1. OutlineThis is a letter from Professor Piers Forster, Interim Chair of the Climate Change Committee to Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy Màiri McAllan MSP, providing advice in response to a request about how to design and implement carbon budgets in Scotland. 2. Key messages
- It is deeply disappointing that the Scottish Government has decided to withdraw its 2030 and 2040 interim targets. We are reassured that the 2045 Net Zero target will remain in place, as this remains the correct target for Scotland.
- Scotland’s current legal framework sets annual targets for the level of emissions reduction each year. Such annual targets offer the advantage of ensuring regular scrutiny of decarbonisation progress. However, these are highly vulnerable to year-to-year fluctuations in emissions.
- These fluctuations are smoothed within multi-year budgets, which therefore provide a more reliable indicator of underlying progress. From experience in the UK and Wales, five-year carbon budgets are most appropriate. Carbon budgets provide a series of stepping stones to reach the Net Zero objective.
- The Scottish Government should be proactive and transparent in monitoring and evaluating progress. It should also continue to ask the Committee to assess its progress in reducing emissions regularly. Our recommendation is that a regular cadence of at least two dedicated reports on Scottish progress per budget period, coupled with a more frequent assessment through the annual UK-wide progress reports, would provide an appropriate level of scrutiny.
- The Committee strongly urges the Scottish Government to act quickly to implement a new legal framework, bringing its approach in line with the other nations of the UK. This is crucial to restore confidence and avoid a vacuum of ambition around Net Zero.
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