Environment and sustainable development

A considerable amount of the legislation passed by the Scottish Parliament can be seen as falling within the general area of environment and sustainable development, but providing an assessment of it is not straightforward. In the first place there are difficulties over the scope of what should be covered. A second key element is the need to take account of the extent to which there are significant constraints on the Scottish Parliament's ability to go its own way on many issues. After considering these preliminary issues in more detail, this chapter examines the role of sustainable development both within the parliamentary procedures and in the substantive content of legislation, as a pervasive issue and where specific substantive rules are imposed. The chapter then examines the main areas where the Scottish Parliament has acted on environmental topics, followed by consideration of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009, which is a significant measure for both ideas. The chapter ends with an assessment of the Parliament's contribution in this field.