What on Earth 85

WHAT ON

EARTH FRIENDS OF THE EARTH SCOTLAND’S MEMBERS’ MAGAZINE

Issue 85 I Autumn 2021

COP26 Special Edition

WHAT ON

H T R A E T L A N D’S RT H S C O F T H E E A GA Z IN E O S D N F R IE S’ MA MEMBER 21

0 Autumn 2 Issue 85 I

Friends of the Earth Scotland is: > Scotland’s leading environmental campaigning organisation > An independent Scottish charity with a network of thousands of supporters and active local groups across Scotland > Part of the largest grassroots environmental network in the world, uniting over 2 million supporters, 73 national member groups and 5,000 local activist groups

Our vision is of a world where everyone can enjoy a healthy environment and a fair share of the earth’s resources.

Friends of the Earth Scotland is an independent Scottish charity SC003442

C O N T E N TS What is a COP & who will be there?

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How to get involved in COP26 activities

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Key issues to be discussed at COP26

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Avoiding greenwashing

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T: 0131 243 2700 E: info@foe.scot W: www.foe.scot

Taking climate action in Scotland

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Editor: Eilidh Stanners

Get social with us: /foescotland

What on Earth is published by and copyright to: Friends of the Earth Scotland 5 Rose Street, Edinburgh EH2 2PR

Design: Emma Quinn The views expressed in What on Earth are not necessarily those of Friends of the Earth Scotland.

FoES accepts no liability for errors, omissions or incorrect data in advertisements.

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Director’s View Dr Richard Dixon, Director @Richard_Dixon

In the mid-2000s, we helped persuade the Scottish Government to set Scotland’s first climate targets. Back then, Friends of the Earth was one of only a handful of groups paying much attention to climate change. Now, everyone says they are serious about reducing emissions, even the oil companies (although they are lying, of course, and are still trying to delay change).

Along the way we helped create the Stop Climate Chaos Scotland and COP26 Coalition, and our recent work on Just Transition, opposing oil and gas developments, transport, divestment from fossil fuels and circular economy all feed into our central aim of delivering a fair and just fossil-free Scotland.

COP26 has been widely billed as the last chance to avert climate disaster, but so was the Copenhagen COP in 2009 and the one Paris in 2015. For millions of people, climate disaster is already here.

This will be my tenth COP and I’m a bit jaded about last chances. There will be some progress and there will be massive frustration. The issue of participation is particularly difficult. As I write this, it is still not clear if all the official delegates and observers will make it to Glasgow in person.

If not then poorer countries will be at a huge disadvantage in negotiations that are already stacked against them.

Doubly important then that we make sure world leaders know we want urgent action and we will be watching them, on the streets, in the conference halls and online.

For millions of people, climate disaster is already here.

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COP26 Glasgow’s long-awaited UN climate summit – COP26 – is almost upon us.

This will be the first time the summit has been hosted in the UK, so for many of you it will be the first opportunity to engage with it.

The annual climate conference is the main forum for negotiations on global efforts to tackle the climate crisis. It is also a space where the reality of global geo-politics and global inequality is laid bare. In fact, climate justice activists have described these talks as “negotiating who lives and dies”.

But what is COP, and how can we get involved?

Over the next few pages we'll explain what happens at the summit, what are the main issues on the negotiating table, and how you can take action to push for the outcomes we need to see.

The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has raised major challenges in safely hosting an international conference like COP26 in person, in no small part because of the vastly unequal roll out of the vaccine worldwide. Moving the talks online is not a solution either as we saw when preparatory negotiations in June were held virtually, and parties struggled with power cuts and other interruptions making it extremely difficult to follow complex discussions. Online negotiations would also significantly reduce the access and influence of civil society on the talks: you can’t protest an online summit!

What is COP? COP is an abbreviation of ‘Conference of the Parties’ to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) – also referred to as the UN climate conference, climate talks, climate summit or climate negotiations.

