The Scottish government has been accused of cutting its climate change budget by nearly 10% to £456m from £502m.
Charity group WWF Scotland said the proposed cuts to spending for 2016-17 are contrary to a Holyrood pledge to embed “climate change” throughout a draft budget due to be finalised in coming weeks.
Targetted areas include renewable energy as well as energy efficiency and fuel poverty.
The biggest single cut of £36.5m is to capital spending due to “challenging macroeconomic conditions for the energy sector as a whole and the raft of UK regulatory and policy changes which have created a difficult investment climate”.
Spending on renewables from the fossil fuel levy is down by £5m and from Scottish Enterprise by £2.6m.
WWF Scotland director Lang Banks said: “As the draft budget is finalised over the coming weeks the Scottish government should use this opportunity to increase its investment in building a low carbon economy.”
Image: the Scottish parliament (Scotland Parliament)
