Scottish Climate Survey: main findings

Active travel

Active travel is walking, wheeling or cycling for a purposeful journey. Wheeling includes using a wheelchair or mobility aid as an alternative to walking.

Biodiversity

Biodiversity is the variety of life on Earth, and is essential for sustaining the ecosystems that provide food, fuel, health, wealth, and other vital services.

Scotland is currently experiencing a ‘biodiversity crisis’ due to a decline in the variety and abundance of animal and plant life found across the country.

Green and blue spaces

Green and blue spaces include the 'green' and 'blue' features of towns and cities that can provide environmental benefits and contribute to quality of life. Green spaces include countryside, woods, parks or play areas. Blue spaces are bodies of water and areas near them, such as beaches, rivers, lochs or canals.

Disabled respondents

Disabled respondents are those who said in their responses to the survey that they have a physical or mental health condition or illness lasting, or expected to last, 12 months that reduces their ability to carry out day-to-day activities.

Energy hub areas

Energy hub areas are the five local authorities in Scotland with the largest share of their employment being in the energy sector.

Respondents living in the Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire, Falkirk, Highland or Perth and Kinross local authorities were classed as living in an energy hub area.

Flood risk areas

Flood risk areas are areas likely to flood from rivers, the sea and surface water. Respondents were classed as living in a flood risk area if their postcode fell within a Flood Risk Management Target Area (FRM TA). FRM TAs are the focus of targeted flood risk management objectives and actions, as identified in Scotland’s National Flood Risk Management Plans 2021.

Scotland’s transition to net zero

‘Scotland’s transition to net zero’ means the actions being taken to reduce the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. ‘Net zero’ would be achieved when the amount of emissions produced is equal to or less than the amount removed from the atmosphere.

SIMD areas

The Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) looks at the extent to which an area is deprived across measures including income, employment, education, health, access to services, crime and housing.

References to most and least deprived areas are based on the Scottish Government’s SIMD 2020 quintiles, where SIMD area 1 includes the most deprived areas and SIMD area 5 includes the least deprived areas.

Urban / rural areas

Reference to urban and rural areas are based on the Scottish Government’s 2-fold and 6-fold Urban Rural Classification 2022.

White / Minority ethnic respondents

In this report, the term ‘White respondents’ is used to refer to those who completed the survey and responded that their ethnic group was ‘White - Scottish’, ‘White - other British’, ‘White - Irish’ or ‘White - other’.

‘Minority ethnic respondents’ are those who responded that their ethnic group was any of ‘Mixed or multiple ethnic group’, ‘Asian, Asian Scottish or Asian British’, ‘African’, ‘Caribbean or Black’ or ‘Other ethnic group’.