COPs have been taking place every year since 1995 – the Glasgow summit will be the 26th meeting of this kind which is why it’s known as COP26. COP26 is planned to take place between 31st October – 11th November 2021 at the SEC in Glasgow. The summit had been scheduled for November 2020, but was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The UK Government has decided to push ahead with the event despite environmental groups, including us, calling for it to be postponed amid fears people from poorer countries will not be able to fully take part.

If global South governments and civil society organisations are not able to fully participate in COP26, this threatens the legitimacy of the negotiations and any outcomes.

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Who attends the summit?

An estimated 20,000–25,000 delegates from around the world are expected to attend COP26 in Glasgow. This includes thousands of official negotiators, representing 197 different countries in the talks.

Civil society organisations – grouped by the UN into what’s called ‘NGO constituencies’ (including environmental and climate justice organisations, Indigenous Peoples, trade unions, women and gender groups, youth networks, and farmers) – also attend as ‘observers’ to the talks. We regularly attend COPs as observers as part of the official Friends of the Earth International delegation.

Civil society observers have access to many, but not all, inside spaces and can organise events, press conferences and protests. We play a really important role in putting pressure on governments, highlighting key issues arising in the negotiations and protesting when the talks are going in the wrong direction.

Our actions (both ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ official UN spaces) can help shape the outcome of the talks. For example, the combined impact of half a million people ‘outside’ on the streets of Madrid last year and a co-ordinated ‘inside’ civil society resistance helped stop a terrible deal on carbon trading and offsetting going through.

Business is also a designated official ‘NGO constituency’ meaning fossil fuel companies access the talks seeking to influence the outcome in harmful ways. In fact Shell, one of the world’s biggest climate polluters, has boasted of having written part of the Paris Agreement. We’ve already seen attempts by oil and gas companies to lobby the Scottish Government around COP26, and the UK Government is bringing on board a whole suite of corporate sponsors.

A civil society campaign to kick polluters like Shell out of the COP is gaining momentum.

Photo: Center for Native Communities for the Central Forest, Katowice COP 2018, © UNFCCC / Flickr

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Part of our role in the climate justice movement is to ensure that the voices of those most at risk from the climate crisis are heard in and around the summit.

What does it mean for Scotland?

Each year COPs are a major focus for the climate movement, which seeks to both influence the negotiations and use the summit to build momentum around climate action in the host nation.

In 'normal' years, thousands of climate justice activists and international organisations travel to COPs to participate both on the ‘inside’ of the official UN summit and on the ‘outside’, with a whole host of civil society organised activities and events, giving us an incredible opportunity to connect and learn from each other. This year we still hope to welcome many international activists, but expect participation, in particular from UK Government designated ‘red list’ countries, to be significantly reduced calling into question the legitimacy of the talks.

Part of our role in the climate justice movement is to ensure that the voices of those most at risk from the climate crisis are heard in and around the summit. This means voices from the global South, Indigenous People and frontline communities at home and overseas.

COP also provides a hugely important opportunity to grow our movement in Scotland, and make demands for bold local and national action while the spotlight is on our climate efforts. The fight for climate justice won’t end when COP26 leaves town!

Photo: Madrid March COP 2019,

by Babawale Obayanju / FoEI

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Photo: FoEI

How to get involved Although most people in Scotland won’t be allowed inside the summit, there will be loads of things happening in and around Glasgow that you can get involved in.

The biggest impact we can have on the negotiations and on national and local government is by organising together ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ the talks to show how strong and diverse the climate justice movement is, calling out greenwash and articulating our collective demands for real climate action.

We have been working within the COP26 Coalition – an umbrella coalition made up of environmental and climate organisations, trade unions, racial and migrant justice networks, faith and youth groups – and with Stop Climate Chaos Scotland to help build momentum around COP26 and grow the climate justice movement.

As part of a global call to action for climate justice, mobilisations will take place during the middle weekend of the summit with protests in Glasgow, across the UK and around the world, followed by a Peoples’ Summit with events and workshops organised by civil society groups from all over the world.

