The Report Uses Scotland’s Carbon Metric to quantify the potential carbon impacts of a more circular economy in Scotland.

The report’s key findings are:

1. Material consumption is responsible for over two thirds of Scotland’s carbon emissions.

2. A more circular Scottish economy could reduce territorial emissions

by 11 million tonnes CO2e per year by 2050 compared to BAU, while providing continued economic growth.

3. Nearly 1 in every 5 tonnes of material flowing through the Scottish economy is waste.

4. Regardless of carbon accounting methodology (territorial vs. consumption), a more circular could significantly reduce Scotland’s carbon footprint without sacrificing economic prosperity.

The methodology used to arrive at these findings involved the creation

of a baseline to assess the carbon impacts of Scotland’s material consumption in 2012. This was subsequently used to compare the carbon impacts of four different economic scenarios for 2050, each characterized by different levels of material circularity.

These 2050 scenarios do not predict the future; rather they have been designed to highlight the carbon reductions that could be possible with a more circular Scottish economy.

This project is the first attempt to quantify the carbon impacts of a circular economy in Scotland and is one of the first globally to quantify the environmental impacts of the circular economy at a national scale.

Decision makers should consider the uncertainties which are inherent to any new area of study when drawing conclusions from the results. The analysis represents a bespoke approach, drawing on a life

cycle thinking method to give an initial, high level description of the

possible carbonimpacts of a circular economy in Scotland. This life cycle

approach could be built on and strengthened in the future, using

input output analysis for example, to understand the potential impacts and opportunities of a more circular economy in greater detail.