Overview
3.The Act amends the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 in the following ways:
sections 1 and 2 replace the system of annual and interim emissions reduction targets, which are focussed on Scottish emissions of greenhouse gases in a given year, with a system of periodic carbon budgets that are focussed on emissions over a number of years,
sections 3 to 8 make changes to the law surrounding the climate change plans that the Scottish Government is required to produce periodically,
sections 9 to 12 make changes affecting the content, timing and parliamentary handling of different kinds of report about progress towards reducing emissions that the Scottish Government is required to produce.
4.Section 13 does not amend the 2009 Act, but is closely connected to the amendments to that Act made by sections 1 and 2. Specifically, it makes provision about the first exercise of the regulation-making power to set Scottish carbon budgets that section 1 inserts into the 2009 Act.
5.The Act’s remaining sections, contained in Part 2, deal with the matters usually dealt with at the end of an Act, such as when it comes into force and the short title by which it may be formally cited.