Across both weeks of the summit, in and around Glasgow, there will be a huge diversity of events and activities taking place, with civil society hubs organised by Stop Climate Chaos Scotland for activists to gather, connect, learn and organise.

Covid-19 Safety The pandemic isn't over, that's why we are doing our best to develop Covid-19 resilient plans to ensure we can keep people safe and put pressure on governments. Keep an eye on the COP26 Coalition website for the Covid-19 Safety measures we are putting in place for indoor and outdoor events.

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Get involved at COP26 Key November dates Raise the banners! A cross-movement action to cover the entirety of Glasgow in climate justice banners and messages.

Monday

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Youth movement Fridays For Future Scotland have called a Climate Strike for this date.

Friday

5 Saturday

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A global call to action for climate justice with a major mobilisation in Glasgow, decentralised mobilisations across the UK and in cities around the world. Take part either by coming to Glasgow or joining a local event in your area to show the strength of the climate justice movement.

Wednesday

7 10 Saturday

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Hybrid in-person and virtual Peoples’ Summit with events and workshops organised by local, national and global civil society.

Most people won’t be able to get into the conference itself – this will be a place to learn more about climate justice, the issues at the heart of the negotiations, and real solutions to the climate emergency.

Civil society closing ceremony for COP26.

For more information, visit: cop26coalition.org

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Get involved before it kicks off JOIN A LOCAL HUB Want to get involved with organising actions, mobilisations and assemblies in your area? Join a COP26 Coalition local organising hub now.

Connect with one of the 18 hubs already established across the UK, or set up a new one in your area at: www.cop26coalition.org/resource/local-hub-assemblies/

HOST A VISITOR If you live in Glasgow or the central belt you can sign up to the COP26 Homestay Network to offer space in your home for visitors from the climate justice movement during the talks. Opening your home (and your heart) to activists, scientists and policy makers from around the world is one of the most impactful ways you can contribute to the movement.

Find out more and register as a host at: www.humanhotel.com/cop26/

SIGN UP FOR EVENTS COP26 will be extremely busy with events held by all kinds of civil society groups organising around the summit. The Climate Fringe website to help you keep a track of what is happening and where. Plenty of events will be online only so you can access them no matter where you live.

Visit it now and find out what is happening: www.climatefringe.org/

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Key issues at COP26 Most of the issues arising at the UN climate summit centre around questions of equity, historic responsibility and capability to act – questions that are at the heart of climate justice. Climate justice is key to unlocking the global cooperation that is essential to achieving the Paris Agreement target of limiting global temperature increase to 1.5°C.

Climate ambition The Paris Agreement is a global treaty adopted in 2015. It aims to keep the global average temperature increase well below 2°C warming compared to pre-industrial levels and pursue efforts to keep it to 1.5°C.

We are already experiencing devastating impacts at only 1°C warming. A 2018 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has made it clear that increases of more than 1.5°C would be catastrophic.

Yet countries’ pledges to reduce their emissions under the Paris Agreement currently fall far short of the 1.5°C or even the 2°C target. COP26 will be an important opportunity to put pressure on big and historical polluters, including the UK, EU and US, to do their fair share and increase their climate commitments.

Climate fair shares International civil society organisations have come together to assess global climate action under the Paris Agreement through the concept of ‘fair shares’.

The ‘fair shares’ analysis is rooted in the science of remaining carbon budgets and the principles of equity under the UNFCCC. The 'fair shares' approach shows that rich countries that have been the biggest polluters for the longest period of time are not doing anywhere near their fair share of climate action in terms of reducing emissions and providing climate finance. This includes Scotland and the UK. At the same time, many countries in the global South are committed to undertaking their share – or more – of action.

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Photo: Victor Barro/ FoEI

Rich countries owe a climate debt – they must pay up Climate finance A decade ago, at the Copenhagen climate talks (COP15), rich countries pledged to pay $100 billion a year in climate finance to global South countries (usually referred to as developing countries in the talks) by 2020.

