Key Scottish Environment Statistics 2012

Greenhouse Gas Emissions Adjusted to Take Account of Trading in the EU Emissions Trading System^R,[9],[19]: 1990-2010

Greenhouse gas emissions taking account of emissions trading (MtCO₂e)^[11]

It should be noted that improved data sources and estimation techniques have routinely led to revision of historic greenhouse gas emission estimates. All data has been revised to reflect these changes.

The European Union Emission Trading System (EU ETS) is the largest multi-country, multi-sector, company-level, greenhouse gas (GHG) emission trading system world-wide. When trading in the EU ETS is taken into account, Scottish GHG emissions, including international aviation and shipping, increased by 1.9% between 2009 and 2010 (from 53.687 MtCO₂e to 54.714 Mt CO₂e). Compared with the 1990 base year^[20], such emissions in 2010 were 24.3% lower.

The Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 sets a statutory framework for greenhouse gas emissions reductions in Scotland with a reduction target of at least 80 per cent by 2050 and an interim reduction target of at least 42 per cent by 2020, both reductions against the 1990 base year^[20]. The Act also requires Scottish Ministers to set annual targets for emissions and the Scottish Parliament has passed legislation setting annual targets to the year 2027. The 2010 target is 53.652 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2e). The Scottish Government also set a short term Sustainability Purpose target within the National Performance Framework to reduce emissions by 2011, compared with a 2006 baseline.

In accounting for trading in the EU ETS under both the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 and the short term Sustainability Purpose target, the approach taken is to set contributions from Scottish installations in the EU ETS equal to Scotland's share of the UK's EU ETS cap^[21] (Scotland's cap).

Source: National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory^[17] / Scottish Government^[18] / Metadata