Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee

Meeting date: Tuesday, January 18, 2022

Official Report 673KB pdf

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Subordinate Legislation

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Climate Change (Nitrogen Balance Sheet) (Scotland) Regulations 2022 [draft]

Our first substantive item is the consideration of a statutory instrument on the draft Climate Change (Nitrogen Balance Sheet) (Scotland) Regulations 2022.?I welcome Màiri McAllan, Minister for Environment and Land Reform, who is joining us remotely. I also welcome two officials: Kirsten Beddows, head of agriculture transformation for environment and climate change, and Dr Tom Russon, head of climate change legislation. Thank you for attending this meeting, everyone.

The?regulations have been?laid under the affirmative procedure, which means that the Parliament must approve?them before?they?come?into force. Following this evidence session, the committee will be invited under the next agenda item to consider a motion to approve the regulations.??

I invite the minister to make a short opening statement.

Good morning, everyone, I hope that you can hear me clearly.

I am very pleased to give evidence today in support of the draft regulations to establish Scotland’s nitrogen balance sheet. Nitrogen is present across our economy and environment. The benefits arising from it cannot be overstated: nitrogen is essential for the production of food—I am sure that we can all agree that we depend on food—and many other processes. However, the harms that are associated with losses of nitrogen into the environment can be significant. Those include contributions to climate change through greenhouse gas, impacts on human health through air quality pollutants and impacts on biodiversity through excess nutrients entering terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.

That all means that the efficient use of nitrogen is an important issue with far-reaching consequences. I will give one example. The efficient use of agricultural fertilisers helps to reduce waste of nutrients, thereby minimising environmental harms and realising economic benefits for those who produce our food.

The importance of understanding nitrogen use at a national scale was recognised by the Parliament during the passage of the Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets) (Scotland) Act 2019, with a commitment to develop the balance sheet that we are discussing today. That work has been taken forward by the Scottish Government in a way that has provided key stakeholders across a range of sectors and interests with opportunities to input their views. I thank all those who have contributed and the scientific experts who have supported this very technical and complex piece of work.

In December 2021, we published the full data set for the first version of the balance sheet, accompanied by a comprehensive report setting out key findings. The draft regulations—if agreed by the committee today—will formally establish the following key aspects in law. First, we have prepared the balance sheet to be as broad in scope as possible, within the constraints of data availability. It covers not only the core engine of nitrogen use associated with food production but transport, industry, forestry and other sectors. It is very interesting that it looks at nitrogen flow not only within Scotland but into and out of Scotland, where that data is available.

That broad scope allows for a calculation that is truly economy wide of the efficiency of nitrogen use in Scotland. That term is defined in line with international scientific guidelines as meaning the ratio of nutrient contained in useful output, such as foodstuffs, to the total input of nitrogen through both human and natural processes. I like to think of it as the deficit between what goes in and what comes out—although perhaps my officials will cringe at that very simplistic approach. Application of that calculation to the initial nitrogen balance sheet—the data sheet that mainly relates to 2019—leads to a 25 per cent baseline figure for national nitrogen use efficiency. I emphasise that any one metric can capture only a small part of the rich and complex landscape. If members are interested in the details, I suggest that they read the accompanying report, which is very interesting.

A second feature of our proposed approach is for our balance sheet to be reviewed and updated annually with associated reporting to Parliament. That will support the on-going development of the evidence base as well as keeping track of progress in Scotland’s nitrogen use efficiency.

To our knowledge, we are the first country in the world to enshrine in law a nitrogen balance sheet that is both economy wide and regularly updated. I hope that we can all agree that that is a further example of the Scottish Parliament’s determination that Scotland should lead the way in addressing the climate emergency.

The balance sheet will provide the Government and Parliament with a powerful new tool to support evidence-based policy making at the interface of several strategic areas. I am very interested in the extent to which having a balance sheet that shows us how climate change, air quality and water pollution co-exist can indicate the levers that we can pull to meet some of our policy objectives. Put simply, striving towards the efficient use of nitrogen helps to ensure that economic, environmental and wellbeing outcomes can be achieved alongside one another.

Having established the balance sheet, we have provided an innovative new evidence base to support it. We are at an early stage in the journey, rather than the final destination, which is why we have committed to a review. I look forward to working with Parliament and others with an interest in nitrogen as that work continues and the balance sheet develops. I hope that, as we see other countries around the world follow where Scotland has led, there will also be international comparators.

My officials and I are happy to answer any questions that the committee may have.

Thank you for that statement, minister. Members, if you have any questions, please can you indicate that in the chat bar. I see that some of you have already done so.

I welcome the balance sheet. It is a world first. The committee in the previous session spent a lot of time looking at the impact of nitrogen on climate change, air quality and water quality, so it is great to see that step coming through the Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets) (Scotland) Act 2019 and into law.

I want to ask about the application of the regulations. I understand that it is early days and that this is a world-leading approach, but how will the balance sheet and the action plan that is associated with it be used by regional land use partnerships and river basin management plans in the practical management of nitrogen? Previously in Scotland, we have had nitrate vulnerable zones, so there have been attempts to manage nitrogen in areas where we have particular problems in relation to air pollution and water pollution. How will this approach change the way in which practical land managers at regional and local levels go about their work? How will it inform their work and the options that are available to them?

That is a very good point. I repeat the point that it is early days. The balance sheet is complex and will require review. As the review continues and the evidence is gathered, it will become a more useful policy development tool. However, in the meantime, its primary use is the extent to which it shows us how all those areas that you identified interact with one another. That is what I am most excited about.

If we think about the state of play prior to having the balance sheet, we know that actions are being taken right across the Government—for example, in the climate change plan update, on agricultural emissions, and in the cleaner air for Scotland 2 strategy with regard to air quality. Those actions are being taken in their individual areas. The balance sheet will allow people both within and external to the Government to see how those actions interact. Not only will that help what we are doing in the individual areas; it will allow us to see what actions will provide the most co-benefits across those strategic areas.

In terms of the trajectory, once the balance sheet is established, it is about allowing it to develop with greater information and more data. Its use within the Government will be about complementing the actions that we are already taking across the piece. I hope that it will also be an important tool for analysis and to suggest outputs for all the folk outside the Government who are working hard across all those important areas.

Yes, but what about someone who is involved in a regional land use partnership? Can all those land managers and stakeholders use it right now? Could it help to inform decisions about what farmers are doing in riparian habitat management or nitrogen application on a catchment scale?

Yes, it is helpful, but I would suggest that we probably cannot take it down to that granular scale at this point, particularly as regards the 25 per cent baseline figure. That is a high-level figure. The data sets are not at regional or farm level. We might hope to develop something like that in time, but what we have established right now is a high-level Scotland-wide and economy-wide picture from which developments will come.

Thank you.

Good morning, minister. The regulations strike me as welcome but extraordinarily complex, so I want to ask a couple of things to clear them up in my mind. Section 8A(5) of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 defines “nitrogen use efficiency” and you said that that means comparing what goes in with what comes out. Regulation 4 sets the baseline for that at 25 per cent. Will you explain what that means? What is that 25 per cent? What is going in precisely where and coming out precisely where, and why was 25 per cent felt to be the appropriate figure for the efficient use of nitrogen?

You are asking the questions that I asked at the beginning of the process. I said that my officials would cringe at me describing it as what goes in and what comes out, but that is how I like to think about the process. You can imagine how that would happen in food production, for example. For the nitrogen that is put into the food production system, we calculate the deficit, as I have been calling it, by looking at what is, not to be crude, excreted. The 25 per cent figure is essentially the baseline that has been calculated as being where we are just now across the board with the economy. That is explained nicely in the report—probably better than I can explain it today.

How I understand it is that we have figures for nitrogen use efficiency across, let us say, food production, and we can break that down into livestock farming and crop production. The overall figure for nitrogen use efficiency in agriculture is 28 per cent, so you can see that the national figure of 25 per cent is quite heavily dominated by the agriculture figure. However, because it is a whole-economy figure, we build in the figures for forestry, waste and industry, which is what gets us to 25 per cent. I can bring in Dr Russon, who is far more into the detail than I am, but that 25 per cent figure represents the state of play on average across the board in our economy just now. I hope that that is helpful, but I am happy to bring in my team if you would like a more scientific explanation.

That is helpful, minister, and I am grateful to you. I followed quite clearly what you said there, but I would not mind hearing from one of your officials as well.

10:00  

On the second element of the question, about what the baseline represents, I do not have anything to add—the minister has expressed it very well. This is the state of play that the best available data leads us to.

On the first aspect of the question, which was about unpacking the key outputs and inputs that give us the 25 per cent figure, I am happy to spend as much time as the committee’s patience will allow on unpacking those. There is a huge amount of detail on that in the published reports. However, as the minister alluded to earlier, the key outputs that form the top of that ratio calculation are predominantly to do with foodstuffs. They also include wool, which contains nitrogen, and forestry products, many of which contain significant amounts of nitrogen as well. Those are the main useful outputs coming out of the economy-wide calculation.

The input side, which forms the bottom of that ratio, is in many ways more interesting, in that it represents a combination of anthropogenic inputs. By far the largest one is the application of fertiliser for agriculture, but there are other things too, such as the amount of nitrogen contained in fossil fuels that are combusted for the purposes of transport, industry and energy supply.

Purely natural processes are also adding nitrogen into the Scottish environment. Nitrogen is being deposited out of the air on to ecosystems and biological nitrogen fixation is directly converting nitrogen from the air into part of plant material, for example. Both the anthropogenic and the natural processes form part of those inputs into the system.

As the minister pointed out, it is a very complicated system, which is bringing together human interventions and purely natural processes. In thinking about that 25 per cent baseline, it is worth unpacking quite a bit of those inputs and outputs and thinking about it carefully. I will stop there, but I am happy to expand further if that would be helpful.

I am grateful for that summary.

Thank you. That was a detailed question. I am interested in the context. Can the minister briefly expand on why nitrogen is so important, including perhaps in relation to greenhouse gas emissions generally? I am conscious of time, so a brief answer would be helpful.

The first and foremost point is that nitrogen is one of the fundamental building blocks of life; it is present everywhere. As we have said, it is the vital underpinning of food production, and we can all agree that we need to eat. However, the balance sheet shows us that nitrogen is important not only for food production but for other economic processes such as the production of natural fibres and forestry materials, as Tom Russon just referred to.

In some situations, nitrogen can present real challenges, including in the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide, and in its impact on water quality, but it cannot always be viewed just as a problem. We need to be prepared to take a nuanced approach to what the balance sheet tells us.

For example, as I mentioned, nitrous oxide is a greenhouse gas, emissions of which we know contribute to climate change. This is a helpful data set that demonstrates nitrogen across the economy and nitrogen coming into and out of Scotland; we need to be prepared to understand that nitrogen is ever present and it is not always a negative thing. We need to identify where it is and work on those areas. I mentioned in reply to Mark Ruskell’s question that policy work is happening right across the Government—most particularly through the climate change plan update—to seek to pull all the levers to reduce the negative effects of nitrogen as a greenhouse gas.

The evidence session has been very informative. Will the minister explain the timeframe of the immediate next steps for the balance sheet?

If the committee indicates its support for the draft SSI, we will be on track to fulfil the legislative requirements well in advance of the deadline of 23 March, which was to have the initial version of the balance sheet formally established in law. That is what we will do. As I said in my opening remarks, the process will include annual review and updating Parliament on the balance sheet, which will begin from next year.

I agree with my colleagues that the evidence session has been very informative. Could you clarify something? We have touched on this a little. We understand that food production lies at the heart of the balance sheet, but can you expand on the other areas that it covers?

Of course. That is an important point, which I have tried to make throughout, but I will do so again. Food production is at the heart of the issue, because nitrogen is at the heart of food production, but it is not the only flow-in and we have sought to reflect that in the balance sheet. It is categorically not just about agriculture and aquaculture. The balance sheet covers the use of nitrogen in forestry and flows of nitrogen that are associated with fossil fuel combustion in sectors such as transport, industry and energy supply. It also looks to waste management processes, which can serve to recycle nitrogen that is taken in through human nutrition back into parts of the wider system.

We have a picture across Scotland and, where data allows, into and out of Scotland. It is a very broad-scope approach that is unique in the world, and I hope that other countries will follow where Scotland has led, so that we have an international comparison of how efficiently Scotland is using nitrogen compared with our friends and neighbours across the world.

That is very helpful.

I believe that there are no further questions from members, so we move to item 3, which is formal consideration of motion S6M-02578. Only the minister and members may speak in the debate. I invite the minister to speak to or simply to move the motion.

Motion moved,

That the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee recommends that the Climate Change (Nitrogen Balance Sheet) (Scotland) Regulations 2022 [draft] be approved.—[Màiri McAllan]

Motion agreed to.

The committee will report on the outcome of the instrument in due course. I invite the committee to delegate authority to me as convener to approve a draft of the report for publication.

Members indicated agreement.

I thank the minister and her officials for joining us today. I suspend the meeting briefly to allow us to set up the next panel.

10:09 Meeting suspended.  

10:10 On resuming—