Question reference: S5W-35983
- Asked by: Claudia Beamish, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
- Date lodged: 11 March 2021
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Current status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 18 March 2021
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether the protection and enhancement of blue carbon stores is necessary for the achievement of its climate change targets.
Answer
Reporting on Scotland’s statutory emissions reduction targets is based on the UK national atmospheric emissions inventory, which is compiled in line with international guidelines. At present, blue carbon habitats are not included in the scope of the UK inventory. This means that such processes are not currently included in the scope of Scottish, or indeed UK, climate change targets. Saltmarsh and seagrass are currently the only habitats with potential to be added to the inventory according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Wetlands Supplement (2013). Other blue carbon habitats, for example maerl, coral, biogenic reefs and sediment are not included in the Supplement and therefore do not currently have the potential to be included in the inventory or contribute to achieving Scotland’s national climate change targets.
Decisions around changes to the UK inventory are made solely by the UK Government Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. If a major change to UK inventory scope around blue carbon were to occur in the future, this would then need to be followed by a review of the appropriateness of the statutory target levels from the UK Climate Change Committee, as the current levels are based on an inventory that does not include such processes.