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Climate change - Engagement version

Top­ic: Cli­mate change

Engage­ment draft – August 2025

Require­ments addressed in this section

Table 1 Inform­a­tion required by the Town and Coun­try Plan­ning (Scot­land) Act 1997, as amended, regard­ing the issue addressed in this section.

Sec­tionRequire­ment
Sec­tion 15(5)(a)The prin­cip­al phys­ic­al and envir­on­ment­al char­ac­ter­ist­ics of the district.
Sec­tion 3FLoc­al Devel­op­ment Plans must include policies requir­ing all devel­op­ments in the area to be designed so as to ensure that all new build­ings avoid a spe­cified and rising pro­por­tion of the pro­jec­ted green­house gas emis­sions from their use, cal­cu­lated on the basis of the approved design and plans for the spe­cif­ic devel­op­ment, through the install­a­tion and oper­a­tion of low and zero-car­bon gen­er­at­ing technologies.

Links to evidence

Sum­mary of evidence

Policy con­text

The Par­is Agreement

There is a leg­ally bind­ing inter­na­tion­al treaty on cli­mate change in place, adop­ted by 196 Parties (includ­ing the UK) at the United Nations (UN)’s Cli­mate Change Con­fer­ence, COP21, in Par­is in 2015. Known as The Par­is Agree­ment it entered into force in Novem­ber 2016. Its goal is to keep the rise in the glob­al aver­age tem­per­at­ure to well below 2°C above pre-indus­tri­al levels; and to pur­sue efforts to lim­it the increase to 1.5°C.

United Nations Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment Goals

The United Nations has set a series of glob­al Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment Goals (SDGs) that are part of an inter­na­tion­ally agreed per­form­ance frame­work. All coun­tries are aim­ing to achieve these goals by 2030. They address the sig­ni­fic­ant glob­al chal­lenges of poverty, inequal­ity, cli­mate, envir­on­ment­al degrad­a­tion, prosper­ity, peace and justice. The Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan should strive to adhere to the deliv­ery of these goals at a loc­al level.

Nation­al Parks (Scot­land) Act 2000

The Nation­al Park has four dis­tinct aims as set out in The Nation­al Parks (Scot­land) Act 2000). All four are of rel­ev­ance to the mat­ters dis­cussed in this paper:

  • To con­serve and enhance the nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al her­it­age of the area.
  • To pro­mote sus­tain­able use of the nat­ur­al resources of the area.
  • To pro­mote under­stand­ing and enjoy­ment (includ­ing enjoy­ment in the form of recre­ation) of the spe­cial qual­it­ies of the area by the pub­lic, and
  • To pro­mote sus­tain­able eco­nom­ic and social devel­op­ment of the area’s communities.

The aims are all to be pur­sued col­lect­ively. How­ever, if there is con­flict between the first aim and any of the oth­ers, great­er weight is giv­en to the first aim (as set out in Sec­tion 9(6) of the 2000 Act).

Cli­mate Change (Emis­sions Reduc­tion Tar­gets) (Scot­land) Act 2019

In 2019, the Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment declared a cli­mate emer­gency. The Scot­tish Government’s com­mit­ment to energy reduc­tion and respond­ing to cli­mate change is estab­lished in the Plan­ning (Scot­land) Act 2019 and the Cli­mate Change (Emis­sions Reduc­tion Tar­gets) (Scot­land) Act 2019. The Cli­mate Change Act aims to ensure that that Scotland’s con­tri­bu­tion to cli­mate change will end with­in a gen­er­a­tion, being fully

net-zero by 2045 with emis­sions redu­cing by 75% by 2030 (com­pared to a 1990 baseline). An update to the Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment Cli­mate Change Plan 2018 – 2032 fol­lowed on from this, which sets the path­way for the tar­gets set with­in the Cli­mate Change Act.

Under the Act, The Park Author­ity has three main duties:

  • Mit­ig­a­tion: To con­trib­ute to redu­cing green­house gas emissions.
  • Adapt­a­tion: To help Moray adapt to the chan­ging climate.
  • Sus­tain­ab­il­ity: To act in a sus­tain­able manner.

The Park Author­ity must report on com­pli­ance with these duties annu­ally in accord­ance with the Cli­mate Change (Duties of Pub­lic Bod­ies: Report­ing Require­ments) (Scot­land) Order 2015 and sub­sequent amendments.

