Summary paper on the ‘carbon accounting’ methodology applied to the assessment of the Scottish Government’s 2010-11 budget

Hailed by WWF Scotland as a “World First”, the Scottish Government in late September 2009 published a Carbon Assessment of their draft 2010-11 budget. Undertaken a year in advance of this assessment becoming a statutory requirement under the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009, this exercise produced some interesting results and generated a lot of interest. This article is intended to provide an overview of the exercise that was undertaken, and to highlight and address some outstanding issues that surround the assessment.