Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) of the Scottish Climate Change Bill: Consultation Proposals: Environmental Report

4 Assessment of Environmental Effects and Consideration of Alternatives

4.1 Section 14(2) of the Environmental Assessment (Scotland) Act 2005 requires that the Environmental Report shall identify, describe and evaluate the likely significant effects on the environment of implementing a plan and any reasonable alternatives, taking into account the objectives and the geographical scope of the plan or programme.

4.2 With respect to the consideration of alternatives, 3 options have been identified and considered:

1. Status Quo- consideration of this option assumes that muirburn dates remain fixed, and that muirburn practice is restricted accordingly.

2. Stop Muirburn - consideration of this option assumes that the practice of muirburn is stopped altogether, as a means of removing associated emissions, as a direct translation of the need to remove/ prevent carbon and greenhouse gas emissions as widely as possible.

3. Added Flexibility - consideration of this option assumes that muirburn practice is allowed to continue as a traditional land management and proactive upland wildfire preventative measure, with added flexibility over when muirburn can be carried out, in response to changing weather and climate conditions.

4.3 Each option has been reviewed against the SEA topics and the discussion is informed by the baseline details provided earlier. A basic scoring system was applied to help demonstrate which option(s) are likely to be the most environmentally sustainable, over the range of SEA topics considered, as follows:

+2 Option is likely to significantly minimise risk of GHG emissions/ wildfires/ adverse environmental impacts

+1 Option minimises risks of GHG emissions/ wildfires/ adverse environmental impacts

0 No clear impact identified/ No significant change from business as usual

-1 Option increases risk of GHG emissions/ adverse environmental impacts

-2 Option is likely to significantly increase risk of GHG emissions/ wildfires

This scoring provides a maximum possible of +16 and minimum possible score of -16.

4.4 The assessments in Table 4.1 below suggest that the most sustainable option is Option 3 - Added Flexibility, with Option 1 - Status Quo ranked 2nd and Option 2 - Stop Muirburn demonstrating the least sustainable scores.

4.5 Table 4.2 outlines a summary assessment of potential environmental effects and, in the absence of quantified data, these predictive assessments have been informed by expert judgement.

Table 4.1 Consideration of Alternatives

This assessment suggests that the most sustainable options should be ranked (based on the total scores applied in Table 4.1) as:

1. Option 3 - Added Flexibility (+6)

2. Option 1 - Status Quo (-6)

3. Option 2 - Stop Muirburn (-9)

Table 4.2 Summary Assessment of Environmental Effects

Key to Assessment: