Just Transition Fund for the North East and Moray: final evaluation report

1. Introduction

1.1 In October 2024, the Scottish Government commissioned Blake Stevenson Ltd to undertake an evaluation of the Just Transition Fund for the North East and Moray (JTF).

1.2 Whilst the evaluation was conducted in the JTF’s third year of delivery (2024/25), this report presents the findings from the evaluation of the first two years of JTF, 2022-24.

Aims of the evaluation

1.3 The overall aim of the evaluation is to gauge the impact and effectiveness of the JTF as a tool to help accelerate a just transition in the region.

1.4 For the 24 projects supported by the JTF, the evaluation explored the impact against the Just Transition outcomes of:

• Jobs, skills and economic opportunities;
• Communities and places;
• People and equity; and
• Environment, biodiversity and adaptation.

1.5 The evaluation also reviewed End-of-Year reports to identify, where available, reported carbon emissions savings and the wider social, economic and environmental benefits that have been realised, or are expected to be realised, as a direct result of the Fund’s investment.

1.6 As a result of the evaluation findings, a range of recommendations are proposed that will help maximise the economic, social and environmental returns of further investments made by Scottish Government in the net-zero space, including those from the Fund.

Structure of the report

1.7 The remainder of this report is structured as follows:

• Chapter 2: Context and evaluation methodology;
• Chapter 3: Key findings;
• Chapter 4: Discussion; and
• Chapter 5: Summary and recommendations