Party leader Nicola Sturgeon revealed the document ahead of the Scottish parliamentary elections due to take place on 5 May.
Scotland is more than on track to meets its 2009 commitment to reduce emissions by 42 per cent by 2020, the manifesto said, having already cut them by 38.4 per cent by 2013. Following the COP21 agreement in Paris last year the SNP said it will put forward a new climate change bill increasing the target to 50 per cent.
The party will also create a new energy strategy to achieve its aims, which will take a “whole system view”, encompassing “demand reduction, energy efficiency, a balanced energy generation mix, a role for storage, and the requirement for a low-carbon transition in transport and heat use”.
It said it will examine the call of industry body Scottish Renewables to set a further target of meeting 50 per cent of the country’s entire energy needs with renewables by 2030.
To encourage community energy, the SNP pledged to set new targets of developing 1GW of community owned energy projects by 2020, and 2GW by 2030. It promised to make sure at least half of all newly consented renewable projects have an element of shared ownership by the first of the two deadlines.
The party said it will also push for Scotland to take control over its share of feed-in tariffs and will examine the possibility of creating a government-owned energy company in order to help foster the development of community energy.