Climate change duties - draft statutory guidance for public bodies: consultation

Draft Statutory Guidance - Executive Summary

This statutory guidance is issued by the Scottish Ministers to Scottish public bodies under the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 (‘the 2009 Act’).

The 2009 Act places a legal responsibility on relevant public bodies in Scotland to meet the climate change duties. The duties are set out in section 44(1) of the 2009 Act and require that a public body must, in exercising its functions, act –

(a) in the way best calculated to contribute to the delivery of emissions reduction targets (i.e. mitigation)

(b) in the way best calculated to help deliver the Adaptation Programme

(c) in a way that it considers most sustainable.

Under the 2009 Act, public bodies subject to the climate change duties are required to have regard to the statutory guidance. This guidance is an advisory document only, not a definitive statement of the law, and responsibility for compliance with the climate change duties rests with public bodies themselves.

The purpose of this statutory guidance is to support public bodies in performing their climate change duties. It aims to help public bodies to minimise their operational emissions, adapt and become resilient to the current and future impacts of the changing climate, live within environmental limits and ensure a strong, healthy and just society. This guidance will replace the statutory guidance published in 2011.

Within the guidance, while certain actions are recommended or encouraged, these should be undertaken in a way that is proportionate to the climate impact that the body has in terms of its size, assets, function and influence. Bodies are responsible for determining what is appropriate for their own organisation, and for taking such measures and actions forward in the most effective way.

The public sector has a critical role in helping Scotland to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, make a just transition to a low carbon economy and prepare for the future climate. Public bodies have an important leadership role to play as corporate organisations with estates, fleet and staff; bodies delivering national, regional and local services; as anchor organisations with significant influence on local places and communities; as bodies with significant collective annual budgets and buying power; as partner organisations and as trusted messengers.

Leadership and Governance

Strong governance, leadership and commitment within the public sector is vital to ensure that Scotland meets its targets and commitments. Key outcomes that will help demonstrate that such leadership is in place within the body are:

• publishing a formal declared commitment to action on climate change. Making a public body's commitment to deliver against the climate change duties visible and transparent, both to those who work within the organisation and to stakeholders, suppliers and service users, will increase the level of scrutiny of climate change actions, and public bodies will begin to exert positive influence over the behaviours of their stakeholders, suppliers and service users
• ensuring climate change governance is integrated into the existing corporate governance approach, and that this is both robust and effective. By ensuring that responsibility for leadership on climate change is clear within the organisation, both at management level and cascaded throughout, accountability for climate change action will be increased
• embedding climate change into the management of risks and opportunities across the organisation
• reflecting climate action in the organisation's corporate plans and annual reporting mechanisms. These may include dedicated climate change strategies and carbon management plans to address carbon emissions reduction and adaptation plans. Climate and sustainability should be included in other relevant statutory plans including, where relevant, Local Outcome Improvement Plans and Locality Plans. Corporate strategies and plans should include targets; performance against these targets should be included in annual reports
• ensuring that climate change considerations are mainstreamed across the organisation (mainstreaming means ensuring that climate and sustainability issues are considered in everything that the body does, and in how it makes decisions)
• ensuring that climate change systemically informs strategic investment planning and decision-making processes. By integrating climate change within business and financial planning, for example through policy appraisal, impact assessment or Strategic Environmental Assessment, the body will develop a process whereby the 'climate change question' and 'sustainability question' is routinely asked as part of the decision-making process. This will ensure the impact of that decision on climate change is considered and public bodies are seeking to act sustainably
• ensure that taking effective climate action is a corporate priority, with commitment across the organisation. Investment should follow priority
• actively seeking opportunities for partnership working with other public bodies, for example those in the same or adjacent geographical area or working in the same sector, to share best practice, maximise efficiency and increase the impact of climate change action and acting sustainably. Where possible, public bodies should put formal declarations of partnership in place to encourage formal working together at a strategic level. Such opportunities are more likely to contribute to multiple outcomes encompassing sustainability, health, equity and economic development.
• embedding climate change and sustainable development within corporate learning and development programmes.

Implementing the first duty: reducing emissions

The first of the climate change duties set out in section 44 of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 requires public bodies, in exercising their functions, to act in the way best calculated to contribute to the delivery of national emission reduction targets, i.e. to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, also known as climate change mitigation. In the context of the duties, 'targets' means both the national five-yearly carbon budgets and the 2045 target.

To help demonstrate compliance with this duty, public bodies should:

• develop a climate change strategy that includes net zero and other relevant targets and has regard to just transition principles
• develop and implement a carbon management plan or equivalent
• develop action plans to deliver key elements of the carbon management plan, detailing interim steps, costs, timescales and dependencies
• set up a process of monitoring and reporting, to report on performance against their targets and action plans
• ensure that mitigation actions maximise co-benefits, such as improved public health, reduced inequalities and enhanced biodiversity, and minimise unintended consequences such as maladaptation and negative environmental impacts
• undertake the above giving due consideration to their physical assets including buildings, land and fleet; their staff and service users; the services they deliver; the investments they manage; and the functions they exercise.

