Draft Environment Strategy: strategic environmental assessment

Chapter 1: Introduction

Purpose of this Report

1.1 The Scottish Government has prepared the detailed content of the Environment Strategy, building on the vision and outcomes document which was published in 2020. Scotland’s Environment Strategy and its implementation lie at the heart of Scotland’s commitment to achieve nature restoration and net zero by 2045. It provides an overarching framework to bring Scotland’s environment and climate strategies and plans together and identify and guide future strategic priorities and opportunities, governance and monitoring to tackle the climate and nature emergencies.

1.2 LUC was appointed by the Scottish Government in October 2024 to undertake a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) and Habitats Regulations Appraisal (HRA) of Scotland’s Environment Strategy. The purpose of this Environmental Report is to present the findings of the SEA and HRA process.

Draft Environment Strategy

1.3 The Environment Strategy creates an overarching strategic framework for Scotland’s policies on the environment and climate change. One of its key aims is to support a whole-of-government approach to tackling the climate and nature emergencies. The strategy was placed on a statutory basis by the UK Withdrawal from the European Union (Continuity) (Scotland) Act 2021 ('the Continuity Act'), with Section 47 requiring Scottish Ministers to prepare and publish an environmental policy strategy.

1.4 The Scottish Government is taking a phased approach to developing the Environment Strategy. Its vision and outcomes were published in 2020, followed by an initial monitoring framework and website for tracking progress towards these outcomes, published in 2021.

1.5 The Environment Strategy will sit alongside existing high-level Scottish Government policy frameworks, including Scotland's Economic Strategy, the Fairer Scotland Action Plan, the National Transport Strategy and the National Planning Framework 4. It will bring together existing and planned strategies and plans such as the Climate Change Plan, the Scottish National Adaptation Plan 3, the Cleaner Air for Scotland 2 Strategy, the River Basin Management Plan for Scotland 2021-2027, Scotland’s Zero Waste Plan and the Circular Economy and Waste Routemap to 2030.

1.6 The strategy was developed in response to the growing challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss. It is designed to be a high-level policy which provides an overarching framework regarding Scotland’s terrestrial and marine environment to bring Scotland’s strategies and plans together and identify and guide future strategic priorities and opportunities, governance and monitoring. It will bring improved coordination on the environment between different Scottish Government policy areas. It will also bring together links between environmental, social and economic policies.

Strategic Environmental Assessment

1.7 The Environmental Assessment (Scotland) Act 2005 (‘the 2005 Act’)^[26], is a means to judge the likely impact of a plan, programme or strategy on the environment and to seek ways to minimise adverse effects, if likely to be significant. The Environment Strategy falls with section 5 (3) of the 2005 Act, requiring an SEA to be undertaken.

1.8 The Scottish Government, which is preparing the Environment Strategy, is the 'Responsible Authority' with a duty to undertake the SEA, and LUC has been commissioned to do this on its behalf.

1.9 The SEA process comprises a number of stages:

• Pre-screening.
• Screening (preparation of a Screening Report).
• Scoping (preparation of a Scoping Report).
• Environmental Assessment (preparation of an Environmental Report).
• Main consultation on the Environmental Report and Draft Environment Strategy.
• Preparation of a Post-adoption SEA Statement.
• Monitoring the significant environmental effects of implementing the Environment Strategy.

1.10 A Screening and Scoping Report was prepared and submitted to the SEA Gateway in November 2024, and the comments received have informed the content of the Environmental Report. This report is the output of the Environmental Assessment referred to in the fourth bullet above.

The UK withdrawal from the European Union (Continuity) (Scotland) Act 2021^[27]

1.11 Section 14 of the Continuity Act places a duty on Scottish Ministers to have due regard to the ‘guiding principles’ on the environment when developing policy, including the development of legislation. The guiding principles are set out below and have been taken into account in the preparation of the Environmental Report: The guiding principles as set out in Section 13 (1) of the Act are:

• the principle that protecting the environment should be integrated into the making of policies,
• the precautionary principle as it relates to the environment,
• the principle that preventative action should be taken to avert environmental damage,
• the principle that environmental damage should as a priority be rectified at source,
• the principle that the polluter should pay.

Structure of the Environmental Report

1.12 This chapter has described the contents and main objectives of the Draft Environment Strategy and the requirement to undertake SEA. The remainder of this report is structured into the following sections:

•  Chapter 2 describes the approach to assessment including the development of an SEA framework, consideration of reasonable alternatives and an outline of difficulties encountered during the assessment.
•  Chapter 3 describes the review of plans, programmes and strategies (PPS) and environmental protection objectives of relevance to the Draft Environment Strategy (this is supported by more detailed information in Appendix A: Plans, programmes and strategies).
•  Chapter 4 presents the baseline information including key trends and environmental problems which informs the assessment of the Draft Environment Strategy.
•  Chapter 5 describes the findings of the SEA, i.e. the environmental effects expected from the Draft Environment Strategy and reasonable alternatives.
•  Chapter 6 describes the mitigation and enhancement measures proposed.
•  Chapter 7 describes the approach to monitoring.
•  Chapter 8 sets out conclusions and the next steps for the Draft Environment Strategy and the environmental assessment process.

1.13 The main body of the report is supported by appendices:

•  Appendix A presents the review of plans, programmes and environmental protection objectives of relevance to the Draft Environment Strategy.
•  Appendix B presents the SEA matrices.
•  Appendix C presents the HRA.