Overview of the Act and General Notes
Interpretation
Part 1: Emissions Reduction Targets
Chapter 1: Modification of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009
Sections 3 to 8: Climate change plan
Background: meaning of climate change plan
43.Sections 3 to 8 of the Act concern climate change plans. A climate change plan is a document that the Scottish Ministers are required to produce periodically under section 35 of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009. Section 35 lists matters that a climate change plan is to cover. In broad terms, the plan is to set out how the Scottish Ministers envisage emissions being reduced over the lifetime of the plan.
Section 3: Next plan to follow setting of budgets
44.Section 3 of the Act sets the deadlines for the Scottish Ministers to lay before the Scottish Parliament first a draft climate change plan, and then the first finalised climate change plan.
45.Section 3(1) of the Act requires a draft plan to be laid before the Parliament within 2 months of the regulations setting the first Scottish carbon budgets coming into force. Regulations setting Scottish carbon budgets are to be made under the new section A4 of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 (see paragraphs 17 to 21 above).
46.Before the Scottish Ministers can lay a finalised climate change plan before the Parliament, section 35A of the 2009 Act requires a minimum period to have elapsed since they laid a draft plan before the Parliament. The minimum period is 120 days, but only 60 days during which the Parliament is dissolved or in recess can be counted towards the minimum period, therefore the period may be longer than 120 calendar days. The laying of a draft plan before the Parliament as required by section 3(1) of the Act will start the clock on the minimum period required by section 35A of the 2009 Act.
47.Section 3(3) of the Act modifies section 35 of the 2009 Act so that the Scottish Ministers must lay the first finalised climate change plan before the Parliament within 90 days of the stopping of the clock that started when a draft plan was laid before the Parliament as required by section 3(1) of the Act. In counting that 90 day period, only 45 days during which the Parliament is dissolved or in recess can be counted.
48.In summary, as a result of section 3 of the Act:
a draft climate change plan has to be laid before the Parliament within 2 months of the first Scottish carbon budgets being set,
it becomes lawful for the Scottish Ministers to lay a finalised plan before the Parliament 120 countable days after laying the draft plan (for this purpose a day is not a countable day if the Parliament is dissolved or in recess on the day and 60 days on which the Parliament was dissolved or in recess have already been counted),
the Scottish Ministers must lay a finalised plan before the Parliament within 90 countable days of its becoming lawful to do so (for this purpose a day is not a countable day if the Parliament is dissolved or in recess on the day and 45 days on which the Parliament was dissolved or in recess have already been counted).
Section 4: Content of plan: budget-period breakdown of costs and benefits
49.Section 4 of the Act modifies section 35 of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 in relation to the information that a climate change plan must contain.
50.Section 35(21) of the 2009 Act requires that a climate change plan include an estimate of the costs and benefits associated with the policies described by the plan. Section 4 of the Act modifies that provision to require those estimates to be broken down by reference to the Scottish carbon budget periods within which the estimated costs and benefits are expected to arise.
51.For an explanation of Scottish carbon budgets, and the periods they cover, see paragraphs 12 to 23 above.
Section 5: Content of plan: contribution of policies to meeting targets
52.Section 5 of the Act modifies section 35 of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 in relation to the information that a climate change plan must contain.
53.Subsection (5) of section 35 of the 2009 Act requires that a climate change plan break down the expected contributions to meeting emissions reduction targets that will be made by different sectors listed in subsection (3) of the section (for example, the energy-supply sector and the agricultural sector). Section 5 of the Act amends section 35(5) of the 2009 Act to create a further requirement for climate change plans to include a breakdown of the expected contribution to meeting emissions reduction targets that will be made by groups of associated policies. It will be for the authors of a plan to group associated policies, but an example may be a collection policies connected by the common theme of “active travel”.
Section 6: Preparation of plan: public consultation
54.Section 6 of the Act inserts a new section 35ZA into the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 to create a requirement for the Scottish Ministers to consult publicly to inform the proposals and policies to be set out in a climate change plan. The new section further requires the Scottish Ministers to lay a statement before the Scottish Parliament, ahead of carrying out such a consultation, describing their approach to the consultative process. The duty created by the new section applies only to climate change plans that are to be laid before the Parliament under section 35(1)(b) of the 2009 Act, which means that it does not apply to the first climate change plan to be prepared.
Section 7: Preparation of plan: further consultation
55.Section 7 of the Act modifies section 35A of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009, creating an express requirement for the Scottish Ministers to solicit the views of persons with particular kinds of expertise when finalising a climate change plan.
56.Section 35A of the 2009 Act prevents the Scottish Ministers from finalising a climate change plan until a draft of it has lain before the Scottish Parliament for a fixed period. This provides an opportunity for views to be received on the plan in draft form. Before they can finalise the plan, the Scottish Ministers must have regard to any views received in relation to the draft plan.
57.Section 7 of the Act amends section 35A of the 2009 Act so that, as well as laying a draft of a climate change plan before the Parliament, the Scottish Ministers must actively seek views from persons with knowledge of international law or policy relating to climate change, scientific knowledge about climate change and technical knowledge about climate change. It further amends section 35A of the 2009 Act to make clear that the Scottish Ministers must have regard to any views on the draft plan from those whose views were sought in accordance with the new duty.
Section 8: Requirement to respond to parliamentary reports and resolutions on draft plan
58.Section 8 of the Act amends section 35A of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 to impose a duty on the Scottish Ministers to respond to parliamentary resolutions and reports in relation to draft climate change plans within 3 months of the resolution or report.
59.Section 35A(1) of the 2009 Act requires that, before laying a final climate change plan before the Scottish Parliament, the Scottish Ministers must first have laid a draft plan before the Parliament. It also requires the Scottish Ministers, in preparing a finalised plan, to have regard to (amongst other things) resolutions about the draft plan passed by the Parliament and reports about the draft plan published by committees of the Parliament. Section 35A(2) requires that, alongside a finalised plan, the Scottish Ministers lay before the Parliament a statement providing details of any such resolution or report and what (if any) changes have been made to the plan in response.
60.Section 8 of the Act inserts a new subsection (1A) into section 35A of the 2009 Act. The new subsection (1A) sets a 3 month deadline for the Scottish Ministers to publish a response to a parliamentary resolution or report in relation to a draft climate change plan.
61.As mentioned, before new subsection (1A) was inserted there was an existing requirement in section 35A(2) for the Scottish Ministers to respond to such resolutions and reports by laying a statement before the Parliament at the same time as laying before the Parliament a finalised climate change plan. In addition to the new subsection (1A), section 8 of the Act inserts a new subsection (1B) into section 35A of the 2009 Act, which makes clear that the requirement for a response created by the new subsection (1A) can be fulfilled by laying before the Parliament the statement required by section 35A(2). In other words if, within the 3 month deadline set by subsection (1A), the Scottish Ministers have responded to a parliamentary resolution or report by laying before the Parliament a statement in accordance with subsection (2), they do not need to publish a separate response to the resolution or report in order to fulfil the requirements of new subsection (1A).
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