This figure does not represent anything like the true carbon debt that rich countries owe for bringing the climate to the verge of breakdown, yet only a fraction of that target has been provided.

This money is essential for developing countries to adapt to the impacts of climate change and reduce their own emissions, while also developing their economies to bring people out of poverty in a way that doesn’t harm the environment.

COP26 will see global South countries demand that the global North delivers on its climate finance obligations. Rich countries owe a climate debt – they

must pay up. The summit will also see negotiations begin on a new long term finance goal for 2025. Any new finance goal must be in line with climate fair shares.

Loss and damage The concept of loss and damage aims to address what happens when it is no longer possible to adapt to the impacts of climate change, including the loss of land, livelihoods and associated cultures.

This is a reality that many nations and communities are already facing.

Countries in the global South are seeking compensation for their losses, but rich historical polluters, like the US and the EU – who have done most to cause the climate crisis – have been resistant to paying out for this damage.

At COP26, many global South countries will be calling for loss and damage negotiations to be a higher priority, and for a mechanism to address loss and damage to be put into action.

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Photo: Victor Barro/ FoEI

Carbon trading and offsetting The key – and perhaps most controversial – issue up for negotiation at COP26 is rules for carbon markets (trading and offsetting) under the Paris Agreement.

Carbon trading is where a limit is set on how much pollution can be emitted in a certain timeframe in a particular country or region.

If a polluting company emits less than their allocation of the limit, they can sell what's leftover to another company who doesn't want to reduce their emissions.

Offsetting is where one party pays another to make carbon savings so as to avoid making emissions reductions themselves.

Basically, carbon trading and offsetting allows polluters to continue emitting greenhouse gases for a price. However,

there is no evidence that existing carbon market mechanisms have reduced emissions. Even if they could have worked in the past we have simply run out of time to play around with them. All polluters have to reduce their emissions to zero as quickly as possible.

Carbon markets strengthen the power of big, unaccountable corporations, and the dodgy offsetting schemes they rely on are linked to human rights abuses and environmental harm. For these reasons, we are opposed to carbon markets as a dangerous distraction to real climate solutions.

There will be huge pressure on COP26 to agree rules on carbon markets, so there is a real danger of harmful rules getting through.

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Just Solutions to the Climate Crisis Friends of the Earth Scotland is guided by principles of climate justice in our approach to the crisis. Climate justice recognises that countries of the global North, like Scotland, have grown rich over the past few centuries through polluting the atmosphere while at the same time extracting resources from the global South under colonialism.

Those on the sharpest end of climate impacts have done the least to cause the crisis, and are often without adequate resources and technologies to deal with its effects. Countries of the global North therefore bear a far greater responsibility for addressing the climate crisis having been the biggest polluters.

Solar powered maternity clinics. Photo: We Care Solar / Ashden

For solutions to the climate crisis to be just, poorer countries should be allowed to develop their economies sustainably. For this to happen rich nations must reduce their emissions more quickly, and provide support in the form of finance and technology. Climate justice also means that the transformation of global North economies must be done in a way that improves equality within nations as well as between nations.

The multiple crises and injustices of past and present – hunger, poverty, racism, sexism, classism, biodiversity collapse – share the same drivers and the same solutions as the climate emergency.

Women preparing the Gnetum nursery in Cameroon. Photo by Ollivier Girard/CIFOR

The real solutions to the climate crisis lie in recognising its root causes and drivers, and transforming our societies and economies. The scale and scope of the challenge is enormous, but all over the world people are already practicing the real solutions to the climate crisis – from community owned energy to agro-ecology and community forest management. These need to be supported and brought into the mainstream, while the influence and destructive activities of big business must be reined in.

The concept of climate justice is vital to draw on domestically as well as internationally: ensuring no one is left behind while essential changes are made and tackling inequality through greater democratic ownership and a fairer spread of wealth.

