Chamber and committees

<>The Scottish Government is aware of a recent pilot study by AgriMarine in Canada and will continue to monitor developments with interest. Marine closed containment does not come without its challenges as shown in recent press relating to this study, which can be found at http://www.fishfarmingxpert.com/index.php?page_id=76&article_id=94657.

The technology is still in the experimental phase and will need to be proven to be both practical and economically viable if it is to be adopted widely by industry.

This issue was included as part of the recent consultation on an Aquaculture and Fisheries Bill. The 1,400 responses received are now being analysed and we will bring forward proposals for a bill in due course.

The second report on proposals and policies (RPP2) was a substantive agenda item at Emissions Reduction Programme Board meetings in January and March 2012. In addition, RPP2 development was the focus of a special session for members of the Emissions Reduction Programme Board in February 2012.

There has been ongoing development of RPP2 following these meetings. Notes of these meetings will be published on the Scottish Government website in due course.

Emissions reduction measures typically require further consultation and development in partnership with stakeholders before implementation will be possible. It is often only at this stage that precise delivery responsibilities can be resolved.

The financial costs of the measures that will be set out in the second report on proposals and policies for meeting the statutory emissions targets will fall across government, business and consumers. In light of the fact that the report will focus on the period 2023 to 2027, it is probable that many of the measures will contain flexibility regarding precisely how they might be delivered and by whom. Because of this, it will not always be possible to give the precise distribution of costs until decisions are taken on specific approaches to delivery in every case.

The Scottish Government will continue to work to ensure that, in so far as is reasonably practicable, information about the funding of measures intended to help the achievement of greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets is available to assist scrutiny of the second report on proposals and policies and future draft budgets.

The preparation of the second report on proposals and policies to meet statutory emissions reduction targets is being overseen by the Scottish Government’s Emissions Reduction Programme Board. This board, chaired by the Director General for Enterprise, Environment and Digital, comprises senior civil servants with responsibility for policies affecting greenhouse gas emissions from key sectors across the Scottish economy. The members of the board are responsible for ensuring that their teams of officials and analysts consider all reasonable options for achieving potential emissions reductions and, in so doing, contribute towards the Scottish Government’s strategic priority of facilitating the transition to a low carbon economy.

Work on the second report on proposals and policies builds on that already carried out for the first report and advice received from the independent Committee on Climate Change, it also draws on relevant research, analysis and experience of how emissions reduction measures have worked in practice.

The independent Committee on Climate Change noted in its first Scottish progress report (published 31 January 2012) that good progress has been made in Scotland, highlighting investment in renewables, the outperformance of the Government’s targets on renewable heat, moves to improve the efficiency of buildings and electric vehicle markets, smarter choices programmes and cycling programmes.

The Scottish Government is determined to continue this progress. Despite real terms cuts imposed by the UK Government to the Scottish Government’s budget of 8.3% Resource and 32.9% Capital between 2010-11 and 2014-15, the Scottish Spending Review 2011 set out plans for more than £700 million to help to deliver emissions cuts, with around £1 billion of support each year for public transport and other sustainable travel options.

The Scottish Spending Review 2011 is available. Copies have also been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 53222).

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2011/10/04153155/0.

The answer to S4W-06582 on 24 April 2012 contains details about the emissions mitigation measures that the Scottish Government has brought forward since the publication of the first climate change report on proposals and policies in March 2011.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

The second report on proposals and policies made under section 35(1) of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 will focus on ways in which the second batch of annual emissions reduction targets, for 2023-27, can be met.

As required by section 35(11) of the act, the second report will also contain an assessment of the progress towards implementing the proposals and policies set out in the first report, which focussed on 2010-22. Ministers may make adjustments to those measures if they consider it appropriate to do so.

Many of the additional measures that have been brought forward to tackle greenhouse gas emissions since publication in March 2011 of the first report on proposals and policies have been developed and implemented across several directorates of the Scottish Government. The following list is therefore broken down by delivery sector.

District heating

The Scottish Government has established an expert commission on district heating to promote the benefits and break down barriers to its deployment through potentially transformational recommendations.

We piloted a district heating loan scheme last year to provide low interest loans for both low carbon and renewable technologies to help organisations implement district heating projects to benefit local communities. To date, around £1.9 million has been allocated to projects from this fund and at least a further £5 million has been allocated to allow the district heating loan scheme to continue. We are also making provision for funding district heating within the proposed £103 million Renewable Energy Investment Fund and through the new £50 million Warm Homes Fund in order to ensure that this important sector gets the fundamental support it needs to take off.

