Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets)(Scotland) Bill: Fairer Scotland Duty statement

Fairer Scotland Duty – Assessment Not Required Declaration

1. Title of the proposal

Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets) (Scotland) Bill

2. Decision implementation date

The day after Royal Assent of the Bill

3. Directorate/ Division/ Service/ Team

Directorate for Energy and Climate Change, Domestic Climate Change Division, Climate Legislation Team

4. Responsible officer for taking decision

Philip Raines, Joint Deputy Director for Domestic Climate Change

Was the decision taken by a partnership: No

5. Rationale for decision

The Climate Change Bill (herein ‘the Bill’) will amend existing climate legislation to establish a more flexible statutory emissions reduction target framework based on Carbon Budgets. This framework will be responsive to the uncertainty of long-term decarbonisation policy planning as well as reflective of the latest projected decarbonisation pathways as Scotland approaches its net zero target in 2045.

The objective of the Bill is to amend the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009, in response to the Climate Change Committee’s (CCC’s) advice that our interim emissions reduction target for 2030 is beyond what can be achieved and make related amendments.

The Bill will seek to amend existing climate change legislation to establish a carbon budget approach to emissions reduction target setting and thus establish a statutory target framework that is receptive to both the non-linear realities of long-term decarbonisation policy planning and reflects the latest advice from the CCC.

The Bill itself will not seek to set carbon budget levels, but enable these to be established through secondary legislation, expected to be developed with anticipated analysis and advice from the CCC in early 2025. The Bill will also seek to adjust duties related to timing of the next Climate Change Plan (CCP) so that a new Plan can be published as soon as reasonably practicable after carbon budgets have been set. The Bill will maintain the statutory target of net zero emissions by 2045.

The provisions of the Bill are limited to establishing the statutory framework required for the implementation of emissions reduction targets using a carbon budget-based approach. This Bill will not set the levels of carbon budgets, which will be introduced through secondary legislation, or set out the policies and actions to deliver the emissions reductions required to meet those budgets. The levels of carbon budgets will be developed with advice from the CCC and with reference to the target setting criteria established in the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009, which required consideration of the potential impacts on fiscal and social circumstances in Scotland.

We note that a Fairer Scotland Duty assessment was carried out for the 2019 Act and concluded that it was not possible to assess the impact of the Bill provisions on specific groups, including people experiencing socio-economic disadvantage, as it does not set out which actions or policies must be introduced to deliver the emissions reductions required to meet the targets set. The recommendation of the report for the 2019 Act was that impact assessments should be conducted for individual actions and policies where appropriate.

Our recommendation for this Bill is that the potential impacts on specific groups continue to be assessed during the development of Climate Change Plans and individual policies and actions delivering emissions reductions where appropriate.

Declaration: I confirm that the decision not to carry out a Fairer Scotland Duty assessment has been authorised by Philip Raines, Joint Deputy Director for Domestic Climate Change

Date Authorisation given: 21 August 2024