Question reference: S6W-01163
- Asked by: Ross Greer, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Green Party
- Date lodged: 5 July 2021
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Current status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 9 August 2021
Question
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the report published in June 2020 from the Air Quality Expert Group to DEFRA, Non-methane Volatile Organic Compounds in the UK, which showed that ethanol emissions are the largest category of Non-Methane Volatile Organic Compounds (NMVOC) air pollutants in the UK, what proportion of NMVOCs are directly due to emissions from the Scotch whisky industry.
Answer
Emissions from casking, distillation, fermentation, other maturation and spent grain drying are not disaggregated by spirit type, due to the very low levels involved. Collectively for all spirit manufacture in Scotland, these processes contributed approximately 3% of NMVOC emissions in 2018, the most recent year for which figures are available.
Overall NMVOC emissions in Scotland have declined by approximately 65% since 1990.
Approximately 45% of NMVOC emissions in Scotland were due to emissions from Scotch whisky maturation in 2018.
This information is also publicly available in the report 'Air Quality Pollutant Inventories for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland: 1990-2018' and the associated tables, which can be found at: https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/assets/documents/reports/cat09/2010220959_DA_Air_Pollutant_Inventories_1990-2018_v1.2.pdf .