In October 2011, we published the results of the study into the recovery of heat from power generation in Scotland. The study highlights the main challenges to heat recovery are economic, and that there is no easy solution to make commercial investment attractive. However, there are a number of recommendations which highlight areas to investigate further which will help to remove some of these barriers. We will be considering these recommendations carefully, including through the work of the Expert Commission on district heating and the Sustainable Heat Project we are undertaking with DECC and Ofgem, in order to develop our policies further and make a major move to district heating in Scotland.

The study into the recovery of heat from power generation in Scotland is available online at the following address:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2011/11/04102846/0.

Renewable Heat

We have opted for Scotland to be part of the Great Britain-wide Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI), which provides support from Central Government funding and is the main mechanism to encourage investment in renewable heat across the sector. The RHI is being introduced in phases and dialogue with the UK Government’s Department of Energy and Climate Change will continue at ministerial and government official level until all phases of the scheme are fully implemented, expected to be in 2013, to ensure net benefit to Scotland.

We updated the Renewable Heat Action Plan in December 2011. The action plan includes new actions and details on how we will continue to make progress towards our renewable heat target. In addition to renewable heat, we have ensured the plan considers the complementary role of utilising low carbon or “waste” heat from traditional fossil fuel power stations, as this can lead to greater opportunities to implement renewable heat technologies in the future.

The updated Renewable Heat Action Plan is available online at the following address:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Business-Industry/Energy/Energy-sources/19185/Heat/RHUpdate11.

In 2011, we funded a heat mapping pilot in The Highland Council area to develop a template for heat maps that could be implemented by all local authorities across Scotland. As the pilot is rolled out, it will create a high resolution Scotland-wide heat map to allow strategic planning for investment in heating, particularly district heating. We have now also funded Fife and Perth and Kinross Councils to undertake heat mapping using the same methodology as that used for The Highland Council. We will continue to work closely with all three local authorities to ensure positive outcomes from the exercise can be established as exemplars to other councils.

Homes and Communities:

We are continuing to implement the fuel poverty and energy efficiency programmes set out in the first climate change report on proposals and policies. Our successful area-based home insulation schemes have now offered energy advice and free or very low cost insulation measures to over three-quarters of a million households in Scotland.

A new £5 million loan scheme is being established to extend the gas grid to communities within a reasonable distance of the mains gas grid enabling them to cut emissions and reduce heating costs.

A £10 million Greener Homes Innovation Fund has been announced to incentivise development of innovative, low-carbon new homes.

A solid wall insulation pilot in Orkney and Fife was launched in autumn 2011 to assess demand for these measures, with interest-free loans of up to £15,000 available to householders.

The Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure and Capital Investment is leading a high-level stakeholder group from the housing, energy, fuel poverty and environmental sectors to develop a Strategy for Sustainable Housing in Scotland that will set out our vision to 2030 for warm, low carbon, high quality homes.

A review of Fuel Poverty Strategy is under way and we are developing new approaches for the second climate change report on proposals and policies that will build on the success of current programmes and maximise funding from new UK Government policies on ECO and Green Deal.

Business and the Public Sector

The Scottish Government conducted a public consultation between October 2011 and January 2012 on proposals concerning assessment and improvement of the energy performance of non-domestic buildings. The consultation report was published in April 2012 and is available online at the following address:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Built-Environment/Building/Building-standards/publications/pubconsult/consults63.

In support of the duties placed on public bodies by section 44 of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009, guidance was published in January 2012 to assist public bodies undertaking regular reporting of their action on sustainability and climate change by introducing a relatively simple, standardised reporting format, and identifying the underlying principles to be adopted in preparing reports. This additional guidance is available online at the following address:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2012/01/05153413/0.

Transport

Since March 2011, we have invested £4.2 million in low carbon vehicles and infrastructure for the public sector in Scotland and £1.8 million in the Scottish Green Bus Fund. In 2012-13 we will invest over £1 billion on public transport and other sustainable travel options to encourage more drivers out of their cars.

We are investing in E-cosse, a new collaboration between Government, industry and other key stakeholders to advance wholesale adoption of electric vehicles in Scotland and maximise their economic, environmental and social benefits. Our funding is helping the purchase of 265 public sector low carbon vehicles, the installation of some 315 charging points and 48 new hybrid buses are showing substantial fuel savings and reductions in emissions. In addition, around 3,000 drivers, including 1,000 high-mileage drivers, have benefited from subsidised fuel efficiency training, 10 car clubs have received support and 18 loans totalling £360,000 were provided to applicants to the Energy Saving Trust's Low Carbon Transport Loan Fund for workplace travel plan measures such as cycle storage and video-conferencing technology. Since March 2011, there has been ongoing investment in cycling infrastructure and promotion through grants to Sustrans, Cycling Scotland and also the Cycling, Walking and Safer Streets ring-fenced funding to local authorities. This has contributed to an increase in the number of trips on the National Cycle Network to 40 million, and the proportion of children receiving on-road cycle training increasing to 31.5%. We will review the Cycling Action Plan for Scotland in the light of the first year report delivery report to be published in summer 2012.

We are also engaging with key public and private sectors stakeholders - for example, the Public Sector Climate Action Group and the 2020 Climate Group - to help ensure they make the transition to low carbon transport.

Rural land use

The targeted communication strategy, Farming for a Better Climate (FFBC) encourages farmers to adopt efficiency measures that reduce emissions while having a positive impact on business performance. FFBC was launched in 2009 but, since the first report on proposals and policies was published in March 2011, even greater emphasis has been given to working jointly with delivery bodies and stakeholders to further integrate FFBC into farm advisory services.

Industry-led initiatives highlight the commitment of the farming sector to contribute to Scotland’s emission reduction targets. An example is the project Future Proofing Scotland’s Farming which aims to prepare agricultural businesses for climate and economic change and promotes practical measures to cut on-farm emissions. It is delivered by Soil Association Scotland in partnership with Quality Meat Scotland (QMS), with support from the National Farmers Union of Scotland and SAOS Ltd. The programme was awarded three-year funding from summer 2011 through the Scottish Government (£150,000) and Scottish Rural Development Plan (SRDP) with an industry contribution from QMS.

Waste

The Scottish Government, as part of the Zero Waste Plan, is in the process of introducing national carbon based waste targets that will focus efforts on waste prevention, re-use and recycling. The targets will utilise a range of weightings which will be used to prioritise those materials with the greatest emissions benefit.

The Scottish Government has also just laid Waste Regulations before the Scottish Parliament. The regulations include: requirements on businesses regarding the separate collection of dry recyclables and food waste (starting 2013); a ban on landfilling and incinerating source segregated recyclables material (2013); the mandatory removal of recyclable plastics and metal prior to landfilling and incineration (2015), and a ban organic material going to landfill (2020). These regulations will significantly reduce emissions from landfill sites and primary resource extraction and transportation.

The draft Waste (Scotland) Regulations 2012 are available online at the following address: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/sdsi/2012/9780111016657/contents.

The preparation of the second report on proposals and policies to meet statutory emissions reduction targets is overseen by the Scottish Government’s Emissions Reduction Programme Board chaired by the Director-General Enterprise, Environment and Digital. Membership comprises directors from the key areas within the Scottish Government involved with delivering emissions reductions:

Director for Energy

Director for Environment and Forestry

Director for Housing, Regeneration and Commonwealth Games

Director for Business

Director for Agriculture, Food and Rural Payments

Chief Executive Transport Scotland.

Co-ordination of the work on the second report is carried out on a day to day basis by a team of four staff within the Scottish Government’s Directorate for Energy and Climate Change. In addition, policy and analytical staff from across the Scottish Government are contributing, as part of their wider responsibilities, to the development of content with regard to specific areas of emissions reduction.

The Scottish Spending Review 2011 detailed significant government funding for measures that will make a direct contribution to reducing emissions, including:

Over £300 million spend on energy over the next three years, including over
£200 million on renewables.

An overall budget of £328 million for Supporting Sustainability, including investment of more than £200 million via the Scottish Government’s fuel poverty and domestic energy efficiency programmes. This will further leverage investment from energy companies to fulfil their legal obligations.

Reducing the impact of transport with further targeted improvements totalling nearly £100 million.

Using the Scottish Futures Fund to provide support for emissions reduction measures with £50 million for Warmer Homes over the course of this Parliament

Expanding Scotland’s woodland – building to a planting rate of 10,000 hectares per year, with a budget of over £48 million for this purpose, supplemented by European funding.

Investing over £70 million in our Zero Waste Scotland programme to help Scottish families and businesses unlock savings and reduce their emissions by cutting waste.

We will seek to secure additional money for climate change purposes whenever there are opportunities to do so, such as the additional £13 million for sustainable transport from the budget consequentials announced on 8 February 2012.

Funding for measures that will reduce Scotland’s greenhouse gas emissions will come from all sectors. This is not just about central government money but also action throughout the wider public sector, investment from the private sector and steps taken by households and individuals.

The Scottish Spending Review 2011 is available online. Copies have also been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 53222).

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2011/10/04153155/0.