Peatland Expert Advisory Group minutes: May 2024

Attendees and apologies

In person

• Ragne Low, Co-chair, Scottish Government 
• Donald Henderson, Co-chair, Scottish Government
• Megan Amundson, Scottish Renewables
• Andy Gillan, RJ McLeod
• Jo Ellis, Forestry and Land Scotland
• Peter Hutchinson, NatureScot
• Emma Hinchcliffe, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Peatland Programme
• Matt Aitkenhead, James Hutton Institute
• Peatland Policy, Scottish Government
• PARD, Scottish Government
• RESAS, Scottish Government
• Renewable Electricity Policy, Scottish Government

Online

• Andy Mills, East Point Geo
• Roxane Anderson, Uni of Highlands & Islands
• Mark Mulqueeny, SSE Renewables
• Emma Taylor, SEPA
• Karen Dobbie, SEPA
• Robbie Kernahan, NatureScot
• Rosie Simpson, John Muir Trust
• Renewable Electricity policy, Scottish Government

Apologies

• PARD, Scottish Government
• Matthew Williams, Chief Scientific Advisor - Natural Resources and Agriculture, Scottish Government
• Morag Watson, Scottish Renewables
• Claire Campbell, SEPA
• Head of Renewable Electricity Policy, Scottish Government
• Simon Brooks, NatureScot

Items and actions

Welcome and introductions

The Scottish Government co-chair, Ragne Low (RL), welcomed attendees joining in person and remotely. Briefly introduced new members to the meeting and passed on apologies of those who could not attend.  
RL ran through the agenda for the meeting.

Minutes of last meeting

Members in attendance were content with the minutes from the last meeting.

Update from task-group on guidance: Terms of Reference, Work Plan and progress to date.

Peter Hutchinson (PH), NatureScot, delivered a brief presentation from the sub group on guidance. 
The Terms of reference set out three outputs, six principles, membership and meetings of the group
•    three outputs, revise the NatureScot guidance, look at the SEPA guidance and look at the peatland standard. Aiming to review the NatureScot guidance by the end of June. 
•    Working to six principles – deliver a win/win (for nature and wind/energy development), provide evidence based examples, align with other guidance, co-produce the guidance, recognising the guidance will evolve, make sure it’s linked with the carbon calculator and the biodiversity metric. 
The work plan and progress have brought out five key issues. 
•    Definitions – there will be consistency when these are confirmed.
•    Examples of positive action – take learning from positive action examples.
•    Scale of offsetting – compensation and enhancement 
•    Scope to attain carbon credits – credits from compensation/offsetting and from enhancement/Habitat Management Plan (HMP) 
•    Wider guidance – a peatland standard 
There was a discussion on waste guidance. Careful consideration needs to be given to the terms used as recycling has legal definition which may have undesired implications. The reuse term may also not be suitable. There needs to be clarity over what is waste and what is productive use of peat. The project should pull together all guidance, legislation, policy, good practice and language to ensure alignment across all relevant parties. Developing a hierarchy of use for peat could be useful.

Peat stability good practice

Andy Mills, East Point Geo, delivered a presentation on peat landslide hazard and risk assessment 
There are two main approaches to assessing peat landslide likelihood – a qualitative landslide susceptibility and a quantitative geomechanical approach.
Areas of risk can be mapped out and site specific mitigation measures suggested. Project development should be overseen by a geotechnical engineer.
There was a discussion on looking at previous peat landslides and trying to help inform peat risks and the previous points of failure. However, it can be difficult to get hold of data.
Good planning from the outset can help but there is often a long time between consent being granted and the project being built. Assessments need to be updated, particularly with the impacts of climate change and changing patterns of rainfall.

Carbon Calculator – relationship to emerging NPF4 planning and climate change guidance.

Planning, Architecture and Regeneration Division, SG, provided a short update on the alignment between the output of the research that’s underway on the Carbon Calculator and ongoing work on producing new planning and climate change guidance to support NPF4 policy.
Desk based research is currently reviewing approaches to whole lifecycle assessment of carbon applicable to all development types, not just onshore wind. Care needs to be taken to ensure that the calculator will not add complexity or duplicate existing or emerging methodology.

Any other business 

Robbie Kernahan suggested that expected timelines may need to be extended due to difficulties in meeting demands of workloads. 

Dates and locations for future meetings

It was suggested that next meeting should be held late September / early October and could be linked with a site visit. Offices outwith the central belt were suggested for next location, with somewhere in north of the country being preferred. 
It was also suggested that it may be useful to meet in July, to discuss the findings of the carbon calculator research.