Scotland’s Programme for Government: Serving nature?

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We’re pleased that the Scottish Government have maintained their commitment to introducing a Natural Environment Bill in the coming parliamentary year. The Bill will include the introduction of statutory targets for nature restoration. These targets must be ‘SMART’, with lead and supporting agencies clearly stated, and a commitment that decision makers be held to account to attain them. The Natural Environment Bill and statutory targets will need widespread support and ownership across all government departments, local government and society. It must be costed and allocated the necessary funding for it to be successful.

We supported the Scottish Environment LINK (ScotLINK) ‘Scotland Loves Nature’ campaign calling for a Natural Environment Bill that establishes the framework for legally binding nature targets to be included in this year’s Programme for Government. A ScotLINK report, ‘Nature recovery targets: Statutory targets to drive the recovery of nature in Scotland’, which CIEEM contributed to, outlines many of the considerations surrounding Nature targets.

We are pleased to read the following in the Scottish Government’s Programme for Government 2024-25, “We must take effective action to tackle the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss. It is absolutely essential that we protect our planet by reducing emissions, restoring our natural environment and investing in adaptations that will protect us from the impacts of climate change.”

Key points in the programme include:

  • A Natural Environment Bill to establish the framework for statutory targets to restore and protect nature. It will also include provisions to modernise the way in which national parks and deer are managed, and provide powers to update environmental impact assessment and habitats legislation to support delivery of our net zero and biodiversity goals.
  • Restoration of at least 10,000 hectares of degraded peatland and creation of at least 10,000 hectares of woodlands, which will include over 4,000 hectares of native woodland. It is, however, worth noting that the target had been 18,000ha.
  • Deployment of nature restoration funding through over 50 projects across Scotland – including work to restore our temperate rainforests and to protect sea bird colonies on our islands.
  • Introduction of climate change legislation that will enable 5-year carbon budgets to be set and delivered. This, along with the Climate Change Plan and sectoral Just Transition Plans, is intended to support progress towards net zero by 2045.
  • Several actions that relate to renewables; including, developing the second National Marine Plan and publishing an updated Sectoral Marine Plan for Offshore Wind Energy — updating the marine planning framework and supporting ScotWind and Innovation and Targeted Oil and Gas leasing and consenting.
  • Consultation on further protection measures for our Marine Protected Areas and Priority Marine Features to meet conservation objectives.

Throughout the programme there is a strong emphasis on tackling the Climate emergency; it is one of the 4 key priorities. While welcome, we need to make sure that the interlinked climate and nature emergencies are indeed that and nature recovery does not get overlooked or sidelined.

The commitment to the Natural Environment Bill follows last week’s disappointing announcement that nature restoration funding allocated to councils will be diverted for pay settlements.