The Highlands has seen a 28% increase in carbon emissions – the largest rise of any council area in Britain.
The latest UK Government figures reveal that most of the increases in the Highlands took place in the industrial and commercial electricity sectors between 2014 and 2015.
And the report shows Scotland as a whole lagging behind the rest of the UK in reducing CO2 emissions, with only a 2% reduction in the same period.
Labour’s climate change spokeswoman Claudia Beamish said the report showed the Scottish Government needed to reverse plans for an air departure tax cut and also highlighted environmental department budget cuts of 2.3% in real terms over the last five years.
She added: “These are very poor figures on minimising CO2 emissions in Scotland.
“[First Minister] Nicola Sturgeon has previously said she wants Scotland to show global leadership on climate change, yet these figures reveal a disappointing lack of progress on even leadership within the UK on reducing emissions.
“The truth is we are not going to be able to tackle climate change while the SNP is slashing the environment budget and refusing to drop plans to give a tax cut to frequent flyers.
“Labour would cancel this unnecessary tax cut for the airlines and will continue to push the SNP government to set ambitious climate change targets in the forthcoming Climate Change Bill.”
However, a Scottish Government spokesman responded: “Scotland is a world leader in tackling climate change emissions, thanks to the actions of this government.
“We support the Paris Agreement aspiration for global emissions to reach net zero levels in the second half of the century, and are taking time to fully consider all responses to the public consultation on our bill proposals.
“Very few other countries have any emission reduction targets in legislation, much less a statutory target for each and every year.
“Unlike the UK Government, we have proposed new legislation to set more ambitious long term targets in direct response to the Paris Agreement.”
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