Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Scottish Government is aware that the European Council has announced that it has reached provisional agreement with the European Parliament on a regulation establishing a framework to ensure a secure and sustainable supply of critical raw materials.

The provisional agreement sets a benchmark for recycling to at least 25% of EU’s annual consumption of raw materials and proposes an increase on the recovery of raw materials present in waste. The Scottish Government will assess this new regulation in detail, once the final text is agreed by the EU institutions and adopted, against our policy to align with EU where it is possible for Scotland to do so and such alignment is meaningful in protecting and advancing high standards.

The impact assessments to inform proposals to introduce a charge on single-use disposable beverage cups are currently being developed, in partnership with Zero Waste Scotland, and will be published alongside the public consultation in due course.

Scotland’s water environment is one of our most important national assets. The Scottish Government sets out it’s objectives and action programmes for protecting and improving Scotland's water environment in the River Basin Management Plan (RBMP), which the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) produces on our behalf every six years (currently covering 2021-2027). Each year the Scottish Government provides SEPA with a grant from the Water Environment Fund (WEF) to support their work to deliver the RBMP. WEF is targeted on projects which will derive the greatest benefit to Scotland’s rivers and neighbouring communities and is currently focussed on projects which restore rivers and improve fish migration.

Some projects to remove Invasive Non-Native Species (INNS) were previously funded under WEF. However, in recent years funding for INNS projects has been provided through other funding streams such as The Scottish Invasive Species Initiative (SISI) (total £3.24 million); The Tweed Invasives Project (£100,000); NatureScot’s Biodiversity Challenge Fund; The Scottish Rural Development Programme’s (SRDP) Agri-Environment Climate Scheme (AECS) (2020-2022 £20,392) and the Forestry Grant Scheme (£730,000 to date). Prioritising funding in this way enables more effective use of resources and greater benefits for biodiversity.

Since 2008 the Scottish Government has made available capital funding of £42 million per year to enable local authorities to invest in flood protection measures. Currently 80% of the available £42 million is allocated to prioritised flood schemes and the other 20% is allocated between all 32 councils to introduce, upgrade and maintain other flood resilience measures set out in Local Flood Risk Management Plans.

The 2020 Programme for Government committed an additional £150 million over the course of this Parliament for flood risk management actions, which is being allocated on an annual basis to support the delivery of flood resilience actions.

In line with statutory duties, annual reports on climate adaptation are laid in Parliament every May setting out progress made towards implementing climate adaptation objectives, proposals and policies. Twice every 5 years, Ministers also commission the UK Climate Change Committee to provide an independent assessment of progress on adaptation in Scotland.

To strengthen the existing monitoring and evaluation framework for climate adaptation, the Scottish Government has committed to identifying indicators that can assist with more effective monitoring of progress to the outcomes of the next Scottish National Adaptation Plan (SNAP3).

The next Scottish National Adaptation Plan (SNAP3) responds to the risks identified by the 2022 UK Climate Change Risk Assessment . This Assessment identified 61 risk and opportunities. The Scottish Government has assigned Director-level owners for all identified climate risks. The overall development of SNAP3 is overseen within Scottish Government by the Director-level Global Climate Emergency Programme Board.

The Scottish Government is committed to promoting and advancing Natural Flood Management (NFM) as one of a range of measures to adapt to current and future water-related environmental pressures.

The Scottish Government has provided funding over a number of years to both the Eddleston Water research catchment and Allan Water improvement project to help develop an evidence base to improve understanding of NFM. This evidence helps stakeholders understand its considerable value from a biodiversity perspective, and potential value as a complementary measure to improve flood resilience across catchments. Evidence already produced from these projects have indicated that NFM can help to delay flood peaks, deliver multiple environmental benefits and help mitigate the impacts of climate change. Evidence also indicates that flood risk reduction is limited in more extreme events.

The Scottish Government funds the Centre of Expertise on Water (CREW), and the James Hutton Institute to conduct both short and long-term research projects assessing the effectiveness of nature-based flood management solutions.

Our five year Strategic Water Research Programme (2022-2027) is funding the “Achieving Multi-Purpose Nature-Based Solutions” research project which is currently working to explore how to work at scales and across sectors to deliver urban and rural nature-based solutions that make a significant contribution to meeting society’s needs.

In its November 2023 independent assessment of progress on climate adaptation, the Climate Change Committee (CCC) outlined the need for private investment, alongside public funding, to support adaptation action. Barriers limiting private investment to date have been identified by the CCC in its report from February 2023, titled Investment for a well-adapted UK , and include:

In its November 2023 independent assessment of progress on climate adaptation, the Climate Change Committee (CCC) recommended that the Scottish Government should include “a national assessment of the scale of current and future risks from weather-related cascading infrastructure failures” in the next Scottish National Adaptation Plan (SNAP3).

The Scottish Government is considering all recommendations from the CCC on the structure of the next adaptation plan. Public consultation on a draft of the next adaptation plan is anticipated in early-2024 and we have asked the CCC to provide further views at this stage.

In its November 2023 independent assessment of progress on climate adaptation, the Climate Change Committee (CCC) recommended that the Scottish Government “should set specific and quantified targets for levels of resilience across Scottish society under each outcome” of the next Scottish National Adaptation Plan.

The Scottish Government is considering all recommendations from the CCC on the structure of the next adaptation plan. Public consultation on a draft of the next adaptation plan is anticipated in early-2024 and we have asked the CCC to provide further views at this stage.