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Publication - Strategy/plan

Scotland's Climate Assembly - recommendations for action: SG response

Published
16 December 2021
Directorate
Energy and Climate Change Directorate, +7 more … Agriculture and Rural Economy Directorate, Children and Families Directorate, Constitution Directorate, Environment and Forestry Directorate, Learning Directorate, Marine Directorate, Tax Directorate
Topic
Building, planning and design, Business, industry and innovation, Children and families, +13 more … Communities and third sector, Constitution and democracy, Economy, Education, Energy, Environment and climate change, Farming and rural, Housing, Marine and fisheries, Money and tax, Public sector, Transport, Work and skills
ISBN
9781802018486

Scotland's Climate Assembly published their full report on 23 June 2021. It included 81 recommendations for the Scottish Government, who had six months to respond. This response sets out the existing and proposed actions that government will take in order to address their recommendations.

View supporting documents Supporting documents

Section 3: Next Steps

This response describes the actions that the Scottish Government is taking as a result of the ambitious recommendations made by Scotland’s Climate Assembly. What is more difficult to quantify is the profound impact the Assembly has had within Government. The Assembly has given us a mandate to act in some of the most challenging areas, and has opened the door for new conversations now taking place across Government. This will have a fundamental, enduring impact on future policy development.

Our response to the Assembly’s recommendations is also reflected in Scottish Government policy that has been evolving over the past six months, since the publication of the full report:

  • The refining of Government’s policy positions ahead of COP26
  • The Bute House Agreement between the Scottish Government and the Scottish Green Party Parliamentary Group
  • The new Heat in Buildings Strategy
  • The development of a new Economic Strategy

The Assembly has called for action at all levels of society and considered these levels when making their recommendations - society, public policy, organisations, households, individuals. We agree that Government alone cannot achieve a just transition to net zero. Where Scottish Government action is not possible due to a lack of necessary powers, we will contact our counterparts in the UK Government directly to raise the Assembly’s recommendations and request their response.

We will work with Children's Parliament to ensure that children are able to access and engage with the response. We will also continue to develop opportunities for the ongoing participation of children and young people, including in our Just Transition Plans.

This formal Scottish Government response is not the end of this Assembly process. The Assembly itself will meet again for an eighth and final weekend in early 2022, to consider this response. During this meeting, the Scottish Government will make a representative available to discuss this response with Assembly members.

Where we have committed to taking action in the future, we will provide updates to Assembly members to ensure we remain accountable for the steps we have set out in this response.

This is our commitment to doing politics differently.

Contact

Email: ClimateChangeEngagement@gov.scot

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