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Mitigation can be identified at the strategic level through the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) and Habitats Regulations Appraisal (HRA) processes. The Scottish Government has undertaken a strategic SEA and HRA for offshore wind energy in Scottish Territorial Waters. An SEA for marine renewables (wave and tidal) was undertaken in 2007. Work is currently beginning on an Appraisal of Sustainability for marine renewables which will refresh the 2007 SEA and also include a strategic level HRA. Further detailed assessment and identification of appropriate mitigation measures for individual developments must be made at the project level.

The Survey, Deploy and Monitor policy, which is currently being developed by Marine Scotland and SNH, will provide a pragmatic, risk based approach to allow the deployment of renewables and will be a key tool to facilitate the delivery of initial demonstration projects. In addition, research and the demonstration strategy are focused on tackling environmental issues.

The licensing process delivers mitigation by ensuring that any licence issued for relevant activities has appropriate conditions. Any conditions put in place with regard to a licence would be enforced by Marine Scotland.

A considerable amount of work is currently being undertaken on the potential environmental effects of offshore wind, wave and tidal renewable energy in Scotland and across the UK.

The Scottish Government is working with other regulators, scientific bodies and industry to deliver a co-ordinated environmental research and monitoring programme to tackle gaps in knowledge and facilitate the commissioning of research projects to inform the licensing process and ensure good environmental data is available to planners, regulators and developers.

The current work programme consists of 19 ongoing research projects which are carried out by a range of organisations including Marine Scotland Science and research institutes. The total funding for these projects is £1.3 million, of which just over £1 million has been provided by the Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government is working with the Natural Environment Research Council to develop a series of three new research projects which address aspects of the environmental interactions of marine renewable energy developments.

A strategic environmental assessment (SEA) of the National Renewables Infrastructure Plan (N-RIP) was undertaken, in accordance with the Environmental Assessment (Scotland) Act 2005, and the Environmental Report was published for consultation in September 2010. The purpose of the SEA was to identify potential environmental effects and measures for their mitigation, and to ensure that this information is made available when decisions are made by site owners to progress individual sites contained within the N-RIP. In this way, it was considered that the SEA would assist site developers and investors by providing information about the potential environmental issues pertaining to the development of the individual sites, and how they can best be overcome.

Our woodland creation targets are mainly achieved through grant support under the Scotland Rural Development Programme together with the Forest Leasing Scheme and some direct planting undertaken by Forestry Commission Scotland. The 2011-12 Draft Budget provides sufficient funding to meet 10,000 hectares of woodland creation and we have actually increased grants available for forestry by £8.9 million to £36 million.

Our policy is to continue to allow sufficient funding to achieve 10,000 hectares each year, which will deliver the 100 million trees target by 2015.

The expected income to Forestry Commission Scotland by 2020 is £30 million per year from the development of renewable energy facilities on the national forest estate.

Young Scot used their networks and experience to establish the teams. The process of identifying locations included ensuring that the teams should represent urban and rural areas.

The process also involved ensuring that participants included young people of different ages in full time education, and young people who are currently not in education or employment. Two schools and one training organisation are involved in the local investigation teams, which are based in Stirling, Lochgilphead and Kilmarnock, and worked with the young people attending their organisations to identify team members.

The most recently published information is contained within Table 1 of the Annual Report on Environmental Performance of the Scottish Government estate for the 2008-09 financial year. This report was published on 21 May 2010 and is available from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 50874). Carbon dioxide emissions arising from the business travel of Scottish Government officials decreased by 2.5%, between 2005-06 and 2008-09, including a reduction in air mileage of 9% and an increase in rail mileage of 6%; this modal shift of journeys was in line with the Scottish Government''s Travel Plan.

The one-off grant scheme is managed and administered by Eco-Schools Scotland and funded through the core grant from the Scottish Government. Eco-Schools Scotland could continue to operate the one-off grant scheme but in the context of increasing demand for assessments and in order to make best use of their resources, the grant scheme has been suspended from 31 March 2011. Eco-Schools Scotland agreed this approach in consultation with the Eco-Schools Advisory Group which includes the Scottish Government.

Eco-Schools is a highly successful programme and it is important that Eco-Schools Scotland have the operational flexibility to make best use of their resources.

The Scottish Government has confirmed that core funding of £425,000 will be made available in 2011-12, which is the same level of funding as in 2010-11. The shows the Scottish Government''s commitment to Eco-Schools Scotland at a time of considerable financial pressures.

The number of schools and pre-schools awarded a Green Flag under the Eco-Schools programme in each financial year since the programme began in Scotland has been provided by Eco-Schools Scotland and is set out in the following table:

Financial Year	Schools*	Pre-Schools**
1994-95	0	0
1995-96	2	0
1996-97	1	0
1997-98	1	0
1998-99	2	1
1999-2000	5	0
2000-01	3	0
2001-02	4	0
2002-03	12	5
2003-04	31	5
2004-05	64	2
2005-06	89	15
2006-07	121	11
2007-08	172	14
2008-09	191	25
2009-10	173	26
2010 “ 1 March 11	197	24
Total	1,068	128

Notes:

*Includes Primary, Secondary, Independent, Special and composite schools many of which include nursery classes.

**Includes Nursery Schools (not nursery classes) and Early Years Partnership Providers.

Information has only been included in respect of first Green Flags. Many schools have been award a second, third or fourth Green Flag in recent years, though the focus now will be on attaining and retaining the Green Flag rather than have multiple flags.

The Eco-Schools programme is managed and administered by Eco-Schools Scotland which is part of Keep Scotland Beautiful, with funding from the Scottish Government.

The Government On Line Sustainable Performance Information Exchange (GOLSPIE), a web portal within www.scotland.gov.uk is under development and will publish daily energy consumption data. In line with our commitment in Conserve and Save: Energy Efficiency Action Plan we will start to publish this information in the spring. Copies of the Action Plan are available from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. Number 52545).