Scotland's draft climate Change Plan 2026-2040: Fairer Scotland Duty assessment

2. Approach to Assessment of Impacts

2.1 Introduction

As a public body, the Scottish Government has a legal duty when creating new plans and policies to pay due regard to the Fairer Scotland Duty, Part 1 of the Equality Act 2010. This report assesses potential impacts on socio-economically disadvantaged groups arising from policies for each of the different sectors covered within the draft CCP:

• Business and Industrial Process,
• Energy Supply,
• Buildings (Public and Residential),
• Agriculture,
• Land Use Land Use Change and Reform (LULUCF),
• Transport, and
• Waste and Circular Economy.

2.2 Approach

The approach to undertaking the assessment documented in this report has involved a three-stage process:

1. Key Issues and evidence review – an evidence base was collated which reflected publicly available data and Scottish Government reports, information provided by Scottish Government officers and research into relevant policy, legislation, proposal documents and discussion papers,

2. Assessment of potential impacts – informed by a consideration of the evidence assembled under 1; and

3. Recommendations and conclusions – including any recommendations for further considering impacts of the draft CCP on socio-economically disadvantaged groups.

2.3 Key Issues and Evidence

The Scottish Government conducted an initial review of the policies and proposals included within the draft CCP. The subsequent evidence review included a set of sectoral scoping documents completed by Scottish Government policy leads, provided on the available evidence and impacts identified to date relating to the policies and proposals within the draft CCP. The evidence was reviewed based on each climate change outcome contained within the plan and the policies and proposals which relate to each outcome.

The evidence reviews also included a review of relevant documentation related to the draft CCP, including strategies and statements detailing respective key targets for each sector.

2.4 Assessment of Potential Impacts

The assessment of impacts takes into account the information gathered through the above activities. A judgement is made as to how the policies and proposals in the draft CCP would contribute to reducing inequalities of outcome as a result of socio-economic disadvantage. The assessment identifies positive and negative impacts as well as instances where particular policies may have no (or a negligible) impact or that the nature of any impact is at this stage uncertain.

2.5 Conclusions and Recommendations

The final section of this report provides a concluding summary of the impacts on socio-economically disadvantaged groups with respect to the draft CCP. This includes the potential to reduce inequalities of outcome resulting from socio-economic disadvantage.