Scottish Climate Intelligence Service

The Scottish Climate Intelligence Service (SCIS) is now on LinkedIn! ?? The #SCIS is a climate change capacity-building programme for local authorities in Scotland, combining a national digital platform and a support service co-designed by the delivery partners and local authorities from across the country. Our digital platform - ClimateView - will collate area-wide emissions data to create standardised emissions inventories across all 32 of Scotland's local authorities. It will also calculate and visualise the emissions reduction impact of particular projects and interventions taken by local authorities in delivering their own area-wide emissions reduction strategies. Through workshops, knowledge-sharing sessions and 1-2-1s, our tailored support service will help local authorities to build the skills, knowledge and influence to use this data to better plan, monitor and deliver #climateaction at the scale and pace required for achieving their #netzero targets. The SCIS is delivered by a partnership between Edinburgh Climate Change Institute, ClimateView and the Improvement Service. This partnership brings together expert climate knowledge, practitioner insights and a track record of successfully supporting local authorities to deliver high quality, efficient local services both in Scotland and across the world. Follow us here to stay up to date with the SCIS journey and share this page with any colleagues and contacts who might be interested! If you have questions about who we are and what we do, you can contact us at [email protected]. COSLA Local Government Information Unit (LGIU) Sustainable Scotland Network #climatechange #localgovernment #NetZero #collaboration #knowledgesharing #

Meet the Scottish Climate Intelligence Service! #SCIS Morgan Watkins is one of our Improvement Service Local Leads, having worked previously as a Senior Advisor at Aotearoa New Zealand's Climate Change Commission. Our Local Leads are the main point of contact between the SCIS and local authorities, actively supporting and collaborating with our users on every step of their Net Zero journeys. Morgan is the Local Lead for our 'Western' family grouping: you can find out more about our Local Authority 'families' here ->https://lnkd.in/ejyKu6Eb "I'm passionate about fostering local-led thought leadership and believe that our differences are our greatest strengths. I aim to encourage meaningful collaboration that drives impactful climate action by creating spaces where every voice is valued."

What makes the Scottish Climate Intelligence Service unique? Our local authority users…all 32 of them! The SCIS is jointly funded by The Scottish Government and all 32 local authorities in Scotland, with support from COSLA and Sustainable Scotland Network. This commitment from every Scottish local authority is critical to achieve our mission to help deliver climate action at the scale and pace needed to reach Net Zero by 2045. Here are three key reasons why: 1. Consistency ?? Local government across Scotland has been at the forefront of Net Zero action, publishing ambitious strategies and implementing climate interventions nationwide.?However, multiple plans and strategies across thirty two local authorities has created a fragmented policy landscape. Our partnership with ClimateView means all local authorities are using a common platform, with standardised language and frameworks to make climate interventions, all underpinned by our Scottish Area Wide Inventory. You can read more about that in a previous post -> https://lnkd.in/eNr-MftN 2. Knowledge-Sharing ?? Taking just and equitable Net Zero action is not easy and no-one's interventions will be perfect. Implementing effective climate policy at pace requires learning from best practice while working with diverse and representative stakeholders to ensure interventions fit their context and leave no-one behind. Through uploading historic and current climate interventions onto their public dashboards, local authorities will not only have a real-time indicator of their Net Zero progress, but will be able to compare their climate interventions with other local authorities. Additionally, the dashboards will be visible to key transition stakeholders, enabling informed cross-sector engagement with area-wide climate mitigation across Scotland. 3. Collaboration ?? Climate action is ineffective when we do it alone. To encourage regional collaboration, our local authority users are split into three family groupings:?Northern, Western and Eastern. The three family groupings are designed to preserve existing local and regional partnerships, building on the work they have already done together. Our Local Leads - Joanna Keel, Michael Seaword and Morgan Watkins - are supporting local authorities to identify the commonalties, connect the dots, and bring people and councils together to tackle shared challenges. You can find the family groupings map, as well as a User Group session recording where the family groupings were co-designed and informed by local authority views, here -> https://lnkd.in/ejyKu6Eb

One of our most frequently asked questions is: "Where does your data come from?" ?? Perhaps the biggest task faced by the the SCIS data team before launching the Scottish Climate Intelligence Service was to create a robust, internationally-aligned methodology for area-wide emissions inventories. And so, following feedback from local authorities as to what would be most useful for them, the Scottish Area-Wide Inventory was born ?? Our first step in calculating area-wide emissions data is the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero's (DESNZ) Local Authority Green House Gas dataset (and the underlying sub-national datasets). This data forms the basis of our inventory. The next step for our data team is to aggregate this data to different categories in line with international standards. This aggregation is key as our common platform - ClimateView - models climate interventions in terms of every mitigation option outlined by the IPCC. You can find out more about ClimateView's Transition Element Framework - launched today at COP29 Azerbaijan - here -> https://lnkd.in/ed53py9B Finally, to ensure maximum relevance for our Scottish local authority users, we actively build on DESNZ data by integrating context-specific data in key areas such as ferries and aviation. This is a crucial step to help decision-makers in local authorities across Scotland who face unique challenges and opportunities in their Net Zero journeys. SCIS will be updating our Scottish Area-Wide Inventory annually to reflect new national and subnational datasets, including any methodological changes affecting historic data ?? We are committed to keeping this information as open source and accessible as possible going forward.?If you have any questions regarding our data and methodology, leave a comment or message us here. Alternatively, contact us at [email protected] and a member of the team will get back to you as soon as we can! Shout-out to our amazing #data team: Aileen Whitehead, Alreem Alshimmari, Clare Wharmby, Killian B. and Kira Myers ?? And remember...a 'perfect' methodology is redundant without action ? #climateaction #NetZero #carbonemissions #emissionsinventory #areawide #datascience #collaboration #localauthority #localgovernment #collaboration #partnershipsforthegoals #SDGs #COP29 #SCIS

Meet the Scottish Climate Intelligence Service! #SCIS Jamie Brogan is Head of Climate Partnerships at the Edinburgh Climate Change Institute and Strategy Director with the SCIS. "Taking on huge and complex problems like climate change is hard. I’m always trying to help people to take the next step and not be overwhelmed by that. I’ve got nearly 30 years experience of helping businesses with innovation and change."

We are very excited at the Scottish Climate Intelligence Service as our local authority user group just completed step two on their SCIS journey ?? Part of the support we're offering our local authority partners is through monthly workshops. With 97% of local authorities in attendance, this month's workshops centred on 'Understanding Your Inventory' and was delivered by Carbon Analyst Kira Myers, with the support of Programme Director Clare Wharmby and our Data Manager Alreem Alshimmari. We developed our SCIS Area-Wide Inventory following consultation with local authorities. Our aim was to provide a standardised emissions inventory across all of Scotland's local authority areas, combining the best available national and local datasets with global standards for emissions reporting. This workshop described the steps we took to achieve that goal, while also outlining the key methodological challenges SCIS has had to overcome along the way. With Halloween around the corner when we delivered this training, Kira described these challenges as four 'monsters' to be overcome by the intrepid SCIS methodology team. You can see the team below heading into the dark woods of carbon accounting and emissions inventories and we will explore these at a later date! Perhaps the most important takeaway from these sessions is that no emissions inventory or methodology is perfect. While we should always strive for accuracy and consistency in our calculations, a 'perfect methodology' is redundant without action. At the SCIS, we see our emissions inventory as a decision-support tool, empowering local authorities with the information they need to make effective, impactful climate interventions ? #NetZero #climateaction #carbonaccounting #carbonemissions #emissionsinventory #areawide #localgovernment #collaboration #partnershipsforthegoals

An integral part of the Scottish Climate Intelligence Service is our partnership with ClimateView ?? ClimateView have developed a shared data platform which supports capacity building and the implementation of climate action. Underpinned by our robust and innovative area-wide emissions methodology, the Scottish Climate Intelligence Service is supporting local authorities to move their existing climate action plans onto the platform. Once uploaded, local authorities will be able to use the platform's modelling system to improve area-wide emissions reduction programmes, focusing on the most effective climate solutions and the changes needed to fund and implement them. Many local authorities are already working on area based approaches and Sustainable Dundee is an example of what the platform can do. Since 2021, Dundee City Council and its partners have worked with ClimateView to digitise its climate data, integrating Dundee's climate action plan with the platform to calculate how far their planned interventions will take them towards their goal of Net Zero by 2045 ? Find out more about how Sustainable Dundee is using ClimateView to take intelligent Net Zero action here -> https://lnkd.in/dTRbcHUS #NetZero #climateaction #climatetransition #localauthority #localgovernment #partnershipsforthegoals #climatemitigation #decarbonisation #emissionsreduction #energytransition #collaboration

Meet the Scottish Climate Intelligence Service! #SCIS George Tarvit is Director at Sustainable Scotland Network, Scotland's public sector network on sustainability and climate change and a key delivery partner for the SCIS. "As part of Edinburgh Climate Change Institute, I have primary responsibility for the Sustainable Scotland Network. I bring?knowledge, experience and contacts?to the SCIS to ensure the service builds on existing activities, to help build synergy with SSN and improve collaboration between local authorities and the wider public sector. I also help link SCIS into wider sustainability and climate change policy and action within Scotland, including links to the SSN Steering Group."

Our Capacity Building Manager Judi Kilgallon from the Improvement Service and Strategy Director Jamie Brogan from Edinburgh Climate Change Institute joined the APSE - Association for Public Service Excellence Energy Summit in Glasgow earlier in the week. We had a lot of positive and useful feedback about our work and it was inspiring to hear from different local authority officers, in particular Hamish Martin talking through the importance of the just transition and the challenges of heat networks and zoning in Fife Council and Gavin Slater on Glasgow City Council plans to accelerate funding and investment. #climateaction #localgovernment

Meet the Scottish Climate Intelligence Service! #SCIS Judi Kilgallon of the Improvement Service is the Capacity Building Manager at the Scottish Climate Intelligence Service. "Having worked across the public sector delivering new projects and driving change, I am a firm believer in the power of collaboration. Effective climate action needs to be embedded across local authorities, and shaping work with partners and communities."