Key outcomes will be that public bodies:

• focus efforts on the material decarbonisation opportunities in each of their areas of wider influence, scopes 1 and 2, and scope 3
• work with urgency to reduce GHG emissions as quickly as possible in order to get under and stay under 1.5°C aligned decarbonisation pathways, i.e. to go as far as possible as fast as possible, and minimise cumulative emissions
• put governance processes, systems and senior level accountability in place that ensure policy and project development is aligned to national emission reduction targets
• measure, monitor and report on annual progress against their targets and decarbonisation pathway.

Implementing the second duty: adaptation

Under section 44 of the 2009 Act, relevant public bodies have a duty, in exercising their functions, to act in the way best calculated to help deliver the Scottish National Adaptation Plan (SNAP).

All public bodies must identify the national adaptation objectives from SNAP relevant to their functions and act in a way that supports the delivery of these objectives.

Organisations will have varying degrees of influence in relation to adaptation in Scotland depending on their particular role, functions and responsibilities, but all public bodies need to be resilient to the future climate and to plan for business continuity in relation to delivery of their functions and the services they deliver to the wider community.

To help demonstrate compliance with this duty, public bodies should:

• undertake a climate related risk assessment or assessments
• develop and implement an adaptation plan or plans with, as best practice, regard to just transition principles
• ensure that appropriate climate risks are included on corporate risk registers
• where applicable, note the specific adaptation action assigned to them in the SNAP and align their work with these
• actively seek to work in partnership with other organisations to develop and implement wider placed-based adaptation plans
• undertake the above giving due consideration to their physical assets including buildings, land and fleet; their staff and service users; the services they deliver; and the functions they exercise.

Key outcomes will be that public bodies:

• have a sound understanding of why adaptation is important for their organisation and what the impacts of climate change could mean, and will have identified and assessed their risks, vulnerabilities and any potential opportunities
• have identified and assessed the adaptation options, and have measures in place to implement their chosen strategies so that their physical assets, daily operations and service delivery are adapted to the changing climate and are resilient to its impacts
• monitor and evaluate implemented measures to ensure that adaptation efforts remain sufficient and responsive to changing conditions
• where applicable, contribute to the achievement of the specific adaptation outcomes assigned to them in the SNAP, and are able to track and report on delivery
• contribute to the effective adaptation of the places in which their sites, operations and services are located and delivered.

Implementing the third duty: acting in the most sustainable way

The third of the climate change duties set out in section 44 of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 requires public bodies, in exercising their functions, to act in the way that they consider to be most sustainable.

The National Performance Framework (NPF) is the overarching framework within which the work of central and local government, and the wider public sector, takes place. The NPF National Outcomes are aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). Section 1 of the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 requires public authorities, in carrying out their functions, to have regard to the National Outcomes.

To help demonstrate compliance with the third duty, public bodies should:

• align their work to the NPF and delivery of the National Outcomes and, as best practice, to the just transition principles
• ensure that sustainable development is embedded in strategies, policies, plans and projects
• integrate a sustainable development impact assessment, or equivalent, process into decision-making processes, including financial decisions
• ensure that procurement activities are undertaken in line with relevant legislation and the Sustainable Procurement Duty
• monitor and evaluate policy implementation and outcomes against the five principles of the UK Shared Framework for Sustainable Development.

Key outcomes for public bodies will be that:

• potential policies and decisions are, before they are finalised, assessed for fairness, ecological impact, economic sustainability, whether they are based on good evidence, and whether those who are likely to be affected have had a chance to participate in the decision-making process
• activities remain within planetary boundaries, and focus on the fair distribution of both benefits and disbenefits
• good governance for sustainable development ensures participation, accountability and transparency
• the procurement process is used as an opportunity to maximise social and environmental, as well as economic, benefits; and to ensure that environmental and other harms are minimised
• they contribute, through their functions, to the National Outcomes and achievement of the UN SDGs.

Reporting

All public bodies subject to the climate change duties should include climate change and sustainability reporting as part of their annual corporate reporting process.

Over 180 public bodies deemed to be 'major players' have a statutory duty under The Climate Change (Duties of Public Bodies: Reporting Requirements) (Scotland) Order 2015, as amended, to report annually on their compliance with the climate change duties. These bodies are listed in schedule 1 of the Order.

Recording greenhouse gas emissions, and the actions taken to contribute to adaptation and sustainability, allows public bodies to set targets and monitor progress towards achieving these targets. In order to reduce emissions and work towards net zero and other targets, bodies need to understand how their emissions arise.

To date, emissions reporting by public bodies has focused primarily on scope 1 and 2 emissions: from heating and power used in buildings, and on the emissions from fleet vehicles. It is important, moving forwards, that while bodies continue to focus efforts on reducing their scope 1 and 2 emissions, they also start to measure, monitor and reduce scope 3 emissions from the wider value chain.

As a baseline, public bodies subject to the reporting duty are expected, as part of best practice, to include scope 3 emissions from:

• consumption of mains water
• waste and waste water
• business travel including, where appropriate, overnight stays
• commuting and homeworking
• fuel and energy-related emissions not included in scopes 1 and 2

Over time those subject to the reporting duties, in particular bodies with larger spend and influence, are expected to expand reporting of scope 3 emissions to include all relevant categories. For most public bodies, indirect emissions from the wider value chain will be where their greatest climate impact lies – typically from the procurement of goods, works and services, from construction, and from investments. It is important that public bodies work towards fuller reporting of scope 3 emissions, to provide a more complete picture of their climate impact. In turn, this will enable bodies to focus resource to where they can achieve the greatest emissions reductions.