Introduction
The vast majority of public bodies in Scotland are covered by the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 (‘the 2009 Act’) which places statutory climate change duties on them. In exercising their functions, public bodies must act in the way best calculated to contribute to national emissions reduction targets and to help deliver the National Adaptation Plan, and act in the most sustainable way.
Since 2015-16, relevant public bodies have been required to report annually on their compliance with the climate change duties, under section 46 of the 2009 Act and The Climate Change (Duties of Public Bodies: Reporting Requirements) (Scotland) Order 2015, as amended.
The Sustainable Scotland Network (SSN) has also since 2015-16 managed the annual climate change duties reporting and publishes an annual analysis report that summarises emission reductions and highlights climate action across Scotland’s public sector.
The SSN 2024-25 analysis report under scope 1 emissions ranked fleet emissions as the second largest source of direct emissions across the public sector. Fleet emissions increased by 2% since the previous 2023-24 reporting period, and have increased by 8% since 2015/16. Whilst the proportion of zero-emission vehicles operating in the public fleet is increasing, this increase, at least in part, reflects the need for larger public fleets to deliver services for a growing population and housing stock across Scotland. The SSN analysis report also notes that national targets for decarbonisation of fleets have been adopted by 17% of public bodies in 2024-25 and there is only limited evidence that emission targets are informing budgets and resource planning.
In 2022 a more comprehensive survey of the public sector fleet found that only 67% of bodies indicated that they had in place a fleet strategy to ensure procurement of zero-emission vehicles to meet the 2019 PfG commitments. The most recent survey, undertaken at the end of 2025, is consistent with the fleet decarbonisation conclusions in the SSN report and highlights that decarbonisation of the public sector fleet has slowed over the past two years (Refer Table 1 above). In addition, the 2025 survey confirms that the 2019 public fleet targets associated with phasing out petrol and diesel cars by 2025 and only purchasing zero-emission light commercial vehicles from 2025 has not been met at the end of 2025.
The 2026 Climate Change Plan (CCP) sets out the policies that the Scottish Government will take forward to meet its carbon budgets between 2026-2040. In doing so, the CCP sets out a pathway towards Scotland achieving net zero by 2045.
The CCP includes in its Annex 2, under outcome 4, the target to phase out the need for new petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2030 and, under outcome 5, the commitment to work with the energy, finance and road transport sectors and related businesses to ensure all road vehicles are zero emission by 2040. This Action Plan delivers Policy 4 of Outcome 4 of the CCP: Develop a Public Sector Fleet Decarbonisation Action Plan, developed in partnership with public sector fleet operators, including identifying new delivery models that crowd in private investment and for the sharing of vehicles and infrastructure with fleet decarbonisation costs incorporated into business-as-usual fleet operations.
New statutory guidance for public bodies, provided for under section 45 of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 (“the 2009 Act”), was published in March 2026 and aims to support bodies in putting the climate change duties into practice. Public bodies are required, under law, to have regard to this guidance. The guidance notes the need for bodies to develop appropriate targets, strategies and plans to decarbonise their assets and operations, including fleet.
Since 2014 the Scottish Government has been working with the public sector to support decarbonisation of their fleet, providing over £80 million of funding for zero and ultra-low emission vehicles and associated infrastructure to public bodies.
Forecasting done by EST in April 2026 reveals an additional purchase price cost of £486 million up until 2040 for the entire public sector fleet, and a total spend of £172 million for the required electric vehicle charging infrastructure. However, these absolute costs do not account for the total cost of ownership savings the fleet can benefit from, nor the positive impact of decarbonisation in terms of vehicle emissions. As such by 2040, the fleet can expect to save £87 million by transitioning to electric and taking advantage of cheaper fuel prices and maintenance costs. Proportional to the total combined additional cost of the electric vehicles and infrastructure upfront, the expected total savings over the ownership period of the new electric fleet is approximately 13% compared to not transitioning.
This draft Public Sector Fleet Decarbonisation Action Plan (henceforth Action Plan), consistent with the CCP, is intended to help ensure public bodies understand their role and are able to take the actions required to deliver the Scottish Government’s climate change ambitions and enable the public sector to continue to build on progress made to date, accelerating the transition to a zero-emission fleet in a way that aligns efficient public spending with emission reductions. The actions can be implemented by all public bodies, including those not subject to the statutory climate change duties, who should decarbonise their fleet and contribute to national and global climate targets and set a positive example to the public and businesses. The fleet transition should also be treated as an essential part of sheltering public fleets from volatile fossil fuel costs in the medium/long-term and maintain the sustainability in the delivery of public sector services.