Director-General Net Zero

Responsibilities

The Director-General for Net Zero is responsible for the policy on delivering Scotland’s targets to achieve net zero by 2045. Net zero refers to the balance between greenhouse gases produced and removed from the atmosphere.

This includes areas such as agriculture, rural economy, energy, climate change, environment, forestry, marine and transport. They also oversee the work of three agencies: Transport Scotland, Forestry and Land Scotland and Scottish Forestry.

The Director General Net Zero is a member of the Scottish Government's Corporate Governance Board.

Biography

Dr Andy Kerr has held leadership roles in organisations including start-ups, commercial trading business, and innovation agencies over the past two decades. Most recently, as Chief Strategy Officer of Climate-KIC, Europe’s climate innovation agency, he was accountable for:

• the development and testing of systemic climate solutions in agri-food, forest and land use change 
• landscape-scale resilience
• city regeneration
• circular economy
• business start-ups

Previously, Andy was founding director of the award-winning Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation (ECCI), co-Director of Scotland’s Centre of Expertise on Climate Change, ClimateXChange, and a Professor of Practice at the University of Edinburgh.