Monies spent on 'decarbonisation' since the Scottish Climate Change Act: FOI release

Information requested

You asked for the amount of money spent by the Department of Energy & Climate Change on 'decarbonisation' since the Scottish Climate Change Act was passed in 2009, till now. You wanted to know the costs budgeted for and estimated till 2050.

You requested that these costs included:
1. investments, subsidies for and payments to companies providing all wind and solar energy installations in Scotland made since 2009 and to be made until 2050.

2. amounts for research into carbon capture and storage and tidal energy.

3. costs incurred developing and managing grid infrastructure onshore and offshore since wind turbines were set up, and estimated costs till 2050.

4. Amounts spent and to be spent on the Climate Challenge Fund.

5. Any other costs borne by the Scottish government incurred implementing its decarbonisation energy policy since 2009, and projected costs into the future.

Response

I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested.

Regarding your query about money spent on decarbonisation since the Scottish Climate Change Act was passed in 2009. Some of the information you have requested is available from the climate change budget summary document for each budget between 2013/14 and 2018/19 which highlights key budget spend, and associated spend, supporting the climate change mitigation agenda. The climate change budget summary documents are available on the Scottish Government website. These budget documents are available at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/climate-change-mitigation-funding-in-draft-budgets-2013-topresent/.

These budget documents do not identify spend by the Directorate but offer some information about sectoral and portfolio spend, including energy. These budget documents will also help with your enquiries regarding part 5 of your question as they provided information for energy capital spending.

Additionally for part 2 of your question:

Direct funding from the Directorate for Energy and Climate Change for tidal energy research and development has been limited to the Saltire Tidal Energy Challenge Fund which was launched in February 2019 to provide up to £10 million to accelerate the commercial deployment of tidal energy technology in Scottish waters. As of 31 March 2020 a total of £4.9 million has been awarded to projects under the Fund.

The Scottish Government has indirectly funded a number a number of schemes through our enterprise agencies since 2009 to encourage research and development, the deployment of prototypes and the commercialisation of both wave and tidal energy technologies. For example, between 2013 and 2016 the Scottish Government invested almost £11 million through the Marine Renewables Commercialisation Fund (MRCF) to support the development of wave and tidal energy projects in Scotland. Initiatives supported indirectly by the Scottish Government through its enterprise agencies include the OCEANERA-NET programme for collaborative European marine energy projects, and commercial investments in projects through the Renewable Energy Investment Fund.

The spend for Carbon Capture Storage since 2009 is £5.25 million. The table below sets out this spending:

Date	Recipient /notes	Funding
2009/10	CCS successor research project	£75k
2011/12	QUICS Project	£100k
2011/12	SCCS- Start Up Fund from SFC	£2m
2015/16	SCCS – Direct Grant Funding	£75k
2015/16	SCCS – Funding for SCCS representation at Guangdong CCUS Centre, China	£100k
2015/16	Summit Power – FEED design	£2.5m
2017/18	SCCS – Direct Grant Funding	£250k
2018/19	SCCS – Direct Grant Funding	£150k
	Total	£5.25 m

Regarding part 4 of your question:

The Climate Challenge Fund supports communities across Scotland to take action on climate change. The Scottish Government's Climate Challenge Fund (CCF) was launched in 2008 and over 1,150 projects across all 32 local authorities have been awarded CCF grants.

Keep Scotland Beautiful manages the fund on behalf of the Scottish Government and an independent grants panel makes recommendations to Ministers on which projects should be funded. A link to their website is provided below which notes that the total CCF funding since 2008 exceeds £111 million: https://www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org/ccf

Additionally, to assist with your enquiries a link is provided below which highlights the list of projects provided with funding from 2019 to 2021: https://www.gov.scot/publications/climate-challenge-fund-projects-funded-for-2019-2021/

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have most of the information you have requested. The reasons why we don’t have the information are explained in the Annex to this letter.

Annex - Reasons for not providing information
The Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have asked for because the Scottish Government has not budgeted costs for decarbonisation up to 2050. The Scottish Budget takes place on an annual basis and is dependent upon budget consequentials arising from the annual UK Government budget.

The Scottish Government does not hold information in the other areas that you requested, for example you asked for the costs of the Scottish Government’s subsidies to companies providing all wind and solar energy installations. The Scottish Government does not support companies through CARES, the Scottish Government’s Community and Renewable Energy Scheme, and Scottish Enterprise, who deliver EIF, has not provided subsidies to wind or solar projects. Additionally, the Scottish Government does not hold information for one of your queries since the electricity network and regulation are reserved matters, meaning that there are no Scottish Government costs or expenditure in these areas at all.

To help with your enquiries, you might want to examine this short paper from the Climate Change Committee: https://www.theccc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Technical-Annex-Integrating-variable-renewables-into-the-UK-electricity-system.pdf

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

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