Ending our reliance on fossil fuels The primary source of emissions causing the climate crisis is the fossil fuel industry. It is clear that we need to leave fossil fuels in the ground and shift to renewable energy, and that the phase out has to happen over the next decade.

The International Energy Agency has called for no licensing or investment in new oil and gas, but governments and corporations around the world, including here in Scotland, have plans to extract an amount of coal, oil and gas that will cause serious catastrophes around the world.

The UK’s 6.5 billion barrels of oil and gas in already operating fields will far exceed the UK’s ability to meet the Paris climate goals.

However, the industry aims to extract three times this much, and is currently being supported and subsidised by the UK and Scottish Governments. The additional oil and gas extraction enabled by recent government subsidies will add twice as much carbon to the atmosphere as the UK phase-out of coal power saves.

It doesn’t have to be this way: Scotland has 25% of Europe’s renewable energy potential, more than enough to harness and provide for all of our energy needs.

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A just transition requires government intervention and leadership Just Transition for all Phasing out fossil fuels will have a huge impact on the economy and jobs, and needs to be done in a way that supports workers and communities who are currently dependent on the industry to transition fairly into decent jobs in the new renewables economy.

Research has shown that if proper policy is put in place, more than three jobs could be created in renewables and energy efficiency alone for every single one at risk in North Sea oil. As we know from previous energy transitions such as the closure of the coal mines, handling the transition in a just way is essential to avoid long-lasting social and economic harm.

A just transition requires government intervention and leadership – it has to be planned and managed, in close collaboration with communities, workers, their trade unions, and environmentalists.

What's more, it isn’t only about energy jobs, and it isn’t only about looking after communities in the global North. A truly just transition must change the way we think about and value work, including care work that is currently done predominantly by unpaid or underpaid women, migrants and people of colour – from health care to housework.

A truly just transition in the global North cannot be reliant on continued exploitation of minerals and resources in the global South, used in the construction of renewables.

Local and global justice must be at the heart of the transition, through people-owned, decentralised energy systems, expansion of care services, locally-sourced food, and green and affordable housing and public transport.

Stop Cambo / David Mirzoeff

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Stopping Cambo is the start Oil companies have applied to the UK Government for permission to drill the new Cambo oil field, 80 miles west of Shetland.

With a total of 800 million barrels of oil, Cambo is the second largest undeveloped field in UK waters and, if approved, could unleash climate pollution for decades to come.

The campaign to stop the Cambo field has hit the headlines in recent months highlighting the fundamental incompatibility of climate action with the continued supply of oil and gas fuelling the problem. We delivered the objections of over 80,000 people to the Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street and have been putting pressure on politicians to speak out against it.

Our recent ‘Watershed’ report revealed that since the UK parliament and Scottish Government declared a climate emergency in 2019, the UK has actually increased oil and gas reserves by 800 million barrels.

This means there are now over 6.5 billion barrels approved for extraction from UK waters.

Plus there is an additional 13 billion earmarked for future developments. Allowing companies to extract and burn these fossil fuels would triple emissions from oil and gas.

The current policy of the UK Government – supported by the Scottish Government’s Energy Strategy – is to drill for every last drop of oil. To limit warming to 1.5C, there can be no new fossil fuels anywhere in the world, and a winding down of production. As a wealthy nation with historic responsibility for climate change, the UK must act faster.

Stopping Cambo is just the start, we need a rapid phase out of North Sea oil and gas over the next decade. The political and financial backing for extracting oil and gas must instead be redirected at the people and communities currently employed in fossil fuels to support them into the industries we need such as renewable energy and the dismantling of oil platforms.

Find out how you can help the campaign www.stopcambo.org.uk

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Avoiding greenwashing We have reached scientific and popular consensus on the need to act on the climate emergency, but big business and governments are finding new ways to get out of taking the action needed to tackle it.

The solutions to the climate crisis are also the solutions to multiple injustices, which require the redistribution of resources both between countries and within nations. Few want to hand over power and wealth when they have it.

