A REVOLUTIONARY plan to help 'save the world' with an estimated green new deal for Scotland that will cost billions of pounds and create thousands of new jobs to take on the challenge of the threat to our environment, is being unveiled today by an influential think tank.

It is understood one of the most costly of the raft of Common Weal proposals suggests the biggest overhaul of housing since the Second World War, with a plan to have greener Scottish homes by installing loft installation, double glazing and renewable technologies.

That would involve setting up a national housing company and spend £40 billion to make every home in Scotland more thermally efficient, saving 40% off heating bills.

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The idea echoes that of the Warm Homes for All scheme proposed earlier this week by the Labour Party which would allow low-income households across the UK to apply for grants for renovation.

The Herald:

Labour said that, through their scheme, 6.34m homes would have heat pumps and 5.3m homes would have solar thermal systems by 2030.

The party said the UK’s housing stock was among the worst insulated in Europe, with building electricity and heating the biggest source of emissions in Britain.

The Common Weal's climate change-busting plan of action would be financed through public borrowing - and it is understood it could be paid off over 50 years.

It would require no additional private spending by households - while creating a carbon-neutral Scotland and future-proofing the nation for generations.

The think tank says it is one of the most ambitious projects they have ever organised and consists of a "fully costed" blueprint for how to bring about a net zero Scotland - the first in the world.

READ MORE: Labour propose £250bn home improvements scheme to tackle climate crisis

It will also claim that all current projections about how much of Scotland’s GDP will be needed to tackle climate change are underestimates and that every year for the next 50 years Scotland will have to spend an annual amount closer to three per cent of GDP than to the two per cent often quoted.

It would require independence to implement the plan - but it is understood that the Common Weal believe their full proposals, which would be unveiled this afternoon, would be necessary whatever Scotland's constitutional outcome.

They say: "It is a plan for Scotland that will meet the challenges of environmental breakdown and at the same time as delivering economic justice for all of our citizens.

The Herald:

"It’s about how to fix our buildings and heat them. About how we can use clean electricity and build a new transport system. It's about showing how we can regenerate our land and make it productive when we grow food and other crops. And it's about how we can consume responsibly and learn to work and live differently.

"In the process we will end poverty, improve health, be more truly prosperous and have a much better relationship to our world.

"It's a plan that will ensure everyone has a home, as part of a society that works together for the common good.

"It's a campaign for the people of Scotland, and for the future of our planet."

The proposals come two weeks after the Scottish Government was told that it must give assurances that it will focus its spending on low-carbon projects as part of attempts to tackle the climate emergency.

Calling for assurances that the Government will prioritise low carbon and carbon neutral projects across all departments’ spending, Holyrood’s Environment Committee said that MSPs are “concerned” about the lack of detail in a key financial document.

While acknowledging the Scottish Government’s “strong commitment” to address the climate crisis by setting a net-zero emissions target by 2045, the report by the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee warned that infrastructure projects should be chosen on the basis of their environmental impact.

READ MORE: Thousands of long-term empty homes brought back to life under Scottish scheme

The pre-budget scrutiny report stated: “In the context of the climate emergency, the committee considers that Scotland needs to ‘lock in’ the transition to a zero-carbon future now.

“This will require a substantial shift in the proportion of investment that is spent on infrastructure that does not contribute negatively to climate change.”

Plans for Scotland to become carbon neutral five years before the rest of the UK are now law after receiving royal assent.

MSPs had approved in September the new Climate Change Bill, which set out an interim target to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 75% by 2030 on 1990 levels and instructed ministers to establish a citizens’ climate assembly.

Scotland officially reduced its emissions by 39.1% between 1990 and 2017. However, its “source emissions”, which exclude sectors covered by the EU emissions trading system, were down 46.8% over that same period.

The plan will be launched in the Arches in Glasgow this afternoon.