The Environment Strategy for Scotland: Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) post adoption statement

Introduction to the Environment Strategy

Environment Strategy

The Environment Strategy sets out a holistic framework for delivering Scotland’s role in tackling the global crises of nature loss, climate change and pollution. The Strategy brings together the Scottish Government’s existing policy response to tackling nature loss, climate change and pollution, highlighting the importance of carefully managing synergies and trade-offs across these goals. It builds on these existing policies by outlining new priorities and proposals. These focus, in particular, on opportunities for supporting the economic and societal changes needed to help tackle these global crises in ways that create wider benefits for Scotland – supporting green jobs and industries, improving people’s health, tackling poverty and promoting social justice. This will also help to protect, restore and enhance our natural environment in Scotland and improve our overseas environmental impact.

It sets out steps for supporting and enabling these changes in ways that will transform our country for the better, improving the lives of people across Scotland. The Strategy is designed to capture the wealth of opportunities that transitioning to a green economy, and shifting towards sustainable lifestyles, will create for Scotland’s prosperity and wellbeing – boosting a wide range of green jobs and industries, improving people’s health, tackling poverty and promoting social justice.

The Environment Strategy fulfils Ministers obligation under section 47 of the UK Withdrawal from the EU (Continuity) (Scotland) Act 2021 to prepare and publish an environmental policy strategy. Scottish Ministers are now also required by section 47 to have due regard to the strategy when making policies, including proposals for legislation.

Vision and outcomes

The 2045 vision for the Strategy begins by describing our ambitions for fulfilling Scotland’s role in tackling the global crises of nature loss, climate change and pollution, helping to safeguard our shared planet for all life on Earth. It also sets out how we will harness the enormous opportunities this creates for Scotland to flourish as a fairer, greener and more prosperous nation.

The vision recognises that tackling these crises will depend on changes in Scotland’s economy and society. This, in turn, can help to transform Scotland for the better – for example by supporting green jobs and industries, supporting and enabling people and communities in Scotland to live sustainably – in ways that also tackle inequalities and poverty and create wider benefits for people’s health and wellbeing.

The Strategy identifies a set of outcomes to support the delivery of this vision. Four outcomes describe our goals for tackling climate change and restoring the health of our natural environment, in Scotland and overseas:

• Scotland’s nature is protected and restored
• We have ended Scotland’s contribution to climate change
• We minimise pollution and waste in our environment
• Scotland’s global environmental impact is sustainable.

Two outcomes describe the positive transformations in our society and economy that will support these goals, while creating wider benefits for Scotland’s wellbeing and prosperity:

• Scotland’s society is transformed for the better by living sustainably, in harmony with nature
• Scotland’s net zero, nature positive and circular economy thrives within the planet’s sustainable limits.

Two cross-cutting outcomes explain how we will build Scotland’s resilience to the impacts of these global crises and support wider goals for social justice in Scotland and overseas:

• We build Scotland’s resilience to climate change and other global environmental risks
• These transformations are achieved through a just transition, supporting climate and environmental justice and intergenerational equity.

The Environment Strategy presents high-level pathways for driving progress towards the outcomes. These pathways summarise key existing policies while also identifying proposals and priorities to guide future policy development across the breadth of government. The Strategy sets out arrangements for monitoring and reporting progress towards the outcomes, in order to guide improvements to our approach.

To support the publication of the Strategy, we commissioned substantial new research focusing on the economy, society and global outcomes, which were supported by stakeholder working groups.

Consultation and SEA Process

The SEA was undertaken both to inform the decision-making process in the development of the Environment Strategy, and to engage with the statutory consultees, other stakeholders, and interested parties via the statutory public consultation process set out in the Environmental Assessment (Scotland) 2005 Act. Section 47 of the Continuity Act 2021 also requires Scottish Ministers to consult on the draft Environment Strategy.

The first consultation was undertaken with the statutory consultees on the proposed screening and scope of the SEA for a 5-week consultation period ending in December 2024. Each statutory consultee was provided with the SEA Screening and Scoping Report issued by the Scottish Government and comments invited. Consultation responses were received from all 3 statutory consultees to determine the final scope of the Environmental Report and assessments. These responses have been discussed in further detail in Section 4 of this post-adoption statement.

The public consultation on the Environment Strategy, as required under the Continuity Act 2021 was then held, from 3 July to 29 September 2025 to obtain the opinion of individuals and organisations on the draft version of the Environment Strategy.

Responses to the consultation were obtained through the completion of an online questionnaire hosted on the Scottish Government’s Consultation Hub. These responses are discussed in more detail in section 4 of this document. The consultation documentation also included the Environmental Report (containing the findings of the SEA) along with online links to the draft versions of the Equality Impact Assessment, the Partial Islands Communities Impact Assessment, a Fairer Scotland Duty assessment, the Consumer Duty Assessment, the Child Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessment and a Partial Business Regulatory Impact Assessment. The full analysis of the consultation can be found here.

Purpose of this Post Adoption Statement

In accordance with Section 17 of the Environmental Assessment (Scotland) 2005 Act, the Scottish Government has taken into account findings of the Environmental Report and the consultation responses to the report in coming to its decision on the preferred approach for the Environment Strategy.

Section 18 of the Environmental Assessment (Scotland) 2005 Act requires that when a plan or programme is adopted (in this case, the plan), the consultation bodies and the public are informed, and the following specific information is made available:

• the plan as adopted.
• a statement summarising:
  • how environmental considerations have been integrated into the design of the Environment Strategy (Section 18(3)a of the 2005 Act).
  • how the Environmental Report has been taken into account (Section 18(3)b).
  • how consultees’ opinions have been taken into account (Section 18(3)c and d).
  • the reasons for choosing the Environment Strategy, as adopted (Section 18(3)e); and
  • the measures to be used to monitor the significant environmental effects of the implementation of the Environment Strategy (Section 18(3)f).

The purpose of this Post Adoption Statement is to provide the specific information outlined under each of the points listed above and which is presented in the following sections of this statement.