National Marine Plan 2: planning position statement

Ministerial Foreword

Planning Position Statement

With over 18,700 km of coastline and a marine area seven times greater than our landmass, our seas are precious - providing the basis for our marine economy, supporting the wellbeing of communities across Scotland, for our precious marine species and ecosystems, and delivering action on climate change.

Scotland’s marine economy provides an important source of income and employment across Scotland, particularly in rural and island communities, generating £4.5 billion in gross value added, and employing 69,800 people in 2021^[1].

Scotland’s seas, like other nations’, face growing pressures from the twin crises of climate change and nature loss. Without halting and reversing this marine environmental decline, we risk our ability to harness economic and social benefits from our marine resources now and in the future. There is growing evidence of the impact of climate change on the marine environment, including on the ocean’s ability to adapt to climate change.

In September we published our 2024/25 Programme for Government, setting out our four main priorities for this parliamentary term, which included ‘growing our economy’ and ‘tackling the climate emergency’. Encouraging economic growth across both developing and existing marine sectors is a key priority. A new planning framework must help facilitate this, alongside the essential action required to tackling the climate and nature emergency.

A just transition to a net zero society by 2045 will require transformation in the use of our seas; including decarbonisation across marine sectors and their supply chains, and an energy transition delivered through carbon capture and storage, hydrogen production and storage, and realising the opportunities from offshore renewables including ScotWind. Scotland will play a role a vital role in driving ongoing change in the energy mix across the UK and supporting our transition to net zero.

In 2022 work began to create an updated national marine plan to better reflect how the sea is currently being used, and to plan for its continued and sustainable future use. Marine planning is a powerful tool for managing multiple use of our seas by bringing together different interests so that decisions about what goes where in our seas can continue to benefit future generations and protect our iconic marine industries who have served Scotland’s economy and people for many decades. Marine planning seeks to balance the needs of people and our environment through informed and evidence based decision-making.

As the intensity and range of human activities continues to increase in response to demand for marine products, energy and transport, managing co-existence in the same shared marine space requires a new approach. Effectively managing how we use our marine space is not only crucial in our transition to net zero but will also help our delivery of national and international biodiversity commitments.

This means taking difficult decisions on the use of our marine space, guided by the need to address the twin crises of climate change and nature loss to foster sustainable growth in the marine economy. In this way, marine planning provides a strong platform for sustainable development of existing and emerging marine sectors. NMP2 will provide a clear direction for the sustainable development of our marine space and create a new planning framework to support future licensing and consenting decisions.

This Planning Position Statement (PPS) is the culmination of our work to date on the development of Scotland’s National Marine Plan 2 (NMP2) and consolidates stakeholder feedback, setting out the latest development of high-level objectives and policy ideas for NMP2, in line with legal requirements and commitments related to Scotland’s seas.

Widespread stakeholder participation has been and will continue to be essential to successfully deliver our ambitious commitments to reach net zero and restore biodiversity, whilst delivering a just transition so that our communities and society can keep enjoying the many benefits we get from our incredible marine environment. By inviting many voices around the table, we can work in partnership to create a national marine plan that works for and with the people of Scotland.