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Reports on energy and climate change
14/11/2008
Three reports about energy and climate change were published today.
Climate Change Minister Stewart Stevenson welcomed the reports as a useful addition to the debate on how we can all make a contribution to tackling climate change.
The reports cover options to mitigate future climate change, trends in future energy supply and demand, and an assessment of the impact of increasing renewable electricity upon the grid network.
They present views upon future changes in Scotland and offer suggestions on what measures could be taken by individuals and government to help the environment.
The reports published today are:
- Mitigating Against Climate Change in Scotland : Identification and Initial Assessment of Policy Options - (AEA report)
- Scottish Energy Study - Volume 5 : Energy and Carbon Dioxide Projections for Scotland - (AEA report)
- Grid Issues arising from Changes to the Generation Background in Scotland - (SKM report)
Mr Stevenson said:
"The Scottish Government is committed to delivering an 80 per cent reduction in emissions by 2050, the most ambitious target anywhere in the world.
"These are challenging targets which require ambitious solutions.
"In the policy report, AEA were asked to identify and assess a wide range of emissions reduction options for 2050 and this is a useful contribution to the debate on climate change.
"Clearly, there are proposals which are either unviable or which fall outwith the remit of Government, but the AEA report contains some interesting proposals which we will now consider as we look to shape future policy to meet our 80 per cent targets.
"The report on future energy supply and demand shows why we are so supportive of renewable electricity generation and Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) which has the potential to reduce emissions from stations by up to 90 per cent.
"This would aid security of supply, while also helping reduce carbon emissions significantly.
"When taken together these two reports show that clean energy generation is crucial to achieving the targets we will set out in our Climate Change Bill.
"The report which assesses the impact of increasing renewable electricity upon the electricity grid up to 2030 clearly demonstrates that the transmission network could cope with some 8 Gigawatts of installed renewables capacity in 2020, without the need for significant investment over and above that already approved by Ofgem - that is encouraging.
"This is comparable with the amount of renewables which the Scottish Government expects to require in order to achieve our 2020 renewable electricity target of 50 per cent.
"Taken together, these reports give us further evidence that we need to do everything possible to meet our statutory targets.
"We will shortly be bringing our Climate Change Bill before parliament and will next year outline what actions we will take to meet our ambitions for Scotland."
There were over 21,000 responses to the Scottish Government consultation on a draft Scottish Climate Change Bill. The Bill proposes an 80 per cent reduction in emissions by 2050.
Last month, in the Scottish Government's official response to that consultation, Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth, John Swinney, announced the intention to include emissions from aviation and shipping, all six greenhouse gases and year on year annual targets - the most ambitious targets anywhere in the world.
The Mitigating Against Climate Change in Scotland: Identification and Initial Assessment of Policy Options report from AEA is an initial assessment of policy options which could contribute to the delivery of Scotland's ambitions for an 80 per cent greenhouse gas emissions reduction target by 2050. The report is based on a literature review of published research across key sectors, together with a number of discussions with informed external specialists in specific areas of climate change policy. The analysis looks ahead to 2050 and tries to identify those areas of activity that have the potential to deliver significant and cost effective savings in 2050. The Report also considers issues of feasibility and public acceptability.
The Scottish Energy Study - Volume 5 : Energy and Carbon Dioxide Projections for Scotland report from AEA examines the prospects for future energy supply and demand in Scotland, and the implications of these trends for energy related CO2 emissions up to 2020, using modelled projections, which are then subject to a set of sensitivity analyses.
Amongst the findings is that Scottish final energy demand could fall by between 4 per cent and 6 per cent between 2005 and 2020 depending on a number of assumptions. The fall in demand occurs in the domestic sector and services sector with demand increasing in the industry and transport sectors.
Scottish energy related CO2 emissions could decline by between 13 per cent and 18 per cent over the same period.
The main projections in the report are subjected to a series of further assumptions regarding demand and supply variations. The results clearly show the influence of electricity generation upon carbon emissions in Scotland.
The Grid Issues arising from Changes to the Generation Background in Scotland report from SKM's key conclusion is that 8 GW of renewable technology, which would be required to meet the Scottish Government's target of 50 per cent of the electricity demand to be supplied from renewable sources by 2020, could be installed in Scotland. This can be achieved by following a continuation of present government policies, incentive mechanisms and grid operational practices, and without requiring significant grid reinforcements in addition to those already approved by Ofgem, or adversely affecting grid system stability or system security.