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The Scottish Government is committed to considering options for a carbon land tax, to further incentivise peatland restoration and afforestation.

Any potential new measures must be rigorously assessed and based on strong evidence to ensure they serve their objective and avoid unintended consequences.

Internal policy discussions involving a range of departments and Scottish Government Agencies are ongoing to identify potential options for a carbon land tax.

We will soon begin work to consult with a range of stakeholders, including landowners, to explore all available options and to understand their potential impacts.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of working closely and collaboratively with the UK Government and other devolved administrations to deliver our net zero targets in a way that is mutually beneficial in economic, environmental and social terms.

The engagement that we have had thus far with the new UK Government administration has been encouraging, and we continue to consider the value of a standalone climate response group in the context of this renewed relationship. We will continue to engage directly with them and other devolved nations to understand the best ways of working, ensuring constructive collaboration and information sharing, including the roles of inter-ministerial groups across the four nations and a programme of areas for priority cooperation is under development.

The Scottish Government is committed to reducing high deer numbers in order to help us to achieve our biodiversity and carbon objectives. In addition to the Cairngorms National Park Authority deer management incentives pilot, NatureScot launched two pilot schemes led by this autumn to incentivise deer managers to increase deer culls in specific parts of Scotland.

These pilot schemes have been implemented this year in different parts of Scotland to test different approaches to incentives and to better understand the barriers to deer management.

While these pilots do not constitute a single national scheme, we will use the findings from them to inform decisions on future incentive schemes.

With partial rewetting, the water table in peatlands or peaty soils is held deeper underground than with full rewetting or restoration. In theory, this delivers a carbon benefit but also allows certain types of agriculture that may be limited by full rewetting to continue.

The Peatland Science and Technical Advisory Group have advised there may be some potential in lowland grassland systems and at the edges of some raised bogs where the use of ‘leaky dams’ may have a part to play in finer control of water table depth. However, significant areas of lowland agricultural peats are difficult to identify and map.

We have commissioned scientists at the James Hutton Institute to advise on the distribution of grassland on peat and on the relationship between water table depth and carbon emissions in peat grassland systems.

When complete, this will inform on-going work in government considering options for incorporating peatland protection, management and restoration within the new four-tier agricultural support framework.

The Scottish Government has committed to the development of a just transition plan for Mossmorran following completion of the just transition plan for Grangemouth in 2025. As with the Grangemouth just transition plan, this work will be co-designed with key stakeholders including industry, the workforce and the community. The Scottish Government is actively engaging with relevant stakeholders as part of the scoping phase of this programme of work.

Our Public Engagement Strategy for Climate Change (PES) highlights the importance of effective engagement to build support for climate action. The Scottish Government continues to build on outcomes from Scotland’s most recent Climate Assembly, by delivering a programme of participative engagement in support of the just transition planning process. We are exploring options to establish an additional participative process to engage the public in order to build understanding of the transition to a net zero and climate resilient Scotland. This is further to our existing engagement work, including the £5.5m Community Climate Action Hubs, £425k Climate Action Schools programme, and awarding funding of £272k through our Climate Engagement Fund.

Protecting the planet is a clear government priority which is why we must ensure that resourcing matches the scale of work required to deliver a net zero Scotland by 2045, balancing that with a need to ensure efficiencies in our public services.

We continually review staffing and resourcing, to support our commitments and ensure that the government’s ambition for tackling climate change is delivered as part of our regular assurance processes.

In addition, there is oversight of resourcing of climate change activity through the Global Climate Emergency Programme Board.

The draft route map to achieving a 20% reduction in car use outlines our approach to achieving this. A period of engagement and consultation followed publication, and the analysis and consideration of the consultation responses are shaping the updated route map which will be published in due course.

The route map is co-produced with CoSLA, in recognition of the joint commitment to a just transition to reducing car use and we are continuing to work closely with local and regional partners to update the route map and we will publish it on completion of that engagement.”

Development of the second Strategic Transport Projects Review (STPR2) Delivery Plan is underway. This takes account of the current financial climate and is examining existing schemes across all modes in addition to the longer term STPR2 recommendations.

The latest Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) forecasts, following the UK Government Autumn Budget Statement, show an improved medium term outlook for capital. The Scottish Government will continue to consider its longer-term infrastructure plans after we receive clarity from the UK Government over our multi-year capital funding envelope in the Spring.

Since 2011 the Scottish Government has provided interest free loans worth over £223 million to individuals and businesses across Scotland to support the transition to zero emission/ultra-low emission vehicles.

This financial year we are providing £15 million of loan funding to further accelerate the shift to zero emission transport. To support a just transition to net zero, funding has now been prioritised to focus solely on lower income households, as well as households in rural and Island locations, in addition to the taxi sector.

Recipients of the loan as well as individuals who reside in rural and Island locations can also access the domestic charge point fund which will provide up to £400 of funding to support the installation of a charge point for an electric vehicle.

Both of these funds are delivered by Energy Saving Trust on behalf of Scottish Ministers, additional information on the schemes supporting the transition to Net Zero and funded by the Scottish Government can be found here - .