‘Reprehensible retreat’: fury as Scottish ministers scrap carbon emissions pledge

The Grangemouth oil refinery and petrochemical plant. The opposition has called the SNP’s climate climbdown ‘humiliating’. Photograph: Murdo Macleod/The Guardian

Climate campaigners have accused Scottish ministers of being “inept” and “short-termist” after they scrapped Scotland’s target to cut carbon emissions by 75% by 2030.

Màiri McAllan, the Scottish net zero secretary, confirmed her government had abandoned that target and would also drop legally binding annual targets on reducing carbon emissions, after damning criticism from a UK advisory committee.