Biodiversity duty report 2018 to 2020

7. Environmental Quality And Circular Economy

Environmental Quality

Deposition of acidic pollutants leads to acidification of the environment, which damages ecosystems and reduces biodiversity. Cleaner Air for Scotland – the Road to a Healthier Future (CAFS), provides a national framework which set out the actions for the Scottish Government and its partner organisations to achieve further reductions in air pollution. These actions are focused on reducing transport emissions, air quality built into placemaking decisions and Scottish Government's climate change ambitions. Achievement of these actions is set out in Cleaner Air for Scotland – Progress report 2018-19 Cleaner air for Scotland: progress report 2018-2019 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

An independent review of CAFS was undertaken in 2019, with revision on CAFS taking place during 2020.

Circular Economy

Developing a circular economy helps reduce impact on the need for virgin resources thereby helping to protect habitats and the natural environment. We have done this in a number of ways:

• Taking forward 'Making Things Last' which makes links between the circular economy and biodiversity Supporting documents - Making Things Last: a circular economy strategy for Scotland - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
• Taking forward the National Litter Strategy which recognises the impact of litter on the natural environment Supporting documents - Towards a litter-free Scotland: a strategic approach to higher quality local environments - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
• In April 2019, the Food Waste Reduction Action Plan was published, which recognises food waste is damaging to biodiversity and habitats Supporting documents - Food waste reduction: action plan - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)