Net Zero

Despite the international agreements made in the Kyoto Protocol almost 30 years ago and the Paris Accord some 18 years later, global emissions from fossil fuels in 2022 were the highest ever recorded.

Scientists assert that to avoid catastrophic climate change, global emissions need to have peaked by 2025 at the absolute latest. We are running out of time.

Rail provides a low-carbon form of mass transport. However, it is energy intensive and there are lots of opportunities for more carbon-efficient ways of providing our services.

78% of Scotland’s Railway’s emissions are outside of our direct control – for example through our supply chain and our purchasing. These are more difficult to tackle. Yet, for the next 5 years, the objectives that we have been set are focussed on emissions reduction within our close sphere of control.

Nevertheless, we have actions in our plan to start to tackle our wider carbon footprint as we recognise the urgency of the climate crisis and our responsibility to do all we can to reduce our overall emissions.

We are committed to achieving Net Zero emissions for our total footprint by 2045. We have a desire to achieve Net Zero for those emissions within our control by 2030.

Over the next five years, our objective is to reduce operational (Scope 1 & 2) emissions by 65% against a 2018/19 baseline and improve data relating to our wider carbon footprint (Scope 3) and enable total emissions reporting by the end of CP7.

To achieve this, we are working towards delivering two key outcomes in this space:

1. Scotland's Railway remains on track to achieve net-zero emissions by 2045 at the end of CP7
2. Network Rail Scotland achieves Net Zero Carbon emissions in Scopes 1 & 2 by the end of CP7
   

To find out more about our approach to net-zero and to see our delivery plan for this priority you can download our Climate Action Plan.