Photo: Extinction Rebellion Scotland / Mark Richards

We are seeing a proliferation of greenwashing and spin from governments and big business who are avoiding taking serious action on climate change. Here are some of the industry-backed ‘solutions’ that in reality would do little to address the climate emergency or create a fairer society.

Few want to hand over power and wealth when they have it.

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BP AGM 2019. Picture Karen Murray/ FoES

‘Net-Zero’ The concept of net-zero is increasingly being used to disguise inaction. Countries and corporations – including the UK, Scotland, Shell, BP, Total, Ibedrola, Amazon, Microsoft, Natwest, Nestle, Sky, BAE Systems, Coca Cola and Bayer to name but a few – have begun adopting net-zero targets instead of ‘real zero’ targets.

The problem with net-zero is that it allows for continued climate pollution in the short term on the basis that one day they will be sequestered or captured and stored. This stops real action to reduce emissions being taken in time to stop the devastating climate impacts being locked in if it turns out the technologies don’t work.

Many of the speculative ‘negative emission technologies’ and nature-based solutions being touted are politically and practically unfeasible, and are likely to cause wider environmental damage, inequality and human rights abuses.

Net-zero pathways that rely on negative emissions technologies see emissions overshooting the carbon budget for 1.5°C, with the theory being that they will be brought down later.

This pushes the burden of action onto the shoulders of future generations, by which time the damage caused by warming over 1.5°C will be done and irreversible.

Negative Emissions Technologies: Carbon Capture, Hydrogen & BioEnergy Scotland’s 2019 climate law is based around a net-zero target, and the current plans to meet it rely heavily on unproven negative emissions technologies.

The Climate Change Plan update published last year relies on these technologies to achieve almost a fifth of the 2030 target, increasing to a quarter of emissions reductions by 2032, with a particular emphasis on Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) and Bio-Energy Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS).

CCS is supposed to work in three main phases: capturing carbon dioxide (e.g. from an energy plant), transporting the captured carbon dioxide to a desired location, and then storing it deep underground.

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Scotland’s Climate Plan is also heavily reliant on risky technologies...

However, the reality is that CCS has for decades been proposed as a silver bullet solution for cutting carbon emissions. Despite billions of dollars in funding and years of research, there are no CCS plants anywhere in the world that effectively capture and store carbon dioxide at the scale promised.

BECCS refers to the process of growing crops of plants or trees, cutting them down and burning them for fuel to generate energy. The carbon dioxide emissions that come from this process are theoretically meant to then be captured and stored deep underground.

The deployment of BECCS at a scale required to meet the world’s net-zero targets would require up to twice the world’s cultivated land, and is likely to result in land grabbing and human rights abuses in the global South.

Scotland’s Climate Change Plan is also heavily reliant on risky technologies like blue hydrogen that in turn rely on CCS, and would keep the oil and gas industry going for many decades – when we know the solution to climate change is to stop using fossil fuels and switch to renewable energy.

The idea of the North Sea becoming a global dumping ground for carbon is gaining momentum, with estimates of vast storage potential in Scottish waters. Yet Scottish Government support for this impacts well beyond our borders, giving false hope in relation to the delivery of other nations’ net-zero targets.

Nature-Based Solutions The concept of nature-based solutions to the climate crisis has taken off in recent years.

The idea of working with nature to address climate change is appealing when we know the climate and nature emergencies are inextricably linked, but the term has been captured by big business and governments who are using it as a smokescreen to avoid action to cut emissions at their source.

There are many real solutions to the climate emergency that work with nature, such as agro-ecology and community forest management. But linking them to market-based schemes and using them as offsets is both a dangerous distraction and causes harm to local communities. The concept of nature-based solutions also enables harmful, false solutions such as monoculture plantations and industrial agriculture to emerge alongside genuinely good practises.

Net-zero pathways envisage as much as 30% or more of emissions reductions being achieved through nature-based solutions. This figure comes from a single, flawed study which depends on unfