Programme for Government 2025 to 2026

3 Tackling the Climate Emergency

To deliver for Scotland we have:

• Tripled the size of the green jobs market in Scotland since 2021
• Held the world’s largest floating offshore wind leasing round
• Created the most generous concessionary travel scheme in the UK, where over 2.3 million cardholders benefit from free bus travel
• Continued to offer some of the most generous grants and loans in the UK to support clean heating and energy efficiency, including up to £15,000 grants through our Home Energy Scotland Grant and Loan Scheme
• In the last 5 years, created 75% of all new UK woodlands in Scotland
• Invested over £55m in projects through our Nature Restoration Fund
• Increased investment for Sustainable and Active Travel from £115m in 2021-22 to over £188m in 2025-26

A 20-year mission

This Government is working hard to address the twin crises of climate change and nature loss – the devastating consequences of which are playing out at home and abroad, including damaging wildfires and floods witnessed in Scotland recently. It is more important than ever that we embrace and champion the green revolution to improve the lives of current and future generations both here and overseas.

The journey to net zero also presents significant opportunities – for people, communities, and businesses. Between 1990 and 2022 our emissions halved while the economy grew by 66.6%, showing that a thriving economy and falling emissions can be achieved in tandem.

The coming year will be critical for this pathway, as we set out a route map to reducing emissions and growing the green economy: setting carbon budgets before the summer and publishing our Climate Change Plan by the end of this Parliament which will set out policies and proposals to deliver carbon budgets up to 2040 in a way that delivers a just transition.

A green industrial revolution

Renewable energy generated in Scotland can pave the way for lower bills, while green industries can create jobs and growth. To maximise the economic potential of the opportunities set out in our Green Industrial Strategy, we will remove blockers, create an enabling environment, and make sure that the communities hosting infrastructure directly benefit from it, including:

• Leveraging private investment to develop supply chain clusters for offshore wind to boost local job opportunities, maximising the impact of our commitment to invest up to £500 million over 5 years, including £150 million in 2025-26.
• Publish a joint offshore wind skills action plan in the autumn, focused on addressing critical skills gaps, in partnership with industry, the STUC, and public sector.
• Establishing and delivering an Offshore Wind Skills Programme in our colleges, helping to create region-specific training hubs for offshore wind skills.
• Delivering a new bidding round for the North East and Moray Just Transition Fund – worth up to £8.5 million – focussed on projects that support jobs, skills and economic opportunities.
• Supporting communities to benefit directly from investment in energy infrastructure in their areas – providing up to £8 million through Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES), for communities to develop renewable energy projects.
• Working with the UK Government to reform the consenting process through the Planning and Infrastructure Bill – reducing timescales to make decisions about whether large scale energy generation and network infrastructure can proceed and how communities can engage earlier in the process.

Scotland’s green industrial revolution will support a growing economy, provide quality jobs and support our current industry in the just transition to a net zero future. The Scottish Government is providing support in essential areas, including energy transformation, hydrogen and Carbon Capture and Storage (CCUS). Grangemouth is an exemplar on where this support coalesces to drive a prosperous future for Scottish Industry. We will:

• Support the Acorn carbon capture and storage project to obtain Track 2 status. The Scottish Government has committed £80 million to make this happen but, given the importance of this keystone project for the Scottish economy, we are now willing, as part of a wider package of investment in industrial transformation, to increase Scottish funding for Acorn to partner with investment from the UK Government. We hope our willingness to increase our investment as a partner will enable the UK Government to approve the Acorn project in the UK Spending Review. This will help unlock billions of pounds in investment at key industrial sites across Scotland.
• To further support Scotland’s industrial transition, continue to deliver the Scottish Industrial Energy Transformation Fund, co-investing up to £5 million in 2025-26 with manufacturers to deliver projects that improve energy-efficiency, reduce emissions, drive productivity and increase sustainability.

• Deliver our £25 million Grangemouth Just Transition Fund. Grangemouth is central to Scotland’s industrialised future and our fund will – support industrial transformation, focussing initially on, but not limited to, the immediate opportunities identified by Project Willow – while supporting business to bring forward additional low carbon projects.
• Provide up to £10 million in 2025/26 to support growth in the hydrogen sector recognising that hydrogen is a critical component of Scotland’s route to net zero by 2045 and has a pivotal role in industrial transformation, including at Grangemouth.

Decarbonising transport

Acting on transport emissions is vital to our net-zero progress, with domestic transport remaining Scotland’s largest source of emissions. Alongside the necessary action by the UK Government, we will support transport services, people and business to reduce their emissions and adapt to climate change, including:

• Introducing new rural and island EV infrastructure grants to help deliver approximately 24,000 additional public electric vehicle charge points by 2030.
• Introducing a new pilot grant scheme to help households without off-street parking to install cross-pavement EV charging solutions.
• Providing up to £4 million to increase the shift of freight from road to rail through the Freight Facilities Grant, and a first round of funding for the HGV sector to explore investments in decarbonised vehicles, charging and fuelling options.
• Expanding support for skills to help businesses and the workforce to adapt to zero emission vehicles, with £350,000 to develop capacity in colleges in EV and charge point maintenance and repair and a further £400,000 for a new heavy-duty vehicle just transition initiative.
• Publishing jointly with COSLA a renewed policy statement on reducing car use in Scotland, which will set a successor target for car use reduction aligned with the development of the draft Climate Change Plan, and working with COSLA and regional transport partnerships to develop delivery plans for car use reduction, reflective of different communities and places.

Decarbonising heat in buildings and tackling fuel poverty

Heating our homes, workplaces, and other buildings is the third largest cause of greenhouse gas emissions in Scotland. We are committed to decarbonising Scotland’s buildings in a way that does not penalise individuals but does help tackle the climate emergency, rising energy bills, and fuel poverty. We will accelerate action on energy efficiency and clean heating, and build a solid foundation for the next 20 years by:

• Supporting 20,000 households to save up to £500 on energy bills per year, by investing £300 million in 2025-26 to help households and other building owners install energy efficiency and clean heating measures.
• Introducing a Heat in Buildings Bill, setting targets for installing clean heating systems by 2045 – giving a clear signal to home and buildings owners to act when upgrading their heating system, including provisions to support development of heat networks.
• Improving our public-facing schemes, by simplifying the application process and ensuring that Home Energy Scotland is recognised as a single access point – streamlining the process and making it easier for households to access support.

This is not just an issue of climate justice but also social justice. Modelling shows that, if not for the increases in the energy price cap seen in the last few years, around 389,000 fewer households would be living in fuel poverty. Targeted fuel bill support is urgently needed to ensure that consumers are protected against high costs at source and can afford energy. We have worked with energy providers and advice groups to come up with a deliverable Social Tariff scheme, which demonstrates clear consensus on the way forward. However, the fundamental levers to make a difference lie with the UK Government. We will continue to call on the UK Government to deliver a unit rate discount for energy, with the level of discount proportionate to need.

Reversing the decline of nature

Scotland’s natural heritage is one of our greatest assets. We will work with all our communities and land managers on actions to restore and protect nature and to support efforts to adapt to climate change whilst also reducing our emissions. We will act to halt this loss and ensure our natural resources are protected, including:

• Supporting farmers and crofters to produce food, reduce emissions and deliver biodiversity improvements, through uptake of key baselining activities such as carbon and biodiversity audits and soil analysis.
• Establishing statutory targets to improve biodiversity.
• Increasing the scale and pace of peatland restoration to at least 12,000 hectares, up from a current target of 10,000, this year and creating at least 10,000 hectares of woodlands - which will include over 4,000 hectares of native woodland.
• Implementing the Future Farming Investment Scheme, delivering £14 million of capital support to encourage farmers and crofters to carry out investments to improve business efficiency and achieve nature and climate outcomes. We will also explore opportunities for greater public and private investment in our rural economy with a focus on new entrants to farming, net zero and biodiversity.
• Extending our Nature Restoration Fund in 2026/27 to enable funding of a further round of multi-year projects to help deliver the priorities set out in our Biodiversity Strategy.
• Considering with stakeholders the development of local pilot projects on deer management programmes, including an implementation plan and funding models.

Adapting to climate impacts

The climate emergency is not a distant threat, it is with us today and the impacts are on our doorstep. While Scotland will continue to play our part in reducing emissions, we must also recognise warming trends for the next two decades are set because of past global emissions. Having published our Scottish National Adaptation Plan in September 2024, the focus is now on delivering on those commitments, including:

• Expanding national coverage of Regional Adaptation Partnerships, building on success in the Clyde, Highland, Southeast Scotland and Tayside regions, with a view to achieving national coverage by 2029.
• Establishing a national flood advisory service to bring more consistency, efficiency and value to how large value flood protection schemes are delivered as part of implementation of Scotland’s National Flood Resilience Strategy.
• Developing adaptation guidance specifically for the social care sector, recognising that climate changes do not impact us equally, with some people uniquely vulnerable.
• Through our Adaptation Scotland programme, starting adaptation training services for sectors particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
• Publishing a Trunk Road Adaptation Plan and working to improve the resilience of our railways.
• Supporting projects through our Climate Engagement Fund, which aims to reach over 7,000 individuals, to build climate knowledge and skills among new audiences.
• Providing training, resources and support through our Climate Action Schools to improve climate literacy and enable climate action among schools, educators and pupils across Scotland, engaging over 1,160 schools.
• Using Scotland’s Climate Week to celebrate and showcase climate action from government, business and individuals to build a sense of community, collaboration and agency in tackling the emergency.
• Banning the sale and supply of single use vapes from 1 June 2025 to reduce vaping among non-smokers and young people and tackle their environmental impact.

Global climate justice

Alongside our domestic action Scotland will continue playing a role in securing global change. At a time of spiralling climate disruption globally we will not turn our backs on those overseas who need assistance or look to balance the books on the backs of those hit hardest, including:

• Leading on climate action internationally, leveraging our presidency of Regions4 and co-chair position in Under2, to drive forward ambition and implement bold climate action across counterpart governments around the world.
• At COP30, pushing for recognition of the importance of devolved nations in delivering global climate ambition and the needs of those who have done the least to cause climate change but are suffering the most from it.
• Keeping our promise to countries across the Global South to invest £36 million over this Parliament to support climate justice.