Nation­al Per­form­ance Framework

The Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment has 15 Nation­al Out­comes that the pub­lic sec­tor must col­lect­ively deliv­er. The Nation­al Out­come for the Envir­on­ment in rela­tion to Cli­mate sets out the fol­low­ing vision:

  • To live in a clean and unpol­luted environment.
  • To be at the fore­front of car­bon reduc­tion efforts, renew­able energy, sus­tain­able technologies.

To achieve this out­come there are implic­a­tions for trans­port, biod­iversity and address­ing the nature crisis, sus­tain­able devel­op­ment and effi­cient use of resources.

The fol­low­ing United Nations Sus­tain­able Goals are Import­ant con­sid­er­a­tions in address­ing the cli­mate crisis and cli­mate mit­ig­a­tion and adaptation:

  • 7 Afford­able and clean energy.
  • 12 Respons­ible con­sump­tion and production.
  • 13 Cli­mate action.

In 2024, the Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment pro­posed that build­ing Scotland’s resi­li­ence to cli­mate change becomes a nation­al out­come in Scotland’s Nation­al Per­form­ance Frame­work. Sub­ject to Par­lia­ment­ary approv­al, this change is pro­posed to drive cli­mate action across Scot­tish soci­ety that aligns with the UN Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment Goals and addresses the urgency and scale of the cli­mate crisis.

The Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan should aim to sup­port the Nation­al Out­comes In par­tic­u­lar the Out­come for the Envir­on­ment and the United Nations Sus­tain­able Goals.

The Envir­on­ment Strategy for Scot­land: Vis­ion and outcomes

The Envir­on­ment Strategy cre­ates an over­arch­ing frame­work for Scotland’s exist­ing envir­on­ment­al strategies and plans, includ­ing the Cli­mate Change Plan. These will be reviewed over time, to reflect inter­na­tion­al tar­gets and oth­er policy devel­op­ments. The vis­ion and out­comes set out in this doc­u­ment are inten­ded to help to guide the future devel­op­ment and deliv­ery of these strategies and plans by estab­lish­ing Scotland’s long-term dir­ec­tion and shared goals. The Vis­on states that:

‘By 2045: By restor­ing nature and end­ing Scotland’s con­tri­bu­tion to cli­mate change, our coun­try is trans­formed for the bet­ter – help­ing to secure the well­being of our people and plan­et for gen­er­a­tions to come.’

The Envir­on­ment Strategy sits along­side oth­er key Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment policy, such as Scotland’s Eco­nom­ic Strategy, the Fairer Scot­land Action Plan, the Nation­al Trans­port Strategy, and the Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work. It high­lights the vital role of the nat­ur­al envir­on­ment in con­trib­ut­ing to Scotland’s Nation­al Out­comes. The Strategy sets a clear path toward lever­aging oppor­tun­it­ies, improv­ing decision-mak­ing for Scotland’s future, and util­iz­ing new powers to enhance the well­being of its people.

[[Fig­ure 1 Con­tri­bu­tion of the Scot­tish Envir­on­ment Strategy vis­ion and out­comes to Nation­al Out­comes and United Nations Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment Goals. Image of a dia­gram illus­trat­ing the vis­ion and outcomes.]]

To achieve the Vis­ion, the Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment and its part­ners will focus on deliv­er­ing six shared out­comes (Fig­ure 1). Three out­comes describe Scotland’s ambi­tions for the envir­on­ment, focus­ing on nature, cli­mate change and resource-use. The oth­er three out­comes describe the rela­tion­ship between the envir­on­ment and wider ambi­tions for Scotland’s eco­nomy, soci­ety and inter­na­tion­al impact.

Out­come 1: Scotland’s nature is pro­tec­ted and restored with flour­ish­ing biod­iversity and clean and healthy air, water, seas and soils

Scotland’s nat­ur­al envir­on­ment is vital for health, well­being, and prosper­ity, but it faces sig­ni­fic­ant chal­lenges, includ­ing a biod­iversity crisis high­lighted in the 2019 State of Nature Report. Efforts to reverse this decline include improv­ing air, water, seas, and soils to ensure resi­li­ence for the future. Policies such as the Biod­iversity Strategy and the Clean­er Air for Scot­land Strategy aim to achieve the 2050 vis­ion of liv­ing in har­mony with nature, with col­lab­or­a­tion across gov­ern­ment and sec­tors to enhance biodiversity.

Scot­land is com­mit­ted to address­ing the glob­al cli­mate emer­gency as a mor­al duty, focus­ing on justice for vul­ner­able com­munit­ies dis­pro­por­tion­ately affected by cli­mate change. With biod­iversity also at risk, the goal is to achieve net-zero green­house gas emis­sions by 2045, reduce the car­bon foot­print, and enhance resi­li­ence through adapt­a­tion meas­ures. The Strategy notes that nature-based solu­tions like tree plant­ing and peat­land res­tor­a­tion are cru­cial for lock­ing in car­bon and mit­ig­at­ing glob­al warm­ing effects. Also, that sus­tain­able land man­age­ment aims to lower agri­cul­tur­al emis­sions while pre­serving nature and pro­du­cing high-qual­ity food. Actions to meet these goals are out­lined in the Cli­mate Change Plan and the Scot­tish Cli­mate Change Adapt­a­tion Pro­gramme, includ­ing ini­ti­at­ives such as region­al land use part­ner­ships and agri­cul­tur­al trans­form­a­tion programs.

Out­come 2: We play our full role in tack­ling the glob­al cli­mate emer­gency and lim­it­ing tem­per­at­ure rise to 1.5°C

The Strategy acknow­ledges that the glob­al demand for nat­ur­al resources has more than tripled since 1970, high­light­ing the urgent need for sus­tain­able resource use to address cli­mate and nature crises. Scot­land is lead­ing efforts to trans­ition to a cir­cu­lar eco­nomy, where waste from one pro­cess becomes a resource for anoth­er, mim­ick­ing nat­ur­al sys­tems. This approach involves har­vest­ing nat­ur­al resources at a sus­tain­able rate and design­ing products for repair, reuse, and recyc­ling. Key strategies, like ​‘Mak­ing Things Last’ and the Food Waste Reduc­tion Action Plan, aim to embed cir­cu­lar eco­nomy prac­tices across soci­ety, sup­por­ted by ini­ti­at­ives such as the Cir­cu­lar Eco­nomy Bill.

Out­come 3: We use and re-use resources wisely and have ended the throw-away culture

Scot­land aims to cre­ate a net zero, cir­cu­lar eco­nomy that val­ues nature, recog­niz­ing the depend­ence of its eco­nomy on nat­ur­al resources. Over­use and waste gen­er­a­tion threaten nat­ur­al cap­it­al, which is vital for sus­tain­ab­il­ity. By advan­cing car­bon-neut­ral and cir­cu­lar solu­tions, Scot­land aims to lever­age its resources, expert­ise, and innov­a­tion to lead glob­al efforts, gen­er­ate eco­nom­ic growth, and cre­ate high qual­ity jobs. The Just

Trans­ition Com­mis­sion will ensure these bene­fits are dis­trib­uted equit­ably, address­ing poverty and inequalities.

Out­come 4: Our thriv­ing, sus­tain­able eco­nomy con­serves and grows our nat­ur­al assets

Scotland’s Eco­nom­ic Strategy and Eco­nom­ic Action Plan guide efforts to trans­form the eco­nomy to pro­tect nature and achieve net zero. Oppor­tun­it­ies will be explored through ini­ti­at­ives like the Green New Deal for Scot­land, intro­duced in the 2019 / 2020 Pro­gramme for Gov­ern­ment, focus­ing on fin­ance and invest­ment. Align­ment between the Envir­on­ment Strategy and the Infra­struc­ture Invest­ment Plan is key, with the Infra­struc­ture Com­mis­sion for Scot­land recom­mend­ing the inclu­sion of nat­ur­al infra­struc­ture in the government’s defin­i­tion of infrastructure.

Scotland’s Eco­nom­ic Strategy and Eco­nom­ic Action Plan guide efforts to trans­form the eco­nomy to pro­tect nature and achieve net zero. Align­ment between the Envir­on­ment Strategy and the Infra­struc­ture Invest­ment Plan is key, with the Infra­struc­ture Com­mis­sion for Scot­land recom­mend­ing the inclu­sion of nat­ur­al infra­struc­ture in the government’s defin­i­tion of infrastructure.

Out­come 5: Our healthy envir­on­ment sup­ports a fairer, health­i­er, more inclus­ive society

To live with­in the planet’s sus­tain­able lim­its, Scot­land must trans­form social policies, pub­lic ser­vices, and life­styles to con­sume less, waste less, and improve qual­ity of life. Efforts to cre­ate a fairer, health­i­er, and more resi­li­ent soci­ety include enhan­cing air qual­ity, access to green­space, and tack­ling inequal­it­ies. Exist­ing policies across sec­tors like trans­port, energy, waste, health, edu­ca­tion, and cul­ture con­trib­ute to these goals, with oppor­tun­it­ies being explored to fur­ther improve sus­tain­ab­il­ity while boost­ing the well­being of Scotland’s people.

Out­come 6: We are respons­ible glob­al cit­izens with a sus­tain­able inter­na­tion­al footprint

Scotland’s car­bon foot­print includes both domest­ic emis­sions and those tied to impor­ted goods. As a res­ult, Scotland’s envir­on­ment­al impact extends far bey­ond its own coun­try. The aim is to live with­in the planet’s sus­tain­able lim­its and take actions to ensure Scotland’s con­sump­tion and pro­duc­tion are sus­tain­able glob­ally. The first step is gath­er­ing evid­ence on Scotland’s inter­na­tion­al envir­on­ment­al impact.

The Envir­on­ment Strategy for Scot­land: Pro­gress report on Envir­on­ment Strategy 2024

This report provides an update for the Par­lia­ment on the pro­gress in devel­op­ing the Strategy includ­ing the devel­op­ing evid­ence base. The report presents the res­ults of the research that will inform a major part of the evid­ence base for the Strategy. The devel­op­ment of the Strategy is seek­ing the trans­form­at­ive changes needed to meet Scotland’s tar­gets to restore nature and tackle cli­mate change, while har­ness­ing the oppor­tun­it­ies this cre­ates for its eco­nomy and wellbeing.

The recom­mend­a­tions presen­ted in the report address oppor­tun­it­ies for redu­cing food waste, strength­en­ing loc­al food pro­duc­tion, sup­port­ing agri­cul­tur­al innov­a­tion, pro­mot­ing sus­tain­able, healthy diets and estab­lish­ing more cir­cu­lar sup­ply chains for the tex­tile industry.

The report indic­ated that the aim is to launch a pub­lic con­sulta­tion in 2025, build­ing on the open and par­ti­cip­at­ive approach we have taken through­out the devel­op­ment of the Envir­on­ment Strategy. After tak­ing account of con­sulta­tion feed­back, the full strategy will be laid before the Par­lia­ment and des­ig­nated as the ​‘envir­on­ment­al policy strategy’ required under the Con­tinu­ity Act.

The Pro­posed Plan should reflect and sup­port the Envir­on­ment Strategy for Scot­land: Vis­ion and out­comes and final Envir­on­ment Strategy when published.

Nation­al Plan­ning Policy Frame­work 4

The Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 focuses on the three main policy themes of sus­tain­able, live­able and pro­duct­ive places aligns with Scotland’s aim of deliv­er­ing on the United Nations Sus­tain­able Goals. Secur­ing pos­it­ive effects for biod­iversity’ is one of six stat­utory out­comes of Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 and as such it rebal­ances the plan­ning sys­tem so that cli­mate change and nature recov­ery are the primary guid­ing prin­ciples for all plans and decisions. Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4, in rela­tion to the cli­mate crisis and cli­mate mit­ig­a­tion and adapt­a­tion sets out Scot­tish Gov­ern­ments com­mit­ment to address­ing the glob­al cli­mate emer­gency. This will entail redu­cing green­house gas emis­sions and adapt­ing to the future impacts of cli­mate change.

The Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan should sup­port the deliv­ery of the Nation­al Spa­tial Strategy:

‘Scotland’s future places will be net zero, nature-pos­it­ive places that are designed to reduce emis­sions and adapt to the impacts of cli­mate change, whilst pro­tect­ing, recov­er­ing and restor­ing our environment.’

Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 also aims to sup­port low and zero car­bon design and energy effi­ciency, devel­op­ment that is access­ible by sus­tain­able travel, and expan­sion of renew­able energy gen­er­a­tion. It also high­lights the import­ance of build­ing resi­li­ence to the future impacts of cli­mate change includ­ing water resources and assets and devel­op­ment on Scotland’s coasts.

Along­side the biod­iversity crisis, policy 1 also gives sig­ni­fic­ant weight to the glob­al cli­mate emer­gency in order to ensure that it is recog­nised as a pri­or­ity in all plans and decisions. Policy 2 will ensure that emis­sions from new devel­op­ment are min­im­ised as far as pos­sible. A healthy nat­ur­al envir­on­ment is key to redu­cing emis­sions mean­ing there are a num­ber of oth­er Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 policies that sup­port this. Devel­op­ment that addresses the cli­mate emer­gency and nature crises will be facil­it­ated by the inter­ac­tion of all the spa­tial prin­ciples, region­al spa­tial pri­or­it­ies and nation­al plan­ning policies of Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4, taken as a whole. Policy 1 of Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 will be imple­men­ted by the cumu­lat­ive impact of all the oth­er Nation­al Plan­ning Policies, par­tic­u­larly Policy 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. Policy 2 has policy con­nec­tions to all oth­er Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 Policies.

Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 Policy 1:

  • The Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan ​‘must address the glob­al cli­mate emer­gency and nature crisis by ensur­ing the spa­tial strategy will reduce emis­sions and adapt to cur­rent and future risks of cli­mate change by pro­mot­ing nature recov­ery and res­tor­a­tion in the area’ (Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 page 36).

Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 Policy 2:

  • The Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan’s ​‘spa­tial strategy should be designed to reduce, min­im­ise or avoid green­house gas emis­sions. The six spa­tial prin­ciples iden­ti­fied in Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 should form the basis of the spa­tial strategy, help­ing to guide devel­op­ment to, and cre­ate sus­tain­able loc­a­tions. The Strategy should be informed by an under­stand­ing of the impacts of the pro­pos­als on green­house gas emis­sions.’ (Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4, page 37).
  • Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plans ​‘should sup­port adapt­a­tion to the cur­rent and future impacts by tak­ing into account cli­mate risks, guid­ing devel­op­ment away from vul­ner­able areas, and enabling places to adapt to those risks’ (Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4, page 37).

Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 plan­ning guid­ance: policy 2 cli­mate mit­ig­a­tion and adaptation

The Plan­ning Guid­ance pub­lished by Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment in 2025 sup­ports the applic­a­tion in prac­tice of Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 Policy 2 mit­ig­a­tion and adapt­a­tion. The guid­ance has been pre­pared to aid applic­ants, plan­ning author­it­ies, decision makers and oth­ers with an interest in con­trib­ut­ing to pos­it­ive cli­mate out­comes from devel­op­ment in Scot­land. In rela­tion to this top­ic paper sec­tion (3) of the guid­ance is of par­tic­u­lar rel­ev­ance. This top­ic paper seeks to reflect the out­line evid­ence require­ment set out in the guid­ance and the Pro­posed Plan will reflect the guid­ance on the Plan pre­par­a­tion guid­ance (Sec­tion 3.4).

The guid­ance sets out the fol­low­ing require­ments for the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan:

  • Policy 1 — Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plans have a stra­tegic role in loc­at­ing and shap­ing devel­op­ments in a way that can sup­port emis­sions reduc­tions and help improve the cli­mate resi­li­ence of our places through adaptation.
  • Policy 2 — The role of Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plans includes coordin­at­ing cli­mate meas­ures most rel­ev­ant to the plan area. It will be import­ant that plans identi­fy and sup­port deliv­ery of solu­tions that tackle both cli­mate mit­ig­a­tion and adapt­a­tion and help deliv­er mul­tiple bene­fits for com­munit­ies and nature. Tak­ing a place-based approach is cent­ral to real­ising these bene­fits. This approach can help secure cli­mate mit­ig­a­tion out­comes, help avoid non-adap­ted and mal-adap­ted devel­op­ment and can help cre­ate places that are flex­ible and suit­able for future adapt­a­tions. In line with the Place Prin­ciple, a place-based approach will also help ensure plans are pre­pared in col­lab­or­a­tion with a wide range of stake­hold­ers, and are based on the most rel­ev­ant and robust evidence.

In terms of gath­er­ing evid­ence to inform the plan pre­par­a­tion, the guid­ance sets out a range of poten­tial data sources that can sup­port the evid­ence report. The Nation­al Park has com­mis­sioned spe­cif­ic cli­mate data and reports by the James Hut­ton Insti­tute cov­er­ing these top­ics for the Cairngorms Nation­al Park as most of the pub­licly avail­able data is not avail­able at the Nation­al Park geography.

Secur­ing a green recov­ery on a path to net zero: cli­mate change plan 2018 – 2032 – update

The doc­u­ment provides an update to the 2018 Cli­mate Change Plan. Since that Plan Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment have set new ambi­tious tar­gets to end its con­tri­bu­tion to cli­mate change by 2045. Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment have com­mit­ted to reduce emis­sions by 75% by

2030 (com­pared with 1990) and to net zero by 2045. As Scot­land emerged from COV­ID-19 the Gov­ern­ment iden­ti­fied an oppor­tun­ity to rebuild the eco­nomy in a way that deliv­ers a green­er, fairer and more equal soci­ety. This Plan sets out the Gov­ern­ments approach to deliv­er­ing a green recov­ery and sets out a path­way to deliv­er its cli­mate change tar­gets. In line with the 2018 plan, the focus is on the peri­od up to 2032.

The Plan update sets out Scot­tish Government’s com­mit­ment to deploy­ing nature-based solu­tions at scale and in a sus­tain­able and man­aged way. Fur­ther inform­a­tion on

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