Net Zero Assessment: Pilot report

Annex A- Existing climate change assessments by Scottish Government

The SG currently has a significant degree of net zero scrutiny for its policy decisions and business cases through its existing impact assessments. Both statutory Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) and Business Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA) are designed to capture the emissions and wider impacts of policies, while business cases have a number of constituent assessments including an environmental case.

Under section 94 of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009, the SG has published statutory Carbon Assessments of the Budget since 2010-11. The Carbon Assessment of the 2025-26 Budget was published on 4 December 2024.

Under section 94A of the 2009 Act, a Carbon Assessment of the Infrastructure Investment Plan for Scotland 2021-22 to 2025-26 was published on 17 January 2024, drawing on a range of evidence, including results from a taxonomy assessment. The assessment aims to show how the plan is expected to contribute to the meeting of Scotland’s emissions reduction targets.

In 2022, the SG published guidance on managing carbon emissions associated with Scottish City Region and Growth Deal projects – an approach that could be considered an emerging form of 'Net Zero Test', where the effect of a project, policy or programme on climate change mitigation can be assessed using a proportionate, consistent and tiered approach.

Under section 35(21) of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009, future Climate Change Plans must set out estimates of the costs and benefits associated with the policies set out in the plan.