This blog is one of a series that illustrate how climate change relates to policy areas covered by each subject committee.
As well as specific subject responsibilities (explored in an accompanying blog) the Net Zero, Energy and Transport (NZET) Committee remit includes scrutiny of how the Scottish Government develops and delivers policy on climate and net zero. Scottish Government departments and overarching net zero and climate adaptation policy. This encompasses the scrutiny of climate governance, relationship between the Scottish Budget and climate, net zero behaviour and engagement policy and the role of key public bodies on climate. The Committee also plays an important leadership role within the parliament as an institution, for example supporting other committees to integrate climate considerations into their scrutiny work.
In 2019 the Scottish Government declared a global climate emergency and noted that ‘this Scottish Government, will be placing climate change at the heart of everything we do.’ The Scottish Government subsequently established a Global Climate Emergency (GCE) Response Programme Board. With an initial aim to ‘pivot the organisation onto a trajectory whereby it could deliver on the ambitious targets outlined in the Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets) (Scotland) Act 2019’ the focus has since shifted to place more emphasis on delivery and implementation. In 2021 the Scottish Government established a Cabinet Sub-Committee for the Climate Emergency.
The Scottish Government’s approach to climate governance has been the subject of several pieces of work. Following work undertaken by the Fraser of Allander Institute to support the Joint Budget Review (see below) the lead author identified a number of challenges and weaknesses in the effectiveness of several Scottish Government policy making and governance processes. In 2023 Audit Scotland published a report into how the Scottish Government is set up to deliver its climate change goals. As part of this assessment Audit Scotland highlighted concerns that governance arrangements to support Scotland adapt to the impact of climate change are ‘less developed than those for reducing emissions.’ Subsequently the Scottish Parliament’s Public Audit Committee took evidence on this report from both Audit Scotland and the Scottish Government and shared the issues identified during their scrutiny with the NZET Committee. Responding to a request from the Public Audit Committee the Scottish Government shared the following diagram to summarise the Scottish Government’s climate governance framework.
The Climate Change Plan
Scotland’s Climate Change Plan (CCP) forms one of three strategic programmes of work sitting within Scotland’s climate governance framework. Under Scotland’s climate change legislation the Scottish Government is required to produce a new plan every five years setting out how emissions will be reduced across key sectors in line with Scotland’s emissions targets. The legislation requires that a draft plan is shared with the Scottish Parliament ahead of it being finalised. At time of writing, the NZET Committee is taking steps to co-ordinate a strategic approach to the scrutiny of the Plan across multiple committees.
Adaptation and resilience
The remit of the Committee includes scrutiny of the Scottish Government approach to climate adaptation and resilience. Scotland’s climate has changed in the past few decades, with a summary of the UK Climate Projections illustrating an overall increase in temperature, rainfall and sea level which is set to continue and intensify. The Third UK Climate Change Risk Assessment – Summary for Scotland highlights the risks faced in Scotland as a result of climate change. These span risks for the natural environment associated with invasive species, pests, pathogens and ocean warming – to risks to the built environment and our health as a result of flooding of buildings and infrastructure and overheating of buildings. Further detail on the impacts of climate change in Scotland are available in a SPICe blog.
Scotland’s Climate Change Act 2009 places a requirement on the Scottish Government to produce an adaptation programme at regular intervals. In 2019 the Scottish Government published their second adaptation programme ‘Climate Ready Scotland: climate change adaptation programme 2019-2024’, often referred to as SCAAP2. In their progress report assessing SCCAP2 in 2022 the CCC noted that:
‘Progress in delivering adaptation has stalled. Available evidence indicates that across most sectors progress in delivering adaptation has stagnated, despite a limited number of areas where good progress is being made.’
The Climate Change Committee (CCC) made several recommendations linked to setting targets for levels of resilience in Scotland and providing a clearer framework to support delivery and enable monitoring. In May 2023 the Scottish Government published their fourth annual progress report on the SCCAP where they noted that:
‘The overall assessment of Scottish Ministers is that whilst progress continues to be made in implementing SCCAP2, it is also clear that still more needs to be done to build resilience in Scotland as part of our just transition.’
The Scottish Government are due to publish Scotland’s third adaptation programme in early 2024.
Climate and the Scottish Budget
In response to the Joint Budget Review which sought to improve processes and transparency of the Scottish Budget as it links to climate change the Scottish Government set out several proposals. These include developing a more detailed approach to categorise spending lines according to climate impact, and a Net Zero Assessment process as part of policy development. The most recent progress update was published in October 2023 and confirmed that the categorisation of spend according to climate impact (sometimes referred to as climate taxonomy) would be extended to include revenue spend and that an ‘indicative methodology’ for a Net Zero Assessment has been developed. In December 2023 the Scottish Government published a Climate Change Assessment of the Budget alongside the Draft Scottish Budget. While the document applies a more detailed approach to categorising spend according to climate impact a recent SPICe blog highlights the weaknesses of this approach in understanding how spending plans contribute to meetings Scotland’s climate targets.
Public engagement
Many organisations including the Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations (CAST) have highlighted the significance of public engagement and involvement noting the critical role of social change alongside technological developments in securing net zero. Over the period 2020-2021 Scotland’s Climate Assembly brought together 100 people from across Scotland to learn about, discuss and make recommendations on how Scotland could make progress on climate change. Their recommendations, and the Scottish Government response to them have been published and span proposals on homes, transport, education and diet. The Scottish Government has recently re-iterated their commitment to consider the Assembly’s recommendations as part of the development of the next Climate Change Plan. In 2021 the Scottish Government published a framework for engaging the people of Scotland in the net zero transition and have committed to a mid-term review of this engagement strategy. To support their scrutiny work of climate change public engagement the NZET Committee made a successful proposal for the Parliament to host a people’s panel. The panel’s work will take place in spring 2024, and these deliberations will feed into Committees’ scrutiny of the CCP this year.
Building a model for enhanced parliamentary scrutiny
The Session 5 Legacy report of the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee highlighted the importance of co-ordinating scrutiny of climate change across the Parliament and early in Session 6 the Conveners Group agreed to strengthen cross-cutting climate scrutiny. The NZET Committee is well placed to play a leading role on this agenda, with work underpinned by development of a new approach to such scrutiny. Alongside their work to support a co-ordinated approach to scrutiny of the CCP the Committee has engaged in work to explore how parliamentary processes and procedures can be strengthened to support net zero. At a UK level other stakeholders have highlighted opportunities to strengthen parliamentary scrutiny around net zero, including the Hansard Society who have proposed reform of the delegated legislation system.
Public bodies
The NZET Committee has already undertaken work on aspects of climate governance linked to local authorities as part of their inquiry into the role of local government in the delivery of a net zero Scotland. The remit of the NZET Committee also extends to the scrutiny of several agencies responsible for work in areas of relevance to climate change mitigation and adaptation. Examples include:
– Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) who, for example, play an important role in flood forecasting, flood management plans and the regulation of industrial emissions.
– NatureScot who, for example, administer the Peatland Action programme and have a central role in land use management.
– Scottish Water who, for example, are significant users of energy, responsible for water resource planning and have an active role in land use management.
Dr Dan Barlow, Climate Policy, Research and Governance Consultant