Scottish Government

Introduction

The Scottish Government published "Conserve and Save: The Energy Efficiency Action Plan for Scotland" in October 2010. This plan introduced, for the first time, a headline target to reduce final energy (end-use) consumption by 12% by 2020 using a 2005-7 baseline as published by the Department of Energy and Climate Change ( DECC). The plan also outlined across 10 priority areas the actions that the Scottish Government would take in support of the 12% reduction target.

The Energy Efficiency Action Plan is one of a suite of documents which outlines the Scottish Government's strategy to tackle climate change; cut greenhouse gas emissions; reduce energy consumption and to achieve sustainable economic growth.

The other documents contained in this package include:

• The Low Carbon Economic Strategy;
• The Report on Proposals and Policies (Low Carbon Scotland: Meeting the Emissions Reduction Targets 2010 -2022);
• The Government Economic Strategy (which was recently updated and now includes a new strategic priority "Transition to a Low Carbon Economy");
• The Scottish Renewables Action Plan;
• The 2020 Routemap for Renewable Energy in Scotland and the Renewable Heat Action Plan;
• The Public Engagement Strategy.

Section 62 of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 requires Ministers to lay before the Scottish Parliament a report on steps that have been taken in implementing the Energy Efficiency Action Plan within 12 months of the original plan being published.

This report sets out the progress made on each section on the Action Plan outlining some of our high level achievements since the plan was published. As well as demonstrating actions that directly contribute to the 12% target, it also details some of the supporting activity that contributes towards progress on the key actions within each sector.

Data

Our energy efficiency target is being monitored using the annually reported total final energy consumption data based on the Department of Energy and Climate Change ( DECC) sub-national energy statistics. This data is reported annually each December and has a historic trend from 2005.

Figure 1 shows how the baseline for the target was calculated in Conserve and Save. Figure 2 shows by how much energy consumption would have to reduce and the maximum consumption allowable in 2020 with a 12% reduction target using this baseline.

Figure 1: Total Final Energy Consumption (GWh)

Figure 2: Original Target Ambition (GWh)

However, DECC has since revised the energy consumption figures for 2005-7 so the initial baseline has increased to 159,770 GWh which has an impact on the reduction in energy consumption required to achieve the 12% reduction target. Figure 3 details the revised baseline data and Figure 4 shows the impact of the revision on the target reduction in energy consumption and maximum consumption in 2020.

Figure 3: Total Final Energy Consumption (GWh) - Updated Baseline

Figure 4: Impact of revision to DECC baseline figures

The impact of this approach results in:

• Increased energy reduction in absolute terms;
• No change in the percentage reduction in energy consumption;
• An increased absolute final 2020 maximum consumption target.

This means that, by adhering to our commitment to reduce energy consumption by 12%, consumption needs to fall by an additional 200 GWh by 2020 compared to the pre-revision reduction of 19,000 GWh target as set out in the Energy Efficiency Action Plan. The Scottish Government believes that this revised target is achievable on the basis of existing and planned policies and programmes that will be in place by 2020.

The update on the national data sub-sets from Department of Energy and Climate Change ( DECC) is not due to be published until 22 December 2011 as there is a historical time lag in collating data for previous years. This means that this report is unable to accurately record at present our 2009 progress towards the target of a 12% reduction by 2020 until 2012.

To avoid this situation recurring each year, we will bring forward the publication of the next annual report to Spring 2012 and each subsequent report will be published 12 months after that and beyond to adhere to the new reporting cycle.

Implementing the plan

Section C of the Action Plan identifies Scottish Government actions and programmes; priority areas and support.

Here we set out the focus of our activity, key achievements, and provide an indication of the work that is in progress to facilitate the achievement of the 12% final energy consumption target by 2020.