The Scottish Climate Intelligence Service is supporting an area-wide approach to emissions reduction which considers greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across a geographic area. This recognises the interconnected nature of both the causes of greenhouse gas emissions from human activity and the measures needed to address them. Emissions reduction in an area is not the sole responsibility of any one organisation.  Action needs to be planned across a range of organisations in an area and at scale for maximum impact and effectiveness.

While the Scottish Climate Intelligence Service is working primarily at local authority level to support area-wide programmes for emissions reduction, those programmes will be made up of many projects and actions at different scales within their area. They will also include measures which sit across local authority boundaries.

Achieving net zero for Scotland means that at a national level, any greenhouse gases Scotland is responsible for are balanced out by those we remove from the atmosphere. This can be applied at any scale, for example to towns, cities and regions.

What are area-wide footprints?

Area-wide footprints refer to the GHG emissions that occur within or because of activity within a defined geographic area or territorial boundary. Thus, when we talk about the area-wide emissions of a local authority, we are referring to all the GHG emissions  from all the sources in the local authority area, not just those the local council is directly responsible for. That means all the homes, all the businesses and all the services in an area need to be involved in delivering climate action.

An area-wide emissions dataset breaks down emissions by different sources within the defined geographic area. The Global Protocol on Community-Scale Emission Inventories is the key methodology for producing area-wide footprints. It uses the same terminology of scopes as the GHG Protocol for corporate reporting, but instead of emissions being defined by the relationship with the organisation, they are defined by the relationship to the geographical entity.

Greenhouse gas emissions datasets are produced every year for each local authority   and can be broken down into broad source categories including industrial, commercial, public and domestic buildings, transport, land use, agriculture and waste. The SCIS helps breakdown emissions into more granular categories to help focus climate action towards the largest and easiest opportunities.

Breaking down emissions by source enables the alignment of local area plans, policies, actions and measures for emissions reduction against the size and sources of emissions in the area-wide emissions profile. Using these, we can develop cost estimates for area-wide emissions reduction pathways.

Scotland emissions and targets

Scotland has a legally binding target to be net zero by 2045, set out in the revised Climate Change Act of 2019. This is an essential component of the UK’s commitment to be net zero by 2050. The Scottish Climate Change Plan, updated in 2020, sets out the policies and trajectories towards the overall target.

Local authorities have a duty to act in a way best calculated to the delivery of the nation’s net zero targets. Reporting progress and strategy in line with Scottish and UK Government stipulated climate policies is therefore key. Additionally, where applicable, local authorities must aid the delivery of Scotland’s Climate Change Adaptation Programme.

The SCIS will help Scottish Government, local authorities and other key stakeholders work effectively together to ensure we mitigate climate change as far as possible and adapt to the inevitable impacts.  It will help to build a national picture of progress towards Net Zero and help to direct and better coordinate future priorities and actions at both local and national level.