Scottish Salmon Producers’ Organisation
BY HAMISH MACDONELL
All eyes on Glasgow COP26 represents an opportunity for the fish farming sector to make its case
Y
ou have to go back 16 years to find the last �me Scotland hosted an event with as much global significance and profile as the COP26 summit, due to be held in Glasgow this November. In 2005, it was the G8 at Gleneagles. I remember it well as I was part of the media swarm buzzing around inside the event itself. There were so many images and memories that stand out: there was the huge media hangar, with na�onal flags hanging from the roof, showing which long bank of desks was for each country. There was the dis�nctly surreal experience of standing on the balcony of the media bar, gin and tonic in hand, watching protesters ba�le with riot police outside the perimeter, just a hundred yards away. There was the sight of Bono – plus entourage – rushing between mee�ngs of world leaders; but there was also the shocking and tragic end to the summit brought about by the 7/7 bombings in London. Like that G8 mee�ng, COP26 will be a mixture of massive interna�onal stories and small human interest events. There will be protests which will capture immediate but flee�ng coverage, there will be stunts – some imagina�ve, some plain crass – and everywhere there will be someone trying to grab the media’s a�en�on. It will be a circus and there is li�le point in any fringe group or organisa�on going to COP in the expecta�on of making any sort of media splash because the story will always be elsewhere. However, there is considerable merit in being there if you have a
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clear but limited aim in mind. That is why we in the Sco�sh salmon sector will be at the COP26 conference and why we hope our involvement will mark the start of a shi� in percep�on about our sector. To appreciate what we are doing and why, it is worth considering what COP26 actually is. Although similar in size, scale and influence, COP26 is very different from the G8. Where the G8 was a leaders’ forum, an event to bring the migh�est economic powers from around the world together, COP26 is an event pitched somewhere between a global movement and a statement of intent. Indeed, it could almost be described as a global campaign in the form of a governmental conference. It feels as if COP26 is a grassroots event which has been taken out of the hands of the people and handed over to government and, as such, it carries with it a huge weight of expecta�on: it is designed to set the tone and the direc�on for climate change ac�on for years to come. But it is precisely because it is so much more than a mee�ng of the G8 that it ma�ers so much to sectors like ours. We want to be at COP26 for one reason and one reason only: we want to be seen as part of the solu�on to the environmental problems the world faces. Some of our cri�cs are determined to porAbove: Sunrise aerial view tray salmon farming as part of the problem. of Glasgow We have railed against that and we will con�n- Left: COP26 ue to do so. A�er all, we have a great environmental story to tell with our low carbon footprint, low water use and terrific feed conversion rate. Indeed, salmon farming should be at the forefront of environmentally friendly protein produc�on plans.
www.fishfarmermagazine.com
09/08/2021 14:35:40
