Bioenergy: update - March 2021

7. Next Steps and Timeline

Working Groups

To help inform our policy development, and the publication of a Bioenergy Action Plan for Scotland, over the next 18-24 months we will:

• Establish a Scottish Government working group comprised of all relevant policy areas. This group will develop a strategic framework (guiding principles) for bioenergy and its role in the net zero transition.

This working group will be guided by an Expert Panel, to be established during 2021, which will include a wide range of interested and expertise parties, including NGOs and pressure groups as well as sectoral representatives in order to capture a comprehensive range of perspectives and take a whole system view.

The work of these groups will report regularly to the senior level Scottish Government group that oversees the governance and delivery of the Climate Change Plan, to ensure all areas of work inform one another and the roles and linkage are clear. In addition, we will seek to establish links with other related work and stakeholder partnerships as required.

Workstreams

The focus in the early stages will be on evidence and knowledge gathering. The key workstreams that the group will investigate and review are outlined in the previous section and fall into the broad categories:

• Biomass availability
• Competing Demands
• Environmental and Sustainability issues
• Technology Readiness
• Reserved/Devolved areas

Timeline

A provisional timeline is set out below, it will be reviewed and updated regularly.