Scottish Greenhouse Gas Statistics 2024
Official statistics showing emissions of greenhouse gases in Scotland over the period 1990 to 2024.
Chart 4 shows how emissions have changed between 1990 and 2024 in all source categories. Chart 5 shows how emissions have changed between 2023 and 2024.
Chart 4. Change in net emissions by Territorial Emissions Statistics Sector between 1990 and 2024
Chart 5. Change in net emissions by Territorial Emissions Statistics Sector between 2023 and 2024.
Total Emissions
Overall, there has been a 39.7 MtCO2e (50.5 per cent) decrease in net emissions between 1990 and 2024. In the latest year, 2024, total net emissions fell by 0.4 MtCO2e (1.0%).
Land Use, Land Use Change And Forestry (LULUCF)
LULUCF is a net source of GHG emissions in Scotland in 2024, emitting 0.2 MtCO2e of net emissions. In 1990 net emissions were 5.8 MtCO2e. In the period 2008-2018, and 2020-2022, LULUCF exhibited net removals of greenhouse gases in Scotland.
Chart 6 below shows, for each sub-sector of the land use sector in 2024, that the net total includes some significant emissions sources, and equally significant ‘sinks’ which remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Forestry and grassland on mineral soils categories are net sinks of GHG emissions in 2024, removing a net amount of GHG emissions of 7.5 MtCO2e and 3.6 MtCO2e respectively. All other land use types are net sources of greenhouse gas emissions, with peatlands and mineral croplands showing substantial net emissions to the atmosphere.
Chart 6. Sources and sinks of GHG emissions in Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry, Scotland, 2024
* Cropland and Grassland relate to mineral soils only; emissions from these categories on organic soils are included in the Peatland category.
Domestic Transport
Domestic Transport has consistently been a large part of Scotland’s emissions. This sector showed dramatic reduction in emissions associated with the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020 (-2.6 MtCO2e) but rebounded in 2021 by 1.1 MtCO2e, and increased again in 2022 by 0.2 MtCO2e. In the latest year, domestic transport emissions grew slightly by 0.1 MtCO2e.
Electricity supply
Energy Supply was historically the biggest contributor to emissions, but has seen very large changes over the period covered by these statistics, reducing from 14.7 MtCO2e in 1990 to 1.1 MtCO2e in 2024 (92.7 per cent reduction). Overall emissions reductions in this sector are mainly due to reductions in emissions as a result of the complete cessation of coal use for electricity generation in Scotland, and a reduction in fossil fuel generation more generally.
Between 2023 and 2024 Electricity Supply emissions decreased by 0.1 MtCO2e (6.2 per cent reduction). This decrease was largely due to decreased gas generation during 2024.
Chart 7 below shows a breakdown of electricity generation emissions in Scotland, by fuel. It shows that coal fired power stations emitted a very large amount of emissions historically (peaking at a level of 15.2 MtCO2e in 2001 but showed a dramatic decrease in emissions starting from 2013, before ceasing entirely from 2017.
Gas generation has shown a generally decreasing trend over the time-series from 1995.
Energy from waste (EfW) emissions have historically been very low and only reached a notable level in recent years. In 2024, EfW plants contributed 39.3 per cent of total emissions from electricity generation, largely due to the reduced contribution of gas generation to the energy mix.
Chart 7. Electricity generation emissions by fuel source, Scotland, 1990-2024.
Industry
This sector has seen a 8.0 MtCO2e (62.8 per cent) fall in emissions between 1990 and 2024. As shown in Chart 3, much of this decrease occurred between 1990 and 1995 – linked to a decline in emissions from manufacturing and the iron and steel industry over this time period. There was a further smaller reduction between 2008 and 2009 coinciding with the recession. Between 2023 and 2024 there was a reduction of 0.3 MtCO2e in total emissions from industry.
Agriculture
This sector has seen a 1.2 MtCO2e (13.7 per cent) fall in emissions between 1990 and 2024. Between 2023 and 2024 agricultural emissions reduced marginally by 0.4%. Further analysis of agricultural emissions is available at https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-agriculture-greenhouse-gas-emissions nitrogen-use-2024-25/
Buildings and product uses
The Buildings and product uses sector is dominated by direct fuel combustion for home heating in households, and other buildings. There has been a reduction of 31.0 per cent between 1990 and 2024. This long-term decrease is mainly due to a switch from less efficient solid and liquid fuels to natural gas for heating, and improvements in energy efficiency.
Buildings and product uses increased marginally between 2023 and 2024 from 7.5 MtCO2e to 7.6 MtCO2e (1.3 per cent). Chart 8 below shows buildings emissions with and without a correction for ambient temperatures (degree heating days)[1] and indicates that this had little impact on growth in the latest year.
[1] This temperature corrected series should be considered as Official Statistics in Development and will be subject to further development and quality assurance.
Chart 8. Buildings emissions, raw and temperature-adjusted 1998-2024. (MtCO2e)
International Aviation and shipping (IA&S)
International aviation was affected dramatically during the early part of the COVID-19 restrictions with International shipping affected to a lesser degree. Between 1990 and 2024, international aviation and shipping increased by 0.3 MtCO2e. Between 2023 and 2024 international aviation and shipping emissions increased by 0.2 MtCO2e (8.0 per cent increase) and have now essentially returned to their pre-COVID levels.
Waste Management
Waste management emissions are dominated by methane emissions. Emissions from Waste Management have been relatively static over recent years, with a value of 1.7 MtCO2e in 2024 (reducing by 0.1 MtCO2e). However, between 1990 and 2024 emissions reduced by 3.1 MtCO2e (64.3 per cent). This decrease is largely due to the progressive introduction of methane capture and oxidation systems within landfill management.
Fuel supply
Fuel supply emissions relate to the production and supply of fossil fuels and other energy sources. These emissions have more than halved since 1990, reducing by 3.8 MtCO2e over that period.