Climate Change Plan template for local authorities

Who is this template for?

This template is for use by Scottish local authorities (LAs) only. It is intended to help LAs demonstrate their compliance with the three climate change duties, across their corporate and area wide boundaries.

What is the purpose of the Climate Change Plan template?

This document provides a template of how local authorities should present the action being taken in respect of their climate change duties in the form of Climate Change Plans (CCPs). The content of the template is not exhaustive, however it does contain the areas LAs CCPs should cover in order to demonstrate that they are meeting their climate change duties.

LAs are free to develop and structure their CCP, or equivalent, as best suits their own organisation, for example as a single overarching plan or a series of linked plans covering different areas. This document is intended to provide an overview of what LAs’ plan or plans should include, as a minimum, to demonstrate how they are acting in the way best calculated to contribute to the national mitigation targets and to help deliver the national adaptation programme, and in what they consider to be the most sustainable way, i.e. how they are meeting the public bodies climate change duties.

What should a Climate Change Plan include?

In developing their CCP, LAs should consider corporate and area-wide activities in terms of:

• mitigation (reducing emissions),
• adaptation,
• and acting in the most sustainable way, i.e., they should cover the full scope of the climate change duties.