Key Scottish Environment Statistics 2014

Global Atmosphere - Footnotes

1) The 1961-1990 averages used in this publication are calculated from 5 km grid squares and differ from the averages published by the Met Office which are based upon 1 km grid squares. The averages used are temperature: 7.03°C and precipitation: 1,390.57 mm. Although 1971-2000 and 1981-2010 averages are available, 1961-1990 averages are used for comparability with UK Climate Projections 2009 (see 5).

2) Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Working Group 1 (WG1) Report, September 2013.

3) For more information of Scottish climate trends over the last century, see: An online handbook of climate trends across Scotland - available on Scotland's Environment Web at www.environment.scotland.gov.uk/

4) UK Climate Projections 2009. The projected changes, based on the 1961-1990 averages, use the medium emissions scenario climate model, and are for the 2080s, i.e. a 2071-2100 average. The Scottish regions are North, West and East Scotland, based on Met Office climate regions. For each estimate, the smallest 10% probability level and the largest 90% probability level as well as the most likely estimate are given, to show the spread of possible outcomes.

5) December - February.

6) June - August.

7) Winter and summer precipitation figures are available on Scottish Environment Statistics Online.

8) Emissions of each GHG are weighted by the global warming potential (GWP) of the gas. GWP accounts for the potency of the gas as a contributor to atmospheric warming. Therefore, while sulphur hexafluoride is released in small quantities, those emissions are adjusted to better reflect the strong warming effect it has. GWPs of all gases are expressed as tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent to permit ready comparison. To convert emission values from carbon dioxide equivalent to carbon, they should be multiplied by ¹²/₄₄.

9) IPCC Fifth Assessment Report 2013.

10) The sectors presented are primarily based on National Communication (NC) categories. The NC categories are agreed groupings of more detailed sectors reported to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

11) Here the NC categories Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) and Agriculture have been combined and split out into three groups. 'Agriculture and related land use' includes all emissions in the NC category Agriculture together with those LULUCF emissions associated with agricultural practices. The remaining LULUCF emissions are grouped into 'Forestry' (changes in emissions resulting from afforestation, deforestation and harvested wood products) and 'Development' (changes in emissions resulting from land use change to settlements). Estimates of emissions and removals from LULUCF are particularly uncertain since they depend critically on assumptions made on the rates of loss or gain of carbon associated with soils and forestry. In Scotland, the effect of activities recorded in Forestry taken as a whole is to act as a sink, absorbing quantities of carbon in excess of the quantity of GHGs the activities generate.

12) Emissions from offshore oil and gas installations are not included in the Scottish inventory, and are reported as "unallocated" within the disaggregated UK inventory.

13) DECC Energy Trends (2013). Electricity generation and supply figures for Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England, 2009 to 2012.

14) Scottish Government (2013). Energy in Scotland Compendium 2013.

15) The Base Year for reporting against Climate Change Targets is: 1990 for carbon dioxide carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄), and nitrous oxide (N₂O); and 1995 for Fluorinated gases (F gases): hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs) and sulphur hexafluoride (SF₆).

16) Launched in 2005, the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) is an EU policy aimed at mitigating climate change by limiting greenhouse gas emissions from industry sectors and aviation. Participants include more than 11,000 heavy energy-using installations in power generation, the manufacturing industry and airlines across 31 countries in the European Economic Area (EEA).

The EU ETS is a 'cap and trade' system. A limit (cap) is placed on the overall volume of emissions from participants in the system. Within the cap, organisations receive or buy emissions allowances which they can trade (1 emissions allowance equals 1 tCO2e). Each year, an organisation must surrender enough allowances to cover its emissions. The cap is reduced each year so that by 2020, the volume of emissions permitted within the system will be 21% lower than in 2005. The reducing cap alongside the financial considerations of trading emissions allowances, incentivises organisations within the system to find the most cost effective way of reducing their emissions.

The EU ETS contributes to delivering Scotland's Climate Change Targets through incentivising the reduction in emissions from Scottish organisations participating in the system. In 2012, there were 86 Scottish installations that surrendered emissions allowances in the EU ETS.

17) Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009

18) Climate Change (Annual Targets) (Scotland) Order 2010 (2010-2022)

19) Climate Change (Annual Targets) (Scotland) Order 2011 (2023-2027)

20) Further details of this cap are given in Scottish Greenhouse Gas Emissions 2012. In Phase I of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (2005-2007), Scotland's emissions were also increased to take account of Scotland's share of EU ETS units sold by the UK Government.

21) Scottish Government (2014). Sustainability Purpose Target.

22) Scottish Government (2010). Low Carbon Scotland: A Behaviours Framework.

23) Stratospheric ozone should not be confused with tropospheric (ground level) ozone.

24) World Meteorological Organisation (2013). Antarctic Ozone Bulletin No. 6/2013.

25) United Nations Environment Programme. Montreal Protocol.