This blog is one of a series that illustrate how climate change relates to policy areas covered by each subject committee.
The remit of the Net Zero, Energy and Transport (NZET) Committee straddles a number of sectors with an important role to play in achieving Scotland’s net zero target. Several of these sectors are also particularly exposed to the impacts of climate change. This blog summarises some of the links between key climate policy areas of energy, transport, waste, circular economy, biodiversity and land use which fall within the Committee’s remit. A parallel blog considers the cross-cutting role of the Committee to scrutinise progress across the Scottish Government towards net zero and improve Scotland’s resilience to the effects of climate change.
Energy
Policies and approaches on energy are central for cutting Scotland’s greenhouse gas emissions. Emissions associated with the combustion of fossil fuels to produce electricity and have reduced significantly over the period 1990-2021.
This cut is largely a result of the shift in electricity generation from fossil fuels to renewables. However electricity only accounts for 22% of Scotland’s energy use and there are massive challenges in decarbonising the significant energy use associated with heating our homes and workplaces and with transport.
Academic analysis highlights that many net zero emission pathways in the UK depend on significant electrification to meet the heating needs of our homes (e.g. deployment of heat pumps) and surface transport (e.g. adoption of electric vehicles). Such demand will require the development and delivery of significantly more renewable electricity, energy storage capacity and the upgrade and expansion of the electricity grid. The Committee explored this latter issue in detail recently and set out several recommendations under themes of grid modernisation, infrastructure, intergovernmental cooperation and public engagement.
Other aspects of energy policy in Scotland within the Committee’s remit have implications for Scotland’s emissions. These include the development and application of hydrogen as an energy carrier, the role of bioenergy (using organic matter e.g. timber or food waste to create electricity or gas), the application of heat networks and approaches to manage energy demand.
Transport
Domestic transport accounts for 26% of Scotland’s total climate emissions, with cars responsible for the largest single share, followed by trucks and buses. Progress in cutting emissions has been slower in this sector than many others with the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) noting in their most recent progress report that ‘plans to decarbonise transport in Scotland are falling behind’. Scotland’s most recent data shows that transport emissions remain significantly above the expected emissions from transport set in the current Climate Change Plan Update.
Opportunities to decarbonise transport involve changing:
- The need to travel, for example through planning decisions or remote working.
- The ways we travel, for example whether by active travel, bus, rail or car; and
- The source of energy used to power our transport, for example electric vehicles or hydrogen buses (with implications for energy generation, transmission and storage).
Significant Scottish Government policy commitments aimed at supporting the sector to make progress towards net zero include cutting vehicle kilometres by 20% by 2030 and phasing out the need for new petrol and diesel vehicles by 2030. While a final route map detailing how the Scottish Government plans to deliver the vehicle reduction target is yet to be published the Climate Change Committee (CCC) suggested that the draft plan reflected a lack of emphasis on measures to discourage car use and called for a ‘..comprehensive Car Demand Management Framework’ to be produced. Of relevance to the phase out of new petrol and diesel vehicles the CCC have highlighted that the rate of electric vehicle (EV) roll-out remains lower than assumed in their emissions pathway, and behind the UK as a whole. The implications of the recent UK Government decision to delay the phase out of the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles to 2035 on Scotland’s 2030 emissions reduction target has been highlighted in a recent SPICe blog.
Other relevant transport policy areas include active travel (for example walking and cycling), public transport, aviation and ferries. In public transport the development and application of technology (e.g.hydrogen) and approaches to encourage behaviour change (e.g. through ticket pricing initiatives) are relevant. Scotland’s Climate Assembly recommended that a standardised smart ticket system be applied across the country and Scotland’s 2023 Programme for Government committed to ‘Progress smart, digital and integrated ticketing…’.
On aviation the Scottish Government has committed to decarbonise scheduled flights within Scotland by 2040 and create a zero-emissions aviation region. While several powers with potential to influence decarbonisation are reserved (for example UK Emissions Trading Scheme) the CCC have called for the Scottish Government to create an aviation decarbonisation strategy and noted that the Scottish Government has made ‘no commitments to use its devolved powers, such as airport expansion control and Air Departure Tax, to curb aviation growth’.
Scotland’s Climate Change Plan update commits to 30% of Scottish Government owned ferries being low emission by 2032 and the NZET Committee explored the decarbonisation of ferry travel as part of their inquiry into A Modern and Sustainable Ferry Service for Scotland. The Committee made several recommendations including that all new vessels being ordered should be designed with capacity for zero emissions propulsion).
Waste and circular economy
Covering both waste and circular economy the remit of the Committee includes emissions that arise directly from waste managed in Scotland (e.g. emissions from landfill), and also those associated with the materials, goods and services we use regardless of where the emissions arise (sometimes referred to as our carbon footprint or consumption emissions). Emissions from these are significantly larger than the emissions solely produced from activity in Scotland (referred to as ‘territorial’ emissions).
Emissions from waste management in Scotland are dominated by methane from the breakdown of biodegradable waste in landfill sites. These emissions have reduced significantly in recent years largely as a result of the adoption of measures to capture methane at landfill sites. Opportunities for further reductions relate to the management of biodegradable waste, and energy from waste policy. The Scottish Government has committed to end the disposal of municipal biodegradable waste (household or similar waste capable of decomposing e.g. food, paper for which local authorities have a responsibility to collect) to landfill by 2025 and cut food waste by 33% by 2025. However a review commissioned by the Scottish Government has questioned the availability of alternative treatment options necessary to achieve the landfill ban target and the Climate Change Plan Update monitoring report highlights that Scotland is not on track to achieve the food waste reduction target. Meanwhile the CCC has called for the food waste reduction target to be boosted to 50% by 2030.
Emissions from Scotland’s energy from waste (EfW) facilities accounted for 19 per cent of total emissions from electricity generation in 2021. The Scottish Government expect these to rise as additional plants, under development, commence operation. The most recent CCC progress assessment recommended that the Scottish Government develop a plan to decarbonise energy from waste facilities and suggested that CCS should be fitted to existing EfW plants from the mid- 2020s and all new EfW plants be built ‘CCS-ready’.
On circular economy, material extraction and use are responsible for a significant share of global emissions and the United Nations Development Programme describe the development of a more circular economy as ‘essential’. Using less, or different, materials through the redesign of products and reuse/remanufacturing of goods through practical initiatives like repair cafes, and tool libraries alongside placing requirements on producers to take responsibility for the recycling or recovery of products they produce (sometimes called producer responsibility) can help cut resource use and associated emissions. At time of writing, the NZET Committee is scrutinising Scotland’s Circular Economy Bill which includes a variety of proposals aimed at improving resource use, with associated opportunities to cut Scotland’s climate footprint. Further details are set out in a recent SPICe briefing.
Natural environment & land management
The remit of the NZET Committee also covers several aspects of our natural environment which link closely to climate. Examples include policies and approaches on peatlands, biodiversity, land reform and the marine environment.
Over the past decade a considerable emphasis has been placed on the role of peatlands in sequestering carbon emissions with active programmes of work dedicated to support peatland restoration. Scotland’s 2018 Climate Change Plan established a target to restore 20,000 hectares of peatland each year (noting that for delivery of the 2032 emissions envelope ‘annual peatland restoration needs to be far higher than the current 20,000 hectare annual target’). The latest CCPu monitoring report highlights that restoration in 2022/2023 was 7,000 hectares. Research has identified several factors including a lack of knowledge and understanding of the funding process for land managers and limited duration and timing of funding opportunities as constraints on the rate of restoration.
The Third UK Climate Change Risk Assessment – Summary for Scotland highlights many ways that climate change threatens Scotland’s biodiversity – spanning impacts on the distribution and abundance of species in Scotland’s marine ecosystem as a result of sea level warming and ocean acidification, to the effect of droughts, wildfires and waterlogging on terrestrial species. The assessment also highlights potential opportunities to secure biodiversity benefits from measures available to help Scotland to adapt to climate change – for example the use of natural flood management techniques. Scotland’s draft Biodiversity Strategy makes reference to Scotland’s natural environment, habitats, ecosystems and species being ‘diverse, thriving, resilient and adapting to climate change’ as part of Scotland’s biodiversity vision.
Land reform is a further area with potentially significant implications for net zero and the Scottish Government committed to introduce a Land Reform Bill in the 2023 Programme for Government. The supporting consultation, and associated consultation analysis set out several aspects of the legislative proposals that link, or potentially link, with net zero. These include defining large-scale landholdings and then requiring that these holdings produce a management plan which complies with the Land Rights and Responsibilities Statement and the application of a public interest test to large-scale landholdings when they change ownership. A series of SPICe blogs explore this in more detail.
Turning to Scotland’s marine environment, research by NatureScot concluded that carbon captured and stored in Scotland’s coastal and marine environment (known as ‘blue carbon’) makes a ‘significant contribution’ to carbon sequestration and that this could be increased through protection of these habitats. In 2022 the Scottish Government published a Blue Economy Vision for Scotland followed by a details of their approach to the delivery of this vision. Blue carbon is covered in more detail in a SPICe blog which summarises the potential for blue carbon in Scotland and highlights recommendations made by the Scottish Parliament following their scrutiny of the draft CCPu.
Dr Dan Barlow – Climate Policy, Research & Governance Consultant