This blog is one of a series that illustrate how climate change relates to policy areas covered by each subject committee.
With a remit covering housing, planning, building standards and local government the work of the committee covers many areas with a significant influence on greenhouse gas emissions and our ability to adapt to a changing climate.
Buildings
Buildings alone are responsible for around a fifth of Scotland’s emissions. Policies and approaches to increase the energy efficiency of our homes and workplaces and move away from fossil fuel heating systems are likely to feature prominently in the years ahead. The Committee’s remit on housing and building standards is therefore particularly significant in the context of Scotland’s targets to cut emissions by 75% by 2030 and achieve net-zero emissions by 2045. In their most recent progress assessment the Committee on Climate Change concluded that there are ‘not yet adequate policies in place to deliver low-carbon heat and energy efficiency improvements at the required rate’.
Scotland’s Heat in Buildings Strategy, published in 2021, sets out the Scottish Government framework on this agenda. The document sets out notable milestones including that by 2030 a large majority of Scotland’s buildings achieve a good level of energy efficiency and over one million homes are converted to renewable heat – many of which are expected to be in rural, off gas grid areas.
Delivery of the strategy requires a huge amount of detailed work spanning building standards, technology, supply chain development, workforce availability, consumer engagement/behaviour and considerations around the financing of this transition. The strategy involves interventions that relate specifically to both new buildings (e.g. the development and application of new build standards) and to existing buildings (retrofit) and the Committee has been active in both areas. In 2021, the Committee explored some of the challenges associated with retrofitting homes for net zero and in 2023 the Committee also considered, and approved, regulations that will require new buildings, where a building warrant is applied for from April 2024, to use a zero direct emissions heating system.
The strategy also highlights the role of low and zero emission heat networks (district and communal heating). The Scottish Parliament passed the Heat Networks (Scotland) Bill in 2021 and a set of regulations to support the development and uptake of heat networks are being phased in. Further primary legislation to support the strategy is also scheduled with a Programme for Government commitment to consult on a Heat in Buildings Bill this parliamentary year.
Planning
By providing a framework for decisions about the development and use of land and buildings Scotland’s planning system has a significant influence on how we live and work and the infrastructure we build. Approaches to spatial planning influence the need to travel and the transport options available to us. These offer opportunities to support ‘local living’ where people are able to meet the majority of their daily needs within a reasonable distance of their home (for example ‘20 minute neighbourhoods’). Ensuring developments link to comprehensive and coherent public transport and active travel networks can help reduce private car use and the emissions associated. Further detail on several transport and land-use planning policies is available in a previous SPICe blog.
The planning system allows for the identification of nationally determined significant infrastructure priorities – whether significant individual projects or a network of developments that are collectively significant (e.g. a national walking, cycling and wheeling network). This provides scope to prioritise infrastructure in line with achieving Scotland’s net zero commitments and design planning policy accordingly.
Scotland’s strategic spatial and policy framework is set out as Scotland’s National Planning Framework. The Fourth National Planning Framework (NPF4) was adopted and published in February 2023, and refers extensively to climate change and net zero; stating:
‘Planning carries great responsibility – decisions about development will impact on generations to come. Putting the twin global climate and nature crises at the heart of our vision for a future Scotland will ensure the decisions we make today will be in the long-term interest of our country.’
As part of the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee coordinated scrutiny of the draft NPF4 the Scottish Parliament Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee highlighted several ways that the planning system is critical to delivering Scotland’s net zero goals. More recently during their inquiry into Scotland’s electricity infrastructure the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee heard evidence about the significance of Scotland’s planning system in facilitating the development of renewable energy and some associated concerns linked to planning processes and local authority capacity.
Adaptation
Approaches across housing, planning and building standards also play a key role in supporting how Scotland adapts to a changing climate with flooding and overheating of buildings two key areas of concern. An estimated 284,000 homes, businesses and services across Scotland are deemed to be at risk of flooding from rivers, surface water and the sea, and under future climate change scenarios this figure is set to increase substantially. The Climate Change Committee (CCC) has identified that summer overheating in existing homes in Scotland poses only a limited risk under current weather conditions but a significant risk under a 4oC global warming scenario. NHS Scotland has identified overheating in hospital buildings during periods of hot weather as a major risk.
The ability of our homes and buildings to cope with implications of a changing climate link to both spatial decisions on where developments occur (for example to avoid developments in flood risk areas) and the integration of measures to boost resilience into our buildings (for example to avoid summer overheating or provide flood protection).
Approaches on housing and planning also provide opportunities to incorporate so called blue-green infrastructure offering scope to support adaptation to the effects of climate change. Examples include the application of nature based solutions to mitigate flooding and reduce the risk of summer overheating in urban areas by using trees to absorb sunlight and provide shade.
Local Government
The Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 places a statutory duty on local authorities to contribute to Scotland’s national emission reduction targets. In their recent report on Scotland’s councils’ approach to addressing climate change Audit Scotland highlight that ‘The role that councils have to play in addressing climate change is critical if Scotland is to meet its climate change targets’.
As noted by the CCC, and highlighted in the figure below, local authorities are directly responsible for some aspects of their local area’s emissions but have wider powers and influence over roughly a third of emissions in their area. Local authorities are responsible for public services that span education, social care, waste management and planning. The breadth of levers available to them to influence emissions include reducing their direct emissions (e.g. from their estate), reducing their indirect emissions (e.g. through procurement of goods and services) and influencing emissions across their area and beyond as a result of policy decisions (e.g. planning and development).
In addition, local government also has the ability for wider influence through their ability to innovate and showcase good practice, form partnerships that bring people and organisations together and involve, engage and communicate.
Examples of where local authorities can have a leading and prominent influence on emissions include their role in developing and implementing Local Heat and Energy Efficiency Strategies (LHEES) and Local Development Plans and in supporting bus services and active travel infrastructure. On adaptation local authorities play a key role in coordinating the publication of Flood Risk Management Plans. A single local authority acts as a plan lead for each of 14 Local Plan Districts which are based on river catchments. These often cross administrative boundaries and require co-ordination between partners including multiple local authorities.
Several challenges have been identified for local authorities in progressing net zero and these include concerns about risking potential legal challenge by going beyond national policy requirements, lack of policy clarity in key areas, reliance on annual budgets and multiple challenge funding pots and a lack of skills and capacity. The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (CoSLA) have expressed concerns at the lack of clear route for Councils to finance net zero. In 2022 Environmental Standards Scotland (ESS) also launched an investigation into the systems in place to support local authorities in the delivery of climate change targets. ESS subsequently made five recommendations to Scottish Ministers and are satisfied with the proposals made by the Scottish Government in response to four of these. ESS have issued a requirement for Scottish Ministers to produce an improvement plan in response to their recommendation that reporting of Scope 3 emissions (for example those associated with supply chains and investments) should be mandatory.
In 2022 Audit Scotland concluded that local authorities should embed climate change in key decisions they make, set out clear and transparent emission plans and targets and increase action on adaptation and climate resilience.
The recently signed Verity House Agreement between CoSLA and the Scottish Government identifies a ‘just transition to net zero’ as one of three shared priorities.
Dr Dan Barlow – Climate Policy, Research and Governance Consultant