Scottish Government publishes updated Climate Change Plan

The Scottish Government has this week published its updated Climate Change Plan, setting out the actions through which it intends to achieve Scotland’s statutory emissions reduction targets over the next twelve years, including the target set last year of a 75% reduction in emissions by 2030. Originally due to be published this March, the update was delayed by the onset of Covid-19, and is now intended to help secure a Green Recovery from the pandemic on the path to net-zero.

Alongside the Climate Change Plan update, the Scottish Government has also published Net Zero Nation, its new draft public engagement strategy for climate change.

Keep Scotland Beautiful welcomes the publication of both documents, which each have key roles to play in ensuring Scotland achieves its ambitious climate change targets in a just and fair way. We particularly welcome the commitment in the draft public engagement strategy to ensuring that people in all parts of Scotland are engaged with our transition to net-zero by investing in community climate action, as well as the aspiration to encourage positive behavioural change by making Scotland a more carbon literate country. We look forward to further detail both on these and on other aspects of the strategy.

With 2021 shaping up to be a pivotal year for climate action both here and worldwide, it is crucial that the positive ambitions in these documents are now followed up with decisive action to reduce our emissions. We look forward to engaging with the formal processes of scrutiny of these documents in the months ahead to ensure their final detail matches what is needed, and to playing as positive a role as possible in Scotland’s journey to net-zero in the years to come.