Net zero delivery in Scotland: Letter to the UK Government

To: Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, Ed Miliband MP

From: Cabinet Secretary for Climate Action and Energy, Gillian Martin

05 September 2025

 

Dear Ed,

I am writing to you regarding our joint efforts on tackling climate change and biodiversity loss, and the UK Government’s climate responsibilities in possessing a key role to enable Scotland to meet its net zero ambition, given the constraints of devolution, as well as Scotland’s role in delivering the UK’s 2050 target.

The Climate Change Committee (CCC) makes clear the necessity for shared delivery and collaboration between national governments, suggesting that between 30-60% of the emissions reduction required in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland will be in mostly reserved policy areas. Inversely, the CCC note that around 10% of UK emissions reduction required to meet the recommended Seventh Carbon Budget will come in devolved or partially devolved policy areas. Our governments’ responsibilities are evidently interlinked, and it is imperative that the UK Government understands its role in Scotland’s journey to net zero, as well as Scotland’s crucial role in the UK’s own pathway.

The CCC’s recent advice to both Scotland and the UK is clear on the actions our respective governments must take to meet our shared ambitions on decarbonisation. The CCC’s advice to Scotland highlights, in particular, an issue that the Scottish Government has long called for - the necessity of immediate action to make “electricity cheaper, through re balancing prices to remove policy levies from electricity bills”. This is a key recommendation that the Committee has also made to the UK Government, and which the CCC has stated “will be essential to delivering Scotland’s targets”. I urge the UK Government to consider this again as part of the package of reforms to improve the efficiency of the future power system in GB, as you announced in the Review of electricity market arrangements (REMA): Summer update 2025. It has always been clear, however; the interdependence of our respective statutory net zero targets goes beyond energy.

Given significant parts of the pathway that the CCC recommend fall within reserved policy, I am writing to outline, for clarity, the action that the Scottish Government expects from the UK Government to contribute to the delivery of carbon budgets in Scotland, and our next Climate Change Plan for the period 2026-2040. I have set this out in the Annex and would welcome an urgent meeting with you to discuss this.

I'm looking forward to our discussion at the Net Zero IMG on the CCC's Seventh Carbon Budget advice. In the meantime I look forward to your urgent response on these issues and continuing to work collaboratively with you to deliver climate action.

Yours sincerely,

Gillian Martin 

 

Annex A – Scottish Government requests of the UK Government

Our forthcoming Climate Change Plan sets out our specific requests of the UK Government on a sector-by-sector basis, highlighting the need for additional collaboration, action and ambition, in line with CCC recommendations as we increase our ambition towards the second half of our emissions reduction journey to net zero by 2045. These requests include:

Energy Supply

• Accelerating reform of market arrangements and re-balancing gas and electricity prices to ensure that electricity is more affordable. This could be done via the British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme or other targeted operational support to remove policy levies from electricity bills. This is absolutely critical to delivering the CCC’s targets for Scotland and indeed, all of Great Britain, as decarbonisation over the next decade will need to be driven by the electrification of key technologies and services across the economy.
• Enable quick and lower-cost grid connections through effective connections reform.
• The current system of transmission charges unfairly penalises Scottish renewable energy generators and we urgently need the UK Government to set out a long-term solution to this issue. We are deeply disappointed that they are not implementing a cap and floor mechanism in the short term. We have also called on Ofgem to be open to feedback from the energy industry, which is most adversely impacted by these charges, and to guarantee that it will carefully consider any evidence that it receives ahead of a final decision.
• One of the key criteria in the development and implementation of the Reformed National Pricing Delivery Plan to be: ‘that renewables investment in Scotland is not disincentivised, as it is vital for UK-wide clean energy ambitions’
• SG to be included as a full partner in the ongoing energy market reform programme, given the need for key Scottish projects to be enabled by the market framework, with the issue of high energy bills driving fuel poverty in Scotland to be treated as a central consideration in market reforms.

Business and Industrial Processes

• To unlock the full potential of electrification, the UK Government must accelerate reform of market arrangements, reduce the price of electricity relative to gas by the British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme or other targeted operational support, and enable quick and lower-cost grid connections.
• Provide the committed funding to progress the Acorn Project to Final Investment Decision as quickly as possible, and set out a clear path to full funding package and timeline for the delivery of Acorn and the Scottish Cluster.
• In line with the CCC’s advice, for the UK Government to work collaboratively with the Scottish Government to “support the development of plans to develop Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) and hydrogen in the Scottish Cluster” and to collaborate in developing “new low-carbon industrial opportunities, such as those identified by Project Willow for Grangemouth”.
• To ensure that Scottish business and trade interests are considered in the development of the UK Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) and its interaction with the EU CBAM.

Land Use, forestry, and agriculture

• We call on the UK Government to contribute more financially to peatland restoration in Scotland given its importance in meeting UK emissions targets. Scotland contains over two thirds of the UK’s peatlands which will require much greater investment by Scotland than other nations, and we should not have to fund the majority of peatland restoration on behalf of all of the UK.
• We call on the UK Government to engage in meaningful dialogue with the Scottish Government, and other devolved nations, to ensure ring-fenced multi-annual funding settlements that reflect the real potential for Scotland’s land to deliver for food production, nature and climate. That funding should be flexible and offer at minimum five years of certainty.
• We call on the UK Government to engage in meaningful dialogue with the Scottish Government to ensure Scotland’s agricultural interests are fully represented when it comes decarbonising Non-Road Mobile Machinery.
• We urge the UK Government to properly consider the needs of Scottish agriculture and to protect the high standards our farmers and consumers expect when trade deals are negotiated.

Transport

• We continue to call on the UK Government to take a comprehensive, four-nations approach towards reform of vehicle, road and EV charging taxation to urgently replace dwindling revenues as the transport sector decarbonises as well as phase out non-zero emission HGVs.
• We urge the UK Government, who hold reserved electricity policy powers, to recognise the need to modernise electricity markets, strategy, investment and planning at speed to enable transport electrification across all modes.
• We call for greater progress on the target in the UK ‘Jet Zero’ decarbonisation strategy for UK domestic flights to reach net zero by 2040 and the aspiration for zero emission routes connecting different parts of the UK by 2030.
• We require significant additional investment in shipping at the UK level to go beyond delivering the level of emissions reduction assumed by the CCC, including the renewal often UK Government’s support for the decarbonisation of the UK maritime sector through investment from its UK Shipping Office for Reducing Emissions (UK SHORE).
• We also encourage the UK Government to improve the processes which energy companies use to prioritise strengthening of electricity grid connections to ports for shore powering.