Draft Climate Change Plan Scrutiny 2025

Overview

The draft Climate Change Plan (CCP) is a strategy document which outlines how the Scottish Government intends to meet emissions reduction targets across all portfolio areas and sectors of the economy.

Climate Change Plan (CCP) Climate Change Plan (CCP)

The Climate Change Plan (CCP) is a statutory document required by the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009. It must set out the Scottish Government’s proposals and policies for meeting its statutory emissions reduction targets during the plan period i.e. it must explain how the Government will achieve its climate goals. There have been three full CCPs so far, in 2011, 2013 and 2018, and a CCP update in 2020.

The Climate Act of 2019 has set some new requirements for the next CCP including that it must set out the costs and benefits of policies, and must take into account the Just Transition principles of the Scottish Government. The next CCP will cover the period 2026-40, and therefore, get close to the target of net zero emissions by 2045.

This will be the first time the Scottish Parliament has considered a statutory CCP in draft form since the passing of the Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets) (Scotland) Act of 2019 and the Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets) Act 2024.

The 2024 Act withdrew the interim 2030 and 2040 targets but kept the target to become net zero by 2045.

New interim emissions reduction targets for 2026-40 will be set through secondary legislation, using a system of five-year carbon budgets, which express the targets as an amount in carbon tonnage.

Five-year carbon budgets Five-year carbon budgets

The Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets) Act 2024 introduced a new system of setting statutory emission reduction targets, moving from a system of annual targets to five-year carbon budgets. Five-year carbon budgets set a legally binding cap on the maximum level of emissions for a period of five years (as opposed to one year). In effect, a carbon budget is the amount of carbon that Scotland has available to ‘spend’ in a set time frame, like a personal budget for grocery shopping.

Five-year budgets are thought to be preferable to annual targets because there is some natural variability in emissions every year, that can influence whether annual targets are achieved. For example, a particularly cold winter will result in higher emissions for heating. Over a five-year period these fluctuations largely even out.

The Scottish Government has said that it aims to publish the draft CCP later this year and that it will cover 2026-2040. Once the draft CCP is published, the Parliament will have 120 days to scrutinise it.

About this call for views

To support the Parliament’s scrutiny, the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee is undertaking a Call for Views in advance of the draft CCP being published. It asks questions about what policies people think should be in the draft CCP across different sectors, and what else needs to be included to deliver a just transition to net zero by 2045.

You don’t need to answer all questions. Where possible, please provide data and evidence to support your responses.

The findings from the Call for Views will be shared across the Parliament, to support cross-cutting scrutiny of the draft CCP.

Who we would like to hear from

We welcome responses from a wide range of individuals and organisations, including;

Members of the public
Advocacy groups
Professional bodies
Industry experts
Academics / academic institutions
Government agencies
Any other stakeholders with an interest in environmental issues/climate change

Sectors

Listed below are the sectors we want to know more about to inform the scrutiny of the draft CCP.

Electricity
Buildings
Transport
Industry
Waste and circular economy
Land use, land use change and forestry
Agriculture
Negative emissions technologies

These are the eight sectors that were included in the most recent version of the CCP (the update from 2020). Scottish climate legislation does not require that this exact sectoral breakdown is used in the CCP and so the next CCP may not use these specific eight sectors.

Questions in this call for views

You don’t have to answer all the questions. The questions are split into sector-specific and non-sector specific questions. All questions are listed in the fact bank below.

Questions Questions

Sector-specific questions

The below questions will appear on each of the sector's pages.

What are the most important policies needed to achieve the proposed carbon budgets level for 2026-40 in [x sector]?
When should these policies be introduced, and over what timeframe should they be implemented in [x sector]?
What are the expected costs of implementing these policies in [x sector]?
What are the expected benefits of these policies in [x sector]? Please include any wider benefits (e.g. environmental, equality, financial and health) you would expect.
What do you think the key challenges would be in delivering these policies in [x sector]?
How could these policies support a Just Transition for workers and communities in [x sector]?

Non sector-specific questions

The below questions only appear on the "Non sector-specific questions" page.

How should the changes required to meet emission reduction targets be funded?
What governance arrangements are needed in the Scottish Government to ensure effective delivery of the CCP?
How can the Scottish Government ensure transparent monitoring and reporting on progress?
What should the Scottish Government do to help the public contribute to climate action?
What other factors could affect whether Scotland meets its climate change targets?

Analysis

The Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe) will prepare a summary and analysis of responses to be used by Scottish Parliament Committees in their scrutiny of the Scottish Government’s draft Climate Change Plan.

Confidentiality and publication of responses

Please let us know if you wish your response to remain confidential. You can also ask for your submission to be anonymised.

We aim to publish all the submissions we receive. The only exceptions are where submissions are made on a “confidential” or “not for publication” basis.

If we receive a very high volume of submissions, we may not have the resources to process and publish them all.

How to submit your views

Please submit your views using the online submission form, linked to below.

We welcome written views in English, Gaelic, Scots or any other language.

The call for views closes on 19 September 2025.

Submit your views

This activity will open on 27 Jun 2025. Please come back on or after this date to give us your views.

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