North East Scotland sustainable energy action plan

Aether led the development of the North East Scotland Sustainable Energy Action Plan (SEAP) encompassing the local authorities (LAs) of Aberdeenshire, Aberdeen City, Angus and Moray. The project involved providing technical assistance and capacity building support to the four LAs through the development of a regional SEAP as well as providing individual SEAPs for each LA. Aether was responsible for core GHG data compilation, emission scenario modelling, stakeholder engagement and assessing the impact of actions as well as authoring the final report and associated materials for submission to the Covenant of Mayors (CoM). The support focussed on creating a SEAP empowering public, private and community actors alike to enable efficient and engaging actions on local GHG emissions.

The Challenge

The regional approach the North East of Scotland is taking in order to develop a comprehensive and integrated SEAP requires the involvement of the private and public sectors across the region. Stakeholder engagement is key to enable significant and implementable climate change mitigation policies and actions and to develop the low carbon economy in the region. The key challenge for the project was to develop a cohesive evidence base and ‘route-map’ to demonstrate the region’s pathway to a low carbon future to inspire and galvanise professionals and inhabitants into coordinated action.

The Solution

Aether led a multidisciplinary team of collaborators to design and develop the project and ongoing programme for the North East Scotland SEAP. Working with each of the LAs and a regional steering group, the team considered LA-specific and regional mitigation actions and identified possible funding sources, financial mechanisms and potential co-benefits of the SEAP. The energy and GHG impacts of each policy/action were estimated and compared with targets for reductions. A SEAP governance structure was developed to ensure the ongoing decision-making and implementation of the plan. A regional SEAP report was authored for submission to the EU Covenant of Mayors

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