Planning for a Sustainable Future. Response of the Scottish Government The Scottish Government responded to the UK government paper by making clear that it was against new nuclear power stations being built in Scotland and had the power to prevent any being built. In a statement to the Scottish Parliament, Energy Minister Jim Mather stated "Members will be aware that Greenpeace, backed by the courts, have forced the UK Government to consult properly on the future role of nuclear power. We will respond and we will make clear that we do not want and do not need new nuclear power in Scotland. If an application were to be submitted for a new nuclear power station that will be for Scottish Ministers to determine. We would be obliged to look at it – but given our policy position, our generating capacity, our multiplicity of energy sources and our strong alternative strategies such an application would be unlikely to find favour with this administration." Climate Change Act, 2008 On 13 March 2007, a draft Climate Change Bill was published following cross-party pressure over several years, led by environmental groups. The Act puts in place a framework to achieve a mandatory 80% cut in the UK's carbon emissions by 2050 (compared to 1990 levels), with an intermediate target of between 26% and 32% by 2020. The Bill was passed into law in November 2008. With its passing the United Kingdom became the first country in the world to set such a long-range and significant carbon reduction target into law, or to create such a legally binding framework. The Committee on Climate Change, whose powers are invested by Part 2 of the Act, was formally launched in December 2008 with Lord Adair Turner as its chair. In April 2009 the Government set a requirement for a 34% cut in emissions by 2020, in line with the recommendations of the Committee on Climate Change, and announced that details of how this would be achieved would be published in the summer. UK Low Carbon Transition Plan, 2009 Published on 15 July 2009, the UK Low Carbon Transition Plan details the actions to be taken to cut carbon emissions by 34% by 2020, based on 1990 levels (of which 21% had been achieved at the time of publication). As a result, by 2020 is it envisaged that: Over 1.2 million people will be employed in green jobs.