Appendix A - Relevant national policies, plans and strategies relating to climate change

A National Mission with Local Impact: Infrastructure Investment Plan for Scotland 2021-22 to 2025-26

Sets out the delivery plan and spending priorities for the Scottish Government’s National Infrastructure Mission commitment to increase annual investment in infrastructure, boosting inclusive economic growth. The vision of the plan is that ‘our infrastructure supports Scotland’s resilience and enables inclusive, net zero, and sustainable growth’.

Core themes of the plan include:

• Enabling transition to net zero emissions and environmental sustainability.
• Building resilient and sustainable places.

Investment priorities highlighted in the plan include various measures to:

• Support the decarbonisation of transport and increase in active travel.
• Improve natural capital (new forestry planting and investment in supporting the reuse of vacant and derelict land).
• Boost resilience and adaptation, including £60M for climate adaptation and resilience measures on the trunk road network, and an additional £150M for flood risk management.

Climate Change Plan Third Report on Proposals and Policies 2018-2032 and Update to the Climate Change Plan 2018-2032 (Securing a Green Recovery on a Path to Net Zero)

These plans provide the policy framework and sectoral pathways for meeting the statutory commitments of the Climate Change Acts in respect of the transition to net zero. The 2020 update was published to reflect the new targets set out in the 2019 Act, and also takes into account the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The vision for 2045 is a society that prioritises the environment and wellbeing of its people, reaching net zero in a way that is fair and just to all.

Outcomes for 2032 in relation to transport are:

• Scotland’s electricity system, already largely decarbonised, will be increasingly important as a power source for heat and transport.
• Scotland will have phased out the need to buy petrol and diesel engine cars and vans, implemented LEZ in the largest cities and made significant progress in reducing emissions from buses, HGVs and ferries.

The plans state that the land use sector will increasingly act as a net carbon sink; Scotland will have restored 250,000 ha of degraded peatland by 2030, and Scotland’s woodlands will be delivering a greater level of ecosystem services, such as natural flood management and biodiversity enhancement.

Policy objectives include enhancing the electric vehicle charging network, reducing car kilometres by 20% by 2030, and decarbonisation of rail services by 2035.

Climate Ready Scotland: Climate Change Adaptation Programme 2019-2024

This sets out the Scottish Government’s five-year programme for climate change adaptation. It refers to cross cutting policies and programmes which support the following outcomes:

• Communities are inclusive, empowered, resilient and safe in response to the changing climate.
• The people in Scotland who are most vulnerable to climate change are able to adapt, and climate justice is embedded in climate change adaptation policy.
• Scotland’s inclusive and sustainable economy is flexible, adaptable and responsive to the changing climate.
• Scotland’s society’s supporting systems are resilient to climate change.
• Scotland’s natural environment is valued, enjoyed, protected and enhanced and has increased resilience to climate change.
• Scotland’s coastal and marine environment is valued, enjoyed, protected and enhanced and has increased resilience to climate change.
• Scotland’s international networks are adaptable to climate change.

The Climate Change Committee (CCC) undertook an independent assessment of progress against the goals outlined in the Scottish Government’ five-year programme for climate change adaptation (Climate Change Committee, 2022). The report concluded that although Scotland’s vision is welcomed, more measures are required to translate ambition into actions that are correspondent with the scale of the challenge. CCC recommended actions include the setting of clear, time-bound quantitative targets with Government ownership; improvement of monitoring and evaluation of climate-related risks; and development of the adaptation response to be delivered fairly across society.

Just Transition Commission

The Scottish Government set out its commitment that ending the contribution to climate change should be in a way that is fair and leaves no-one behind.

An independent Just Transition Commission reported to the Scottish Government in March 2021, providing a series of recommendations to deliver on this commitment. This included that Scottish Government, local authorities and developers must ‘commit to creating communities that embed low carbon lifestyles, while improving our health and wellbeing’.

Scottish Government policies which are intended to support a just transition include improvements for priority bus infrastructure and improving connectivity for people in lower socio-economic groups.

In 2023, the Scottish Government published a draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan, which reaffirmed the commitment to reduce car kilometre by 20%.

Evidence for the third UK Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA3) – Summary for Scotland

The UK Government is required by the Climate Change Act (2008) to conduct a UK Climate Change Risk Assessment every five years to inform the UK National Adaptation Plans for England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.

The third assessment (CCRA3) reviewed 61 specific risks and opportunities from climate change to Scotland, including business, housing, the natural environment, health, and risks from the impacts of climate change internationally. In summary, risks in Scotland that require more action now to address them include:

• Impacts of climate change on the natural environment, including terrestrial, freshwater, coastal and marine species, forests and agriculture.
• An increase in the range, quantities and consequences of pests, pathogens and invasive species, negatively affecting terrestrial, freshwater and marine priority habitats species, forestry and agriculture.
• The risk of climate change impacts, especially more frequent flooding and coastal erosion, causing damage to our infrastructure services, including energy, transport, water and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT).
• The impact of extreme temperatures, high winds and lightning on the transport network.
• The impact of increasing high temperatures on people’s health and wellbeing and changes in household energy demand due to seasonal temperature changes.
• Increased severity and frequency of flooding of homes, communities and businesses.
• The viability of coastal communities and the impact on coastal businesses due to sea level rise, coastal flooding and erosion.
• Damage to our cultural heritage assets as a result of temperature, precipitation, groundwater and landscape changes.
• Impacts internationally that may affect the UK, such as risks to food availability, safety and security, risks to international law and governance from climate change that will affect the UK, international trade routes, public health and the multiplication of risks across systems and geographies.

National Transport Strategy 2 (NTS2)

NTS2 sets out the vision for Scotland’s transport system for the next 20 years, protecting and improving lives through a sustainable, inclusive and accessible transport system. The strategy advocates a vision for Scotland’s transport system and includes four priorities to support the vision:

1. Reduces inequalities
2. Takes climate action
3. Helps deliver inclusive economic growth
4. Improves health and wellbeing

Policies on climate action include:

• Reduce emissions generated by the transport system to mitigate climate change and improve air quality.
• Support demand management to encourage more sustainable transport choices.
• Facilitate shift to sustainability and providing space – efficient modes of transport for people and goods.
• Improve quality and availability of information to enable all to make more sustainable transport choices.
• Ensure transport system adapts to projected climate impacts.
• Reduce the negative impacts which transport has on the safety, health and wellbeing of people.

NTS2 sets out the Sustainable Travel Hierarchy, and the Sustainable Investment Hierarchy which are to be used to inform investment decisions on transport options and are integral to prioritising investments which support the transition to net zero and considering the whole lifecycle of transport.

Strategic Transport Projects Review 2 (STPR2)

STPR2 will inform the Scottish Government’s transport investment programme in Scotland for the next 20 years. The output from STPR2 will help to deliver the vision, priorities and outcomes for transport set out in the NTS2 and aligns with other national plans such as the Climate Change Plan and the fourth National Planning Framework (NPF4).

A Route Map to achieve a 20% reduction in car kilometres by 2030

This route map supports the commitment in the Climate Change Plan Update for reduction in car km by 20% by 2030. It provides the context for encouraging behaviour change, by reducing the need to travel, living well locally, switching modes, and combining or sharing car trips.

Various interventions are recommended, including adoption of NPF4 (see below), extending superfast broadband across Scotland, embedding the Place Principle and 20-minute neighbourhoods into plans, guidance on mobility hubs for integrating shared modes, and investment in active travels and freeways.

Rail Services Decarbonisation Action Plan

This action plan supports NTS2 and sets out the programme and approach for decarbonisation of rail across Scotland by 2035, which is a commitment as part of the transition to net zero by 2045. With regards Inverness to Aberdeen, the action plan concludes electrification between Aberdeen and Inverurie by 2035, and full electrification of the route by 2030 dependent on the development of innovative approaches.

National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4)

NPF4 is based around three themes: Sustainable, liveable, and productive places. With regards to sustainable places, the ambition is “Our future net zero, nature-positive places will be more resilient to the impacts of climate change and support the recovery of our natural environment”.

NPF4 proposes a number of principles that influence spatial planning at regional and local level. These are:

• compact growth
• local living (promoting 20-minute neighbourhoods)
• balancing development between areas of high demand and decline
• urban and rural synergy
• meeting climate ambitions through just transition across all sectors of economy and society

Proposed policies which are relevant to climate compatibility include:

• Policy 1 (Tackling the climate and nature crises)
• Policy 2 (Climate Mitigation and Adaptation)
• Policy 3 (Biodiversity)
• Policy 4 (Natural Places)
• Policy 6 (Forestry, Woodland and Trees)
• Policy 7 (Historic Assets and Place)
• Policy 10 (Coastal Development)
• Policy 11 (Energy)
• Policy 12 (Zero Waste)
• Policy 13 (Sustainable Transport)
• Policy 15 (Local Living and 20 Minute Neighbourhoods)
• Policy 19 (Heating and Cooling)
• Policy 20 (Blue and green infrastructure)
• Policy 22 (Flood Risk and Water Management)