Scotland's Environment and Economy Leaders' Group - Tackling the climate emergency and sharing our stories

3. Achieving our targets

In order to tackle the climate crisis, we must do everything possible to minimise the emissions associated with our activities and maximise the positive contribution we can make. Setting ambitious targets consistent with the Paris Agreement's aim to limit the rise of global temperature to well below 2° Celsius helps to drive action in our own organisations as well as sending strong signals to those around us.

In order for Scotland to achieve its net zero target, the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) has advised that most sectors will need to reduce emissions to close to zero without offsetting (see definition in text box). This means that most public bodies should be aiming to achieve zero direct emissions.

The CCC also recommended that Scotland ambitiously increase tree planting, the restoration of degraded peatland and develop new, 'green' infrastructure to sequester carbon and increase Scotland's resilience to the impacts of climate change.

The Scottish Government wants the public sector to show ambitious leadership in our plans to tackle climate change - this includes aggressive action to reduce both direct and indirect emissions. It also involves wider leadership from public bodies to align policy making so that we tackle the climate crisis and restore Scotland's nature.

In some instances, organisations may have unavoidable direct emissions from specialist activities and processes. There is also the current reality that taking action to tackle some of the more challenging emissions sources can be prohibitively expensive and not fully understood.

This is why some of our organisations have set interim 'net zero' targets, which involve some form of counterbalancing as a milestone on the path to zero emissions. Where that counterbalancing includes investing in sequestration projects that deliver verifiable emissions benefit it is important that these are associated with activities that are high quality and have maximum impact - for example from Labelled Verified Emissions Reductions Schemes which meet the Gold Standard, Woodland Carbon or Peatland Code.

Where an interim 'net zero' target has been set for now, we will continue to work to understand how we can tackle our whole footprint – in order to set a zero direct emissions target as soon as is possible.

Scottish Water targets net zero by 2040 for the operational emissions from delivering services, and those embodied in capital investment, a net reduction of 400,000 tonnes CO2e each year.

Equivalent of planting 1.6 million trees.

Definitions

• "Net zero" means that greenhouse gases emitted into the earth's atmosphere by human activities are being fully counter-balanced by an equivalent amount of gases being removed from the atmosphere. The United Nations Paris Agreement of 2015 aims to limit global warming, preferably to 1.5° Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels. To achieve this requires a climate neutral world by mid-century.
• "Zero emissions" or "absolute zero emissions" means no greenhouse gas emissions at all. The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) has advised that in order for the UK to achieve net zero emissions, most sectors will need to reduce emissions to close to zero without offsetting (see below).
• "Direct emissions" are from sources owned or controlled by the public body and for which that public body is responsible, principally the combustion of fuel on the public body's premises and in its owned vehicles and process emissions. These are "Scope 1 emissions" under the international Greenhouse Gas Protocol for measuring emissions.
• "Indirect emissions" are from purchased electricity or heat and all other indirect emissions in the organisation's value chain (e.g. procurement, business travel, staff commuting, water and waste). These are "Scope 2 and 3 emissions" under the Protocol.
• "Offsetting" is where, as an alternative to cutting emissions, organisations invest in sequestration projects that deliver verifiable emissions benefit - projects that avoid or reduce emissions, and so achieve a net reduction.