Scotland's costs towards net zero target: EIR release

Information requested

Could you supply the latest cost/analysis to Scots of achieving net zero?

Response

As the information you have requested is ‘environmental information’ for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.

This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.

Scottish Government uses five-yearly climate change plans (CCP), each covering a fifteen-year period, to plot Scotland's course toward Net Zero. Our next CCP, to be published in draft later this year, will set out a costed pathway, consistent with our forthcoming carbon budgets, for the period 2026-2040.

The most complete set of indicative cost estimates for Scotland of reaching Net Zero has been produced by our independent adviser, the Climate Change Committee (CCC) in 2020 for the UK’s Carbon Budget 6 (CB6). The CCC estimates cover the period 2020-2050 and align with their Balanced Pathway scenario which aligns with the UK’s 2050 Net Zero target. The CCC estimates for Scotland show (adjusted to 2024 prices):

• Total additional investment costs 2020-2050: £145 billion
• Peak annual investment costs 2035: £7 billion
• Annual average investment costs over period of CCP 2026-2040: £5.6 billion

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.