The Scottish Climate Intelligence Service continues to build local authority capacity and capability for area-wide emissions reduction.
Programme updates
1. Annual Impact Report 2025-6
SCIS has published its Annual Impact Report 2025-6. In it you will find a summary of our progress over the last year. This includes:
- 100% of Scottish councils involved
- 129 local authority officers engaged, 25% more than year one
- 40+ socialisation sessions delivered to 25 councils to engage beyond climate change teams
- 6 Transition Pathway workshops, supporting councils to identify place-based, sectoral transition targets and necessary tempo of delivery to meet them
- 3 local authorities – Aberdeenshire, Dundee and Falkirk - published their ClimateView dashboards.
2. Aligning ClimateView and Public Bodies Climate Change Duties Reporting (PBCCDR)
The interventions dataset held in ClimateView is a leading indicator of Scottish climate delivery and SCIS want to ensure we maximise the relevance and use of this data, particularly in the context of local authority reporting burdens. A key duty for climate progress is PBCCDR, a statutory duty that requires data which also holds significant value for monitoring and tracking climate progress, particularly when harnessed intentionally by local authorities.
In response to local authority feedback, SCIS have explored overlaps between ClimateView and PBCCDR, which focus on area-wide and organisational emissions respectively. On Thursday 23rd July, we hosted a drop-in for 51 attendees from 26 local authorities centred on aligning these two reporting structures. We were thrilled with the depth of engagement in this session and have produced an explainer document available to council climate change teams in the SCIS SharePoint.
While this process is designed specifically for the 2025/26 reporting cycle, SCIS recognises the need for ongoing support to reduce duplicative reporting burdens on councils. We will continue to work closely with Sustainable Scotland Network (SSN) and feed into the consultation on the planned PBCCDR Amendment Order, with any agreed amendments taking effect from 2029.
3. Spotlight: Transition Pathway Workshops
All local authorities have long-term climate targets. Exactly how each local authority is going to achieve these targets is not always as clear.
Our Transition Pathway workshops are designed to help councils explore the pace and scale required to reach net zero in the areas of transport and residential heat using the ClimateView platform.
The goal is to take long-term climate change targets, like net zero by 2045, and break them down into sector specific targets. We then use existing regulatory targets, council and regional ambitions and input from councils to explore different decarbonisation options open to a council area.
From this workshop, we produce targets that are more focused and measurable, like yearly number of heat pump installations, which we can then use to monitor progress in ClimateView.
So far, SCIS has run Transition Pathway workshops with cross-service area teams at Dundee, Falkirk, Fife, North Lanarkshire, South Lanarkshire and Stirling. We have been thrilled by the levels of interest from local authorities across Scotland and are looking forward to ramping up delivery over the next year.
4. Latest SCIS Bulletin out now
The latest SCIS Bulletin was published earlier this month. Read the latest and previous SCIS Bulletin editions. To receive quarterly updates on the SCIS programme and local authority progress on area-wide emissions reduction, subscribe to SCIS updates.
What’s coming up?
Over the coming months, we’ll be onboarding four new team members (!), develop our Delivery Manuals for cross-sector climate action, deliver bespoke Transition Pathway workshops, collaborate with external delivery partners to promote the multiple additional benefits of climate action, and polish off our Indicator Dashboard launching in Q3.
If you would like to find out more about the SCIS programme, you can visit our website and follow us on LinkedIn. You can also contact the team at info@climateintelligenceservice.scot.