Climate Delivery Oversight Group minutes: August 2025

Attendees and apologies

• Cabinet Secretary for Climate Action and Energy (Chair)
• Councillor Macgregor, COSLA Spokesperson on Environment and Economy (Co-Chair)

Members

• Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government 
• Cabinet Secretary for Transport
• Councillor Susan Aitken, Leader of Glasgow City Council, Scottish Cities Alliance

Official support

• Phil Raines, Joint Deputy Director, Domestic Climate Change Division, Scottish Government
• Morna Cannon, Director of Low Carbon Economy, Transport Scotland
• James Fowlie, Director of Place Policy, COSLA
• Robert Nicol, Chief Officer Environment and Economy, COSLA

Presenters

• Head of Policy and Implementation Unit, Domestic Climate Change Division, Scottish Government

Secretariat

• Head of Strategy and Governance Unit, Domestic Climate Change Division, Scottish Government
• Team Leader, Public Sector Team, Domestic Climate Change Division, Scottish Government
• Policy Officer, COSLA

Apologies

• Councillor Steven Heddle, COSLA Vice-President
• Minister for Business and Employment

Items and actions

Chair’s welcome and introduction

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting which had been rescheduled from June due to the Co-chairs’ commitments.

The main purpose of the meeting was:

• a deep dive on Scotland’s Carbon Budgets and the development of the next Climate Change Plan
• to agree the approach to delivering the Framework’s priorities for 2025-26
• to consider scoping papers on the Framework priorities of
  • improving the Data and Evidence
  • financing the Response to Climate Change

Minutes of previous meeting

The minutes from 12 March were approved.

Progress on actions

An update on the actions was provided.  The Senior Officials Group would address resourcing the Framework actions at their next meeting.

Scottish Carbon Budgets and development of the Climate Change Plan

The Group considered the paper and presentation. The draft Climate Change Plan (CCP) will be accompanied by information on costs and benefits which will be able to be improved with the help of local authorities (LAs). It was suggested that Scottish Government engagement with local authorities could look at areas where authorities are moving faster, without waiting to see the draft Plan.

The central contribution transport would make to the draft Plan was discussed, and the importance of capital investment, and consortium approaches among local authorities.

There was support for the approach being taken by Ministers to take account of the distinctive Scottish circumstances - LAs across Scotland will also have different priorities due to circumstances. The Scottish Climate Intelligence Service and Sustainable Scotland Network were suggested as being able to help with describing the varied picture across LAs.

• action: early more targeted discussions with LAs on their potential to feed into CCP before publication of the draft. CCP Team to map high-level discussions with COSLA and LAs and make sure there is a framework to incorporate those discussions
• action: COSLA will look at examples from, “family groups,” within LAs

Framework priorities and meetings schedule for 2025 to 2026

The Group approved two papers which set out:

• a themed approach recommended by the Senior Officials Group to deliver the Framework’s six priorities
• a schedule of meetings for the Oversight Group and the Senior Officials Group for the rest of 2025-26

Scoping paper on CDF priority of improving the data and evidence

The Group approved the paper and agreed that the Scottish Climate Intelligence Service was addressing an evidence gap and empowering LAs to move forward.

• action: Scottish Climate Intelligence Service to be a future topic for the National Transport Board
• action: an offline discussion with local government on LHEES zones should take place
• action: Cabinet Secretary for Housing be invited to join the Group

Scoping paper on financing the response to climate change

The key role for public finance was set out; levering in private financing by de-risking and giving confidence to investors. The Scottish National Investment Bank report showed Scotland is seen as a good place to invest and the launch of Invest Scotland gives a sense of that momentum.

It was suggested there was a need for outward-facing work on creating a market - e.g. for heat in major cities – perhaps through Scottish Cities Alliance or the local authority, “family groups.” There was agreement around the need to showcase that investment is supporting the economy, communities and place-making, improving lives, and tackling fuel poverty. The growing evidence of the impact of aggregation on a geographical basis or across sectors on attractiveness to investors was highlighted, as was the potential of climate change adaptation.

The Group approved the paper.

• action: the Group should receive advice from Scottish National Investment Bank and Scottish Futures Trust at a future meeting
• action: follow-up on the use of public assets to lever in investment

Other matters

The Group received an update on the second and third Senior Officials Group meetings on 21 May and 6 August and highlighted the need to consider how that group accessed external expertise. The Senior Officials Group Terms of Reference were noted.