Our climate and environmental responsibilities

The Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets) (Scotland) Act 2019 increases the ambition of Scotland’s emissions reduction targets from Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 and commits Scotland to a 75% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, from 1990 levels, by 2030, 90% by 2040 and to reaching net zero by 2045. Transport continues to be the largest contributor to Scottish Greenhouse Gas Emissions and the transport sector envelope published in the Climate Change Plan update (CCPu) requires reducing emissions from transport by 56%, from 1990 levels, by 2030, 70% by 2040 and decarbonise completely by 2045.

Adapting to climate change, reducing transport emissions and the move to a low carbon economy remain at the core of Transport Scotland’s policy and decision making. The Climate Change Team leads on climate change policy, setting the strategic direction and building the evidence base on how to reduce emissions from Scotland’s transport sector to meet the targets set out in the meet the targets set out in the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 updated by the 2019 act.

Our updated Climate Change Plan (CCPu) includes transport policy outcomes, policies and proposals covering the period up to 2032 including policy outcomes reducing car kilometres by 20% by 2030, phasing out the need for new petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2030, decarbonising Scotland's rail services by 2035 and decarbonising scheduled flights within Scotland by 2040.

Progress reporting on CCPu commitments and just transition elements is completed annually including for the transport sector as part of a Monitoring Framework. This provides greenhouse gas emissions statistics, a suite of policy outcome indicators, and a policy tracker monitoring implementation of specific policies and proposals.

Greenhouse gas emissions statistics provide the highest-level measure of progress at an economy wide and sectoral level; a suite of policy outcome indicators measure the success of policies in achieving the changes that are needed; and a policy tracker monitoring implementation of specific policies and proposals. The third annual monitoring report on the CCPu was published in May 2023: Climate Change Plan Monitoring Reports 2023 (www.gov.scot)

We are aiming to bring forward a draft of the next full Climate Change Plan which will set out our pathway to meeting our emissions reduction targets out to 2040 and continue the good progress towards Net Zero which has already been made. 

Transport Scotland has published The Carbon Account for Transport (CAT). This publication, produced by Transport Scotland, provides a detailed analysis of Scottish transport emissions. Our twelfth edition of the CAT contains the latest inventory revisions alongside Scotland’s key transport emissions trends for 1990-2018. The data used in this report is sourced from the annual publication of UK-wide annual emissions produced by the National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory (NAEI).

We are required as part of our Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 to submit our annual emissions performance to Scottish Ministers via the Climate Change (Duties of Public Bodies: Reporting Requirements) (Scotland) Order 2015. This report acts as Transport Scotland’s function to assess our corporate emissions performance in relation to carbon emissions against a 2015-16 baseline as outlined in the Carbon Management Plan (CMP) 4th Edition.