Scottish Climate Change Bill published

On 5 December 2008, the Scottish Government published the draft Climate Change (Scotland) Bill. The Scottish Government proposals aim for an 80% reduction in Scotland’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050 and include an interim target of a 50% reduction by 2030 (compared to 1990 levels for carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane and 1995 levels for hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulphur hexafluoride).

This latest development will be of interest to stakeholders and investors in the renewable energy and clean tech industries, as well as Scottish companies that will be affected by the proposed emission reductions in GHGs.

Key Points

The Bill has a number of significant features. In particular, it:

• sets targets for a 50% reduction in GHG emissions by 2030 and an 80% reduction by 2050
• provides for the establishment of a Scottish Committee on Climate Change or designation of an existing body to exercise advisory functions
• places duties on Scottish Ministers to report regularly to the Scottish Parliament on Scotland’s emissions and on the progress being made towards the emissions reduction targets
• contains powers to impose duties on public bodies in relation to climate change
• includes six of the main GHGs, not only carbon dioxide
• covers aviation and shipping emissions
• encourages the energy efficiency of buildings in Scotland;
• promotes waste reduction and recycling by different methods

Comparison with the UK Climate Change Act

The publication of the draft Climate Change (Scotland) Bill follows the recent approval of the UK Climate Change Bill by the UK House of Commons on 28 October 2008. The Scottish Bill differs from the UK Climate Change Act in various respects, including:

• Although both the UK Act and the Scottish Bill provide for an 80% reduction target in GHG emissions by 2050, the interim targets differ. The interim target in the Scottish Bill is a 50% reduction in GHG emissions by 2030 and the interim target in the UK Climate Change Act is a 26% reduction in GHG emissions by 2020
• Unlike the UK Climate Change Act, the Scottish Bill includes emissions from international aviation and shipping that are attributable to Scotland in the targets from the outset. The UK Government has included domestic aviation and shipping in the targets but not emissions from international aviation and shipping. The UK Government has specified that regulations must be made in this respect before the end of 2012 setting out circumstances in which international emissions should be included
• The UK Climate Change Act will place responsibilities on large and medium sized companies to disclose their carbon emissions from 2012. The Scottish Bill does not outline any equivalent responsibilities for Scottish companies
• There are no concrete annual targets in the Scottish Bill for emissions cuts from 2009 to 2020. For that period, the Bill only lays out plans for a reduction in emissions each year. Only from 2020 is it specified that the target reduction must be at least 3% each year. The UK Climate Change Act outlines that five-year budgets must be published by the Secretary of State setting out how the longer term targets will be met. They will set upper limits on the level of emissions that can be produced over each five-year period. The first three of these limits (up to 2022) must be published before June 2009

The Scottish Bill is currently being considered at Stage 1, and has been referred to the Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change Committee as lead committee, and to the Rural Affairs and Environment Committee as secondary committee.

Both the Scottish and UK regimes provide for more ambitious targets than those recently announced by the European Council. On 15 December 2008, the target for the EU was announced to be a 20% reduction of the EU’s GHG emissions by 2020.

To read our previous law-now on the UK Climate Change Bill, please click here.

To read our previous law-now on the Climate Change Committee’s first report, please click here.