Recommendation 6

The Committee heard a range of views on the Scottish Government’s decision not to follow the CCC’s emissions pathway by reducing livestock numbers. Supporters of the decision raised the important economic and cultural identity of livestock farming in many rural communities, as well as the potential for offshoring livestock emissions to meet domestic demand. Concerns were raised, however, that given almost half of all agriculture emissions came from livestock production, the Scottish Government could not deliver its climate ambitions without dealing with the sector’s highest emitter. The Committee notes the Cabinet Secretary’s comment that reaching Net Zero means looking broadly across all sectors, and asks the NZET Committee to scrutinise how, as part of its wider consideration of the draft CCP, shortfalls from livestock emissions are being compensated for through further reductions in other sectors.