Scottish Government

May 2023

SG Energy Strategy and Just Transition consultation

The Scottish Government has put so many of its policies out to consultation in the past few months that perhaps we can be forgiven for failing to pick up on this one, which opened on 10 January and closed on 9 May.

It is as extensive and wordy as other recent consultations, and responding would have been a daunting proposition even if we had come across it in time.

Full consultation document  and how to respond

Shortcut to consultation questions

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January 2022

SG Heat in Buildings Strategy to include Scottish Public Energy Agency

The Scottish Government proposes to set up a Scottish Public Energy Agency to lead the way to achieving the government's net zero emissions target with regard to heating and insulating existing and new buildings.  They have issued a Call for Evidence as 'the first step in a process of collaboration and co-development of the new body'. 

This still seems to fall short of the fully government financed and coordinated programme which is surely required - see as a comparison the proposals in the 2019 'Our Common Home' plan by the scottish 'think and do' tank Common Weal.

From the 'Call for Evidence' web page:

The Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets) (Scotland) Act 2019 set legally binding targets for Scotland to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045, with interim targets requiring a 75% reduction by 2030, and 90% by 2040.

To achieve this requires transformational change in the way we heat our homes, workplaces and community buildings. As set out in the Scottish Government's new Heat in Buildings Strategy (published 7 October 2021), our vision is that by 2045 our homes and buildings are cleaner, greener and easier to heat, with our homes and buildings no longer contributing to climate change, as part of the wider just transition to net zero.

As set out in the 2021/22 Programme for Government – and reaffirmed in the Heat in Buildings Strategy – we will establish a new dedicated National Public Energy Agency by 2025, to lead this transformational change. The Agency will achieve this by taking a people-centred approach to delivery, supporting people and business to switch their heating systems and improve the energy efficiency of buildings, while working with the public, private and third sectors to ensure a coordinated approach across the wider heat decarbonisation delivery agenda in Scotland.
(Call for evidence - introduction)

However, in recognition of the urgency and need for action to be taken now to begin ramping up delivery of energy efficiency retrofit and zero emissions heat installations, we will launch a virtual Agency by September 2022. This will initially be co-ordinated internally in the Scottish Government, and we will look at using existing resources to provide advice and information to people seeking to make a change in response to the heat decarbonisation agenda in the early stages of transition. We will then consider the structure and governance of the organisation, and the skills and expertise that will be necessary to have a permanent agency in place by the end of this Parliamentary session.(Call for evidence - Ministerial foreword)

>Scottish Government Energy Strategy 2017 

>Scottish Government Heat in Buildings Strategy 2021 

>Scottish Government Heat Networks Delivery Plan 2021  consultation