Climate change delivery plan: meeting Scotland's statutory climate change targets

MINISTERIAL FOREWORD

The Climate Change (Scotland) Bill will introduce the most ambitious climate change legislation anywhere in the world. This Delivery Plan sets out how we will achieve the statutory emission targets which lie at the heart of the Bill. The action needed is huge and challenging but not impossible.

The Plan sets out what we need to do now, and in the medium and long term, to achieve our ambitious emissions reduction targets. It is a precursor to the more detailed statutory Report on Proposals and Policies to be produced in 2010, which will set out how we will meet our annual targets out to 2022. The Scottish Government is already planning the next steps: a new approach to managing carbon, drawing on how we manage our financial budgets; strengthening governance arrangements and accountability; working together to ensure carbon is taken properly into account in the decisions we make; and improving the evidence base and our knowledge of what works best.

We need to work together to transform Scotland's economy so that economic growth and emissions reductions happen together. All sectors of the economy must share in the effort. Scotland already has a thriving renewables sector, and we have a tremendous opportunity to be a world leader in green technologies such as marine energy and carbon capture and storage. We will also see a massive expansion of jobs in energy efficiency products and services. We all, as individuals, also need to play our part, by factoring climate change into our decisions about how we travel, how we make our homes more energy efficient, what we buy and where it comes from, and how we dispose of what we no longer need.

Scotland's share of global emissions is small and the action Scotland takes needs to be part of a global effort to reduce emissions. Our most important contribution at a global level will be to demonstrate strong leadership, through setting ambitious statutory targets, and more significantly, showing that the pathway to a successful low carbon economy is achievable. Wherever possible we will take opportunities to influence others in the international community to follow our lead.

At the same time, we as a nation need to prepare for the changes we will see to our climate and landscape. By planning and preparing for change now, Scotland will be better placed to take advantage of any opportunities and to build its resilience to the negative consequences of a changing climate. Scotland's Climate Change Adaptation Framework, to be published later this year, will provide leadership and catalyse action.

As this Delivery Plan makes clear, transformational change is necessary. The Scottish Government is focused on making it happen.