Draft Environment Strategy: consultation

Introduction

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 consultation draft of the Strategy can be found here.

The draft 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.

The draft Strategy begins by describing our 2045 vision: ‘By restoring nature, ending Scotland's contribution to climate change and tackling pollution, our country is transformed for the better - helping to secure the wellbeing of our people and planet for generations to come.’

It presents a set of outcomes that will support the delivery of this vision:

• Scotland’s biodiversity is restored and regenerated
• We have ended Scotland’s contribution to climate change
• We minimise pollution and waste in our environment
• Scotland’s global environmental impact is sustainable
• 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
• We build Scotland’s resilience to climate change and other global environmental risks
• These transformations are achieved through a just transition and support climate and environmental justice.

It outlines high-level pathways for driving progress towards these outcomes, summarising key existing policies while also identifying priorities and proposals to guide future policy development across the breadth of government.

Lastly, it sets out arrangements for monitoring and reporting progress towards the outcomes.

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

The development of this draft Strategy has benefited from extensive stakeholder engagement and evidence gathering. To help inform the development of pathways for the outcomes on Scotland’s global environmental impact, society and economy, we commissioned new research, supported by stakeholder working groups. The findings from these research projects can be accessed via the following links:

Global environmental impact outcome:

• Delivering the Environment Strategy outcome on Scotland's global footprint - evidence base & policy levers (Global Footprint Network)
• Reducing Scotland’s international environmental impact - learning from international best practices (James Hutton Institute)
• Global environmental impacts of consumption and production in Scotland (James Hutton Institute)

Society outcome:^[1]

• Applying the Unlocking a Better Future framework for a just transition in Scotland (Stockholm Environment Institute)
• Transformative changes for sustainability (Prof Valerie Nelson, University of Greenwich)

Economy outcome:

• Delivering the Environment Strategy outcome on Scotland's economy - evidence base & policy levers (New Economics Foundation)
• Driving the transition to a nature positive economy - a synthesis of policy levers for governments (James Hutton Institute).

The questions set out in this consultation paper invite your views on the draft Strategy’s vision and outcomes and on the priorities and proposals set out in the pathways. Your feedback will be crucial in shaping the content of the final Environment Strategy.