Scottish greenhouse gas emissions annual target report: 2016

Introduction

The Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009^[1] (“the Act”) set targets to reduce Scotland's greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent below the baseline period^[2] in 2050, with an interim target to reduce emissions by at least 42 per cent by 2020.

The Act also requires Scottish Ministers to set, by order, annual targets for Scotland’s greenhouse gas emissions, consistent with achieving the long-term (2050 and interim 2020) targets, at least 12 years in advance. In October 2010 the Scottish Parliament passed legislation introducing the first batch of annual targets, for the years 2010 to 2022^[3]. The second batch, for 2023-2027, was set in October 2011^[4]. The third batch, for 2028-2032, was set in October 2016^[5]. Future batches are required to be set at 5-year intervals.

Reports on annual targets

Section 33 of the Act requires that Scottish Ministers lay before the Scottish Parliament a report in respect of each year in the period 2010-2050 for which an annual target has been set – a “target year”. Reports must be laid before the Parliament no later than 31 October in the second year after the target year.

The report must state:

• Whether the annual target for the target year has been met. If the annual target has not been met, the report must explain why.

• Whether the domestic effort target has been met in the target year to which the report relates. If the domestic effort target has not been met, the report must explain why.
• The report must contain information mentioned in section 34 of the Act, including the amount of net Scottish emissions and the net Scottish emissions account (NSEA).

Content

This report relates to the 2016 target year.

Further Information

The latest greenhouse gas emissions data for Scotland are available in the Official Statistics publication Scottish Greenhouse Gas Emissions, 2016^[6], which is based on data published at the same time in Greenhouse Gas Inventories for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland: 1990-2016^[7].