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In its November 2023 independent assessment of progress on climate adaptation, the Climate Change Committee (CCC) recommended that the Scottish Government “should set specific and quantified targets for levels of resilience across Scottish society under each outcome” of the next Scottish National Adaptation Plan.

The Scottish Government is considering all recommendations from the CCC on the structure of the next adaptation plan. Public consultation on a draft of the next adaptation plan is anticipated in early-2024 and we have asked the CCC to provide further views at this stage.

Scotland’s water environment is one of our most important national assets. The Scottish Government sets out it’s objectives and action programmes for protecting and improving Scotland's water environment in the River Basin Management Plan (RBMP), which the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) produces on our behalf every six years (currently covering 2021-2027). Each year the Scottish Government provides SEPA with a grant from the Water Environment Fund (WEF) to support their work to deliver the RBMP. WEF is targeted on projects which will derive the greatest benefit to Scotland’s rivers and neighbouring communities and is currently focussed on projects which restore rivers and improve fish migration.

Some projects to remove Invasive Non-Native Species (INNS) were previously funded under WEF. However, in recent years funding for INNS projects has been provided through other funding streams such as The Scottish Invasive Species Initiative (SISI) (total £3.24 million); The Tweed Invasives Project (£100,000); NatureScot’s Biodiversity Challenge Fund; The Scottish Rural Development Programme’s (SRDP) Agri-Environment Climate Scheme (AECS) (2020-2022 £20,392) and the Forestry Grant Scheme (£730,000 to date). Prioritising funding in this way enables more effective use of resources and greater benefits for biodiversity.

Since 2008 the Scottish Government has made available capital funding of £42 million per year to enable local authorities to invest in flood protection measures. Currently 80% of the available £42 million is allocated to prioritised flood schemes and the other 20% is allocated between all 32 councils to introduce, upgrade and maintain other flood resilience measures set out in Local Flood Risk Management Plans.

The 2020 Programme for Government committed an additional £150 million over the course of this Parliament for flood risk management actions, which is being allocated on an annual basis to support the delivery of flood resilience actions.

It is not the Scottish Government’s role to act as a broker or fundraiser. Instead the Scottish Government is seeking to create the conditions which promote the flow of responsible private investment into nature restoration. Our forthcoming Natural Capital Markets Framework will strengthen our existing Interim Principles for Responsible Investment in Natural Capital and set out our approach to using public spending more effectively to leverage in responsible private capital.

The following table shows private investment in nature restoration efforts in each of the past five years in woodland, peatland and marine and coastal restoration activity:

The Scottish Government has agreed a package of support for people whose homes and businesses were affected by Storm Babet.

Funding is being provided to eligible local authorities to allow them to issue flat rate grants to all households and businesses suffering from the impacts of Storm Babet. The grants will comprise a £1,500 community recovery grant for those whose properties have been flooded, and a £3,000 business recovery grant for businesses, community groups and organisations impacted by flooding. Grants will be administered by eligible local authorities which are those that had an exceptional red warning for rain during October’s storm. Letters offering funding have been issued to Dundee City Council, Angus Council, Aberdeenshire Council and Perth and Kinross Council to enable them to make the grant payments.

We are also providing Angus Council with additional funding of up to £100,000 to help those families who have lost everything to resettle and rebuild their lives. We have also announced funding to help farmers repair floodbanks damaged by the extreme rainfall during October.

The Scottish Government has identified, working with our Peatland ACTION delivery partners, multiple barriers that are preventing it from achieving its peatland restoration targets. These include a lack of skilled project designers, technical advisers and agents to support landowners and managers through restoration projects; operating restrictions during bird breeding seasons and inclement weather; the absence until 2020 of a multi-year funding package which undermined contractor confidence to invest; and a lack of private sector investment at sufficient scale in peatland restoration projects. Significant efforts are underway to address these issues, including substantial work to develop and expand the number of skilled and experienced contractors; developing provisions whereby operations can be carried out safely during bird breeding seasons etc.

Furthermore, the continued growth of Peatland Action since 2020 has increased confidence in multi year funding. This has allowed the wider industry to focus on developing the supporting infrastructure for peatland restoration, particularly with regards to training and developing applicable skills.

While the Material Flow Accounts are useful for quantifying how much of a resource we are consuming and producing, Zero Waste Scotland has indicated that the current model has a limited degree of granularity in the materials being consumed and it does not explicitly attribute this material consumption or waste generation to individual economic sectors. Zero Waste Scotland is currently exploring the scope for mapping material flows to economic sectors.

It is for Health Boards to assess and prepare for risks to their sites and services from disruptive weather events as part of their climate change adaptation plans.

There is at present no national monitoring system for potentially disruptive weather events in so far as they affect healthcare services per se, but Health Boards should monitor meteorological advice about potentially hazardous weather events, as well as flood warning advice issued by SEPA.

The Scottish Government does not currently provide formal guidance to local authorities to support climate change risk assessments and adaptation plans for local roads.

The Adaptation Scotland programme is funded by the Scottish Government to support capacity building and action on adaptation by the public sector, businesses and communities in Scotland, including local authorities. This includes developing Scotland's pioneering place-based approach to climate change adaptation.

This approach has seen the emergence of place-based adaptation partnerships including Climate Ready Clyde, Edinburgh Adapts, Aberdeen Adapts and Highland Adapts. Further, in March 2023 Adaptation Scotland launched the Community Climate Adaptation Routemap, a practical guide for communities to adapt to climate change.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-23191 on 7 December 2023. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers