Environment Strategy for Scotland: second progress report

Development of the Outcome Pathways

The outcome pathways will be the heart of the fully developed Environment Strategy, setting out the policies and priorities that will lead us towards the outcomes, and therefore realise our vision.

The Environment Strategy will not be a separate programme of action – instead it will promote a whole-of-government approach to achieving our vision. Progress with delivery does not have to wait until the strategy is fully developed. As shown by the examples outlined in the first progress report, and the further examples set out in the Introduction to this report, delivery is already happening across many areas of policy. The Scottish Government is developing pathways to support further delivery of the strategy outcomes through a wide range of policies and programmes.

For the outcomes on nature, climate change and resource-use, outcome pathways will signpost to Scotland’s established strategies and plans in these areas. As work develops across the full Environment Strategy, we will promote new opportunities for breaking down barriers between environmental policy and a whole-government approach to delivery. This means both finding new opportunities across government to promote environmental sustainability and nature recovery, and boosting ways in which the natural environment can support delivery of other policy goals.

For the outcomes on Scotland’s economy, society and global footprint, pathways will explore where there is potential for further action to help drive transformative change, building on existing policies. As a core part of this process, we will seek opportunities to build actions into strategies and programmes across government to help achieve the Environment Strategy’s outcomes, supporting a whole-of-government approach.

The development of the pathways will be based on firm evidence to identify opportunities to help deliver the transformative economic and societal changes needed to drive Scotland forward in tackling the climate and nature emergencies.

We are taking a two-phase approach to developing these new outcome pathways on Scotland’s economy, society and global footprint.

• In the first phase, we will work with research partners, subject experts and stakeholders to understand in greater detail the nature of the transformations needed to achieve the outcome, and the types of policy levers that can be used to drive change.
• In the second phase, we will work to identify how these policy levers can be used in practice, by influencing the design and delivery of policies and programmes across government.

We will support the first phase of the pathway development through research focusing on the economy, society and global footprint outcomes. The work will address two broad research questions:

1. What does evidence tell us about current progress towards the outcome?

2. How can the Scottish Government use the available policy levers most effectively to drive progress?

This research will be supported by advisory groups with representatives from the Scottish Government, public bodies, stakeholders and academia to allow us to draw on additional expertise when overseeing the research. We will test the results of the research with wider groups of stakeholders through workshops.

The results of this research will feed into the second phase of outcome pathway development, where we will work across government to implement recommendations through changes to policy design and delivery. Our aim is to find new ideas to improve policy design to promote the outcomes of the strategy while supporting the other goals of government, including sustainable jobs, health and wellbeing. Some of these ideas will start to be built into policies as the strategy is developed.

A range of impact assessments will also be undertaken during the second phase of pathway development. These impact assessments will ensure that the proposals in the Environment Strategy are effective and protect important rights and communities.

A Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) will be carried out to evaluate the impact of the proposed strategy on the environment, and to inform the development of the outcome pathways by robustly considering whether we have identified policies that best promote delivery of our goals for nature and environmental sustainability. The SEA process will be open and consultative and will be an important element in the development of the strategy. As a part of the SEA development, we shall give full consideration to the guiding principles on the environment, in line with the duty included in the Continuity Act.