Letter from the Minister for Environment and Land Reform to the Convener, 15 December 2021
I am writing to inform you that an SSI has today been laid in draft in the Parliament in order to establish a Scottish Nitrogen Balance Sheet.
In my view, the establishment of Scotland’s first statutory Nitrogen Balance Sheet is an important milestone on our journey to tackling climate change – it takes forward another part of the Scottish Parliament’s historic Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets) (Scotland) Act 2019 and provides another example of our pioneering and joined-up approaches.
I understand that Scotland is the first country in the world to enshrine in law a regularly updated, cross-economy and cross-environment Nitrogen Balance Sheet. This new evidence base has wide relevance across a range of policy areas, including climate change, air quality, food production and transport. The Balance Sheet provides a powerful new, joined-up, evidence base to track progress in how efficiently nitrogen is being used in Scotland and identify opportunities to further improve this. By doing so, we can ensure that economic, environmental and wellbeing outcomes are achieved alongside one another.
To support the laying of today’s secondary legislation, the Scottish Government will also be publishing the full baseline dataset for the Nitrogen Balance Sheet and an accompanying report summarising key aspects of this. I would greatly encourage MSPs with an interest in the initiative to read this report, as it provides valuable context to the contents of the SSI itself.
The Scottish Government’s approach to developing the Nitrogen Balance Sheet has been shaped through engagement with key stakeholders and representative bodies across a range of sectors. An analysis report of the responses to our consultation proposals for the Balance Sheet was published earlier this year.
The far-reaching scope of an economy and environment wide Nitrogen Balance Sheet means that interests within the Parliament may also extend beyond the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee, for example to the Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee. The Parliament’s approach to scrutiny of the SSI (which has been laid under the affirmative procedure) will, of course, be a matter for yourselves to consider.
I look forward to working with the Parliament to finalise the approach to this first phase of the Scottish Nitrogen Balance Sheet, in view of the statutory deadline under the 2019 Act for this to be established in law by 23 March 2022. In the meantime, my officials are available to provide technical briefing and further information to the Committee if required.
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Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets) (Scotland) Bill