Rob Convener Change Environment. and EDINBURGH EH99 1SP. Committeee. The. welcome) 7 March Dear Rob, from. and.

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1 Public Audit Committee Convener: Iain Gray MSP Rob Gibson MSP Convener Rural Affairs, Climate Change Environment Committeee C/- Room T3. 40 The Scottish Parliamentt Dear Rob, and c/- Room T 3.60 Thee Scottish Parliament EDINBURGH EH99 1SP Direct Tel: (0131) (RNID Typetalk calls welcome) Fax: (0131) (Central) Textphone: (0131) pa.committee@scottish.parliament.uk 7 March At its meeting on 29 February 2012, the Public Audit Committee correspondence from the t Scottish Government andd additional information from Audit Scotland on the Auditor General for Scotland s report entitled Reducing Scottish greenhouse gas emissions. I have attached below web link to the relevant Official report of thee meeting on 29 February /S4_PublicAuditCommittee/Meeting%20Pap ers/ /Papers_ pdf At that meeting the Committee agreed to refer the correspondence and additional information to the Rural Affairs, Climate Change andd Environment Committee given its future f work programme will consider the Scottish Government s Report on Proposals and Policies due for publication this year. This correspondence and information is attached to this letter. In its discussions, members of thee Public Audit Committee expressed concern about the delivery of emissions reductions in transport and howw such policies might work in practice. In that regard the Committeee noted the assumption underpinning the road emissions polices that there would be 100% compliance with speed limits. The Committee agreedd that the Rural Affairs, Climate Change and Environme nt Committee may wish to consider these matters when it considers the Report on Proposal and Policies inn future. For your information I have written to the Director General Enterprise, Environment and Digital seekingg confirmation of when w this report willl be published.

2 Should you have any queries, please contact the clerk to the committee on or Yours sincerely Iain Gray MSP, Convener

3 Correspondence from the Scottish Government dated 2 February 2012 in response to the Public Audit Committee s letter dated 21 December 2011 Dear Convener AUDIT SCOTLAND REPORT REDUCING SCOTTISH GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS I am writing in response to the letter of 21 December 2011 from Hugh Henry in his previous capacity as Convener of the Public Audit Committee. The letter requests further information in relation to the Audit Scotland report, Reducing Scottish greenhouse gas emissions and I will consider each question in turn. Evidence base for transport policies Our analysis for the transport sector is largely based on the findings of a commissioned research report on potential devolved policy options, published in This report Mitigating Transport s Climate Change Impacts in Scotland: Assessment of Policy Options 1 established a long list of options, which were then filtered using a seven stage process to ensure that the final policy options were devolved, technologically realistic, economically and socially acceptable and importantly, that as a package of implemented measures any potential double count of emissions savings from overlapping policies was removed. Two scenarios then allowed consideration to be given to the forcefulness of the implementation. These results were then further informed by our own analysis of likely baseline transport emissions (modelled out to 2030) and wider economic circumstances to produce the estimates in the published Report on Proposals and Policies. The results presented for the individual proposals are influenced to a great extent by the assumptions used within our analysis, for example the extent to which a fuel efficient driving programme is taken up and then how completely the actions within the programme are maintained over time will have a significant impact on fuel use per kilometre and hence emissions per kilometre. In the case of speed limit enforcement, the option of 100% compliance was chosen. As the proposal crystallizes it might be that a lower percentage (from coverage of network, speed of roll-out or compliance rate) is appropriate, while still allowing Scotland to meet its targets. Monitoring the impact of transport policies Our proposals for monitoring the impact of all the measures described in the published Report on Proposals and Policies are set out in full in chapter 9 of the report. Emissions from aircraft Members of the Committee may be aware that as of 1 January 2012 aviation is included in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS). The Scheme 1

4 covers the CO 2 emissions of all flights arriving at and departing from EU airports. This means that overall CO 2 emissions from these flights are now capped and operators are required to purchase part of their emissions share through auction. In our ambitious climate change legislation, which innovatively includes emissions from both international and domestic aviation, the Scottish Government has maintained its support for aviation s inclusion within the EU ETS. With action being taken at a European level, flights to and from our airports are subject to the same rules applying across Europe and this ensures that airlines serving Scotland are required to address their emissions but are not placed at a competitive disadvantage in doing so. With that in mind, the Scottish Government has no plans to take action in relation to flights landing at and leaving from Scottish airports. Report recommendations On the general point on how the Scottish Government proposes to respond to the recommendations set out at the end of paragraph 57, I can confirm that the Scottish Government is acting on these and a detailed response for each of the individual recommendations is included in the attached annex. I hope this information is helpful to the Committee. Yours sincerely, GRAEME DICKSON

5 SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT PUBLIC AUDIT COMMITTEE WEDNESDAY 29 FEBRUARY 2012 REDUCING SCOTTISH GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS ADDITIONAL NOTE FROM AUDIT SCOTLAND 1. Reducing Scottish greenhouse gas emissions was published on 8 December 2011 and considered by the Committee on 14 December The Committee asked Audit Scotland for information on the greenhouse gas emissions associated with public and commercial transport relative to private transport. 2. Exhibit 1 summarises the components of transport emissions in 2009, the latest period for which data are available. Data on the relative contributions of public, commercial and private transport are not available. However, the Scottish Government has provided detailed data on transport emissions (Exhibit 2). Exhibit 1 Components of transport emissions in 2009 Road transport was the single biggest source of emissions. Railways, 1.5% Other transport, 2.0% Aviation, 11.2% National navigation & international shipping, 15.2% Road transport, 70.1% Source: Scottish Government.

6 Exhibit 2. Greenhouse gas emissions from Scottish transport (see note 1) Components of transport emissions in 2009 (per cent) Change in emissions, (per cent) Emissions (thousands of tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent) Transport Road transportation 2 9,176 9,248 9,434 9,688 9,725 9,792 9,854 10,040 10,196 9,896 9, Buses & coaches Passenger cars 5,812 5,823 5,970 6,122 6,010 6,025 5,928 5,972 5,913 5,742 5,587 (3.9) 41.1 HGVs 2,086 2,046 1,769 1,787 1,837 1,867 1,976 2,069 2,191 2,077 1,896 (9.1) 14.0 Light duty vehicles ,124 1,156 1,203 1,246 1,277 1,334 1,404 1,378 1, Mopeds & motorcycles Other Railways National navigation & international shipping 2,519 2,421 1,986 1,661 1,712 1,827 1,860 2,140 2,063 2,229 2,070 (17.8) 15.2 Aviation ,319 1,302 1,390 1,549 1,765 1,814 1,832 1,640 1, Other transport (46.7) 2.0 Total transport 13,092 13,068 13,222 13,150 13,338 13,682 13,975 14,498 14,603 14,260 13, Non-transport net emissions 58,552 55,491 52,152 48,021 47,330 44,773 43,506 46,669 42,315 40,539 37,375 (36.2) Net emissions all sources 4 71,644 68,559 65,374 61,171 60,668 58,455 57,482 61,167 56,917 54,799 50,951 (28.9) Transport (per cent of total net emissions) Notes 1. Data Source: Scottish Government. Emissions are not available for all years since Figures have been updated to reflect changes in methodology since They are therefore not comparable with those previously published. Due to differences in underlying methodology, figures may not be wholly consistent with other datasets about emissions. 2. The method used to estimate carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions from road transport is based on vehicle kilometre travelled data, constrained so that the sum of emissions across all parts of the UK equates to the total for the UK inventory where that total is derived from fuel sales data of petrol and DERV within the UK as specified in the reporting guidelines of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Further detail can be found in Section 4.8 of the report The Greenhouse Gas Inventories for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland: , AEA Technology plc, September Includes emissions from miltary aircraft, aircraft support vehicles, railways stationary combustion and naval shipping. 4. Net emissions take account of removals of carbon dioxide due to Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF). 5. Includes LPG and road vehicle engines. 6. No data are available by a public/private sector split.