Climate Change Plan: third report on proposals and policies - written statement

Costs

Multiple Committees

1. The committees called on the Scottish Government to provide further detail and financial information on the anticipated costs associated with the Climate Change Plan. Further, the committees recommended that the issue of climate change should be embedded in the draft budget and the final Plan should include detail of how this information will be included in future budgets. The Committees also recommended that the final Plan should include the proposed funding available for policies and proposals where a fund, grants or loan scheme has been proposed. (REC 21, ECCLR 199, 533, 198)

• The policies and proposals in the Plan create benefits and costs for government, business and households. Scottish Government funding for climate change activities is less than this cost because the costs and benefits are to a society as a whole rather than the Scottish Government alone.
• Our high level assessment of the Plan is that the cumulative discounted system resource cost to 2050 is estimated to be equivalent to around 1% of cumulative Scottish GDP. This is down from approximately 2% in the draft Plan. Costs have dropped in relation to the draft Plan due to revisions to data inputs, including the incorporation of revised emissions profiles for the Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry sector.
• In addition, the short term nature of the Scottish Government's devolved budget restricts our ability to provide detailed long term costs.
• The Scottish Government would be happy to work with the Scottish Parliament on the relationship between climate change budget information and the monitoring framework for the Plan. Further information has now been provided regarding funds, grants or loan schemes available for the policies and proposals within the Plan.