Cleaner Air for Scotland 2: delivery plan

Priority 6: Industrial Emissions Regulation

We will carefully consider the scope for requiring further reductions of air pollutant emissions, balancing environmental benefits against costs of further regulation.

Our strategic approach includes:

• Agriculture, Industrial and Domestic Emissions Working Group Report
  http://www.scottishairquality.scot/assets/documents/Emissions-Working-Group-Report.pdf

• SEPA Sector Plans
  https://sectors.sepa.org.uk/
• SEPA Regulatory Strategy
  one-planet-prosperity-our-regulatory-strategy.pdf (sepa.org.uk)

Outcomes:

8. EU standards and principles relating to emissions of air pollutants continue to apply in Scotland following the UK's exit from the EU, in line with the duties introduced by the UK Withdrawal from the European Union (Continuity) (Scotland) Act 2021 (the Continuity Act 2021).

9. We address regulatory gaps in relation to air emissions.

Actions:

Our key short term action (to 2022)

• Ensure that EU standards and principles relating to emissions of air pollutants continue to apply in Scotland following the UK's exit from the EU, in line with the duties introduced by the Continuity Act 2021.

Our key long term actions (to 2026)

• SEPA will utilise its sector plan approach to encourage businesses to go beyond compliance to achieve further reduction in air pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions
• The Scottish Government and SEPA will, as part of the review of the Clean Air Act 1993 (see domestic burning actions), address the regulatory gap relating to stack height assessment for SEPA permitted sites.
• Transport Scotland will develop an emission impact and evidence base on Transport Refrigeration Unit (TRU) emissions.
• The Scottish Government, SEPA and Transport Scotland will engage with industry to produce guidance on requirements for gaseous and particulate emission from Non-Road Mobile Machinery (NRMM).
• Transport Scotland will contribute into research to develop a consistent method of measuring non-exhaust emissions (NEE) from road traffic, in order to improve the understanding of NEE emissions in Scotland.
• Transport Scotland will explore opportunities across traffic management, behaviours and legislation/standards to reduce NEE from road traffic.
• The Scottish Government will review the role of incineration in Scotland's waste hierarchy.