Inserted section A2 (Scottish carbon budgets and associated concepts)
13.Inserted section A2 sets up the conceptual framework around Scottish carbon budgets so that those concepts can be used elsewhere in the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009. In particular:
a Scottish carbon budget is defined to be an amount of tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent allocated to a given period,
a Scottish carbon budget is said to be exceeded where the net Scottish emissions account for a period exceeds the Scottish carbon budget for the period,
a Scottish carbon budget target is defined to mean not exceeding the Scottish carbon budget for a period.
14.Scottish carbon budgets will be set by regulations made by the Scottish Ministers under inserted section A4.
15.Inserted section A2(4) glosses references elsewhere in the 2009 Act that are predicated on emissions reduction targets being in respect of a year to allow for Scottish carbon budget targets being in respect of a period. For example, section 9(2) of the 2009 Act requires the Scottish Ministers to request a report within two years of the end of each target year about (amongst other things) whether the emissions reduction target for the year was met. A Scottish carbon budget target is a target for aggregate emissions reduction over a number of years, not a target for a single year. Inserted section A2(4) clarifies that when section 9(2), and other provisions that are similarly expressed, refer to the target for a year being met, they are referring, in the context of a Scottish carbon budget target, to the budget not being exceeded over the whole of the period covered by the budget rather than the target being met in any single year of the period.
