Scottish Government Improvement Plan – Response to Environmental Standards Scotland Investigation – Climate Change Delivery Improvement Report

Reporting of scope 3 emissions

The GHG Protocol^[6] provides guidance on how to identify relevant scope 3 activities within an organisation, and these should be considered when deciding whether reporting by LAs on all scope 3 categories would add value to their work in driving emission reductions. It is important that bodies draw clear boundaries, using their chosen control approach, to ensure that emissions are reported under the correct scope, and to avoid double counting.

During our consideration of the recommendation, and through consultation with LAs and relevant experts, scope 3 emission categories were grouped together to determine which categories:

1) Were practical and feasible for LAs to report on;

2) Required collaboration and work to develop data collection methodologies; or

3) Were likely to not apply to LAs at this time, but require further research.

The grouping of categories allowed us to focus on mandating those which some LAs were already reporting on using existing methodologies, sift out those which were less likely to be applicable to LAs, with the remaining categories being the subject of further consideration by a new collaborative focus group.

Consideration was also given as to the how reporting of each category could have a positive impact on progress towards objectives and action to reduce emissions. Re-directing resources towards additional reporting needs to be balanced against the benefits of the additional reporting. However, it should also be noted that reporting of smaller emitting activities can show a large combined contribution to an LA’s total GHG emissions.