WHAT ON EARTH SUMMER 2022
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Scotland’s invisible consumption impact By Kim Pratt, Circular Economy Campaigner Scotland’s net zero targets are the driving force of our domestic climate policy. We must completely transform our energy and transport systems in order to cut our national emissions to zero by 2045. This is a huge and necessary task and, if successful, has the potential to greatly reduce Scotland’s environmental impact. However, there is a loophole in this plan which means Scotland is not taking responsibility for its true global climate change impact. This loophole threatens to undermine our efforts to decarbonise our society.
In our globalised economy, a product, like a mobile phone for example, might be designed in the USA, made with material from China, sold to consumers in Scotland and recycled in the EU. When each country only counts those emissions which occur within their geographic borders, the country where the materials were extracted, in this example, China, will be assigned the majority of the emissions associated with the mobile phone. Material extraction is the most carbon intensive stage of the life cycle of most products, but actions at other parts of the life cycle – design, consumption and disposal – have great potential to reduce the impact of the product as well. In Scotland, the emissions from this material extraction happening overseas are invisible to us, so policy has focused on things like electricity use whichis included in our domestic targets.
In fact, over half (52%) of the greenhouse gas emissions from Scotland’s consumption come from goods and services imported from other countries – and there are no policies designed to reduce this. By ignoring the impact of imported goods, it is possible to meet our targets by buying more products from abroad, rather than cutting emissions in Scotland. This problem is known as ‘carbon leakage’. In addition, the extraction of resources to make imported goods, and the environmental and social damage which is caused by this, is not factored into our policy plans. Scotland’s climate policies do not give any thought at all to the materials required to make them happen.
The proposed circular economy law aims to reduce Scotland’s material consumption to sustainable levels.
