 2019, although this still accounts for just a fraction of total transport emissions.
Agriculture has narrowly overtaken business as the second largest source of emissions.
The figures are calculated using seven different greenhouse gases including carbon dioxide and methane.
Emissions from the energy sector, business and international aviation and shipping have all fallen.
The energy supply sector saw another significant drop in emissions of around 9.2% which mean that since 1990 - the baseline year - they fell 77.6%.
The figures attribute the latest fall to a drop in the use of fossil fuels for electricity generation.
While power from renewables fell sharply, the contribution from nuclear grew but the figures do not reflect the closure of Hunterston B nuclear power station in January 2022.
The Scottish government insisted the target had been missed "narrowly" by just 1.2 percentage points and did not reflect the policies introduced under its updated climate change plan in March 2021.
It said that while the charge will be driven by government it cannot happen without the contributions of individuals, communities and businesses.
Net Zero Secretary Mairi McAllan added: "As the real life impacts of climate change become increasingly clear, we must go further and faster, and we will be introducing a draft of our new climate change plan later this year, which will contain even greater ambition while steering our emissions reduction pathway out to 2040."
