The effectiveness of greenhouse gas emission policies in Scottish Local Development Plans

In their 2016 report academics at Dundee identified significant opportunities for reducing greenhouse gas emissions through improving uptake of low and zero-carbon generating technologies in new buildings in Scotland. The Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 sets a target to reduce Scotland’s greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent by 2050. In addition, the Scottish Government has set a target for 100% of Scotland’s demand for electricity to be met from renewable sources by 2020.

The study, funded by ClimateXChange for Scottish Government was carried out by academics in Architecture and Planning to assess the effectiveness of greenhouse gas emission reduction policies in Local Development Plans in promoting the uptake of low and zero-carbon generating technologies. The results of the study were summarised in the sixth Annual Report on the Operation of Section 72 of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009.

14 Local Authorities have adopted specific Section 3F policies in their Local Development Plans since 2012. Five of these authorities implemented the policies early enough to be in a position to provide sufficient data sets for the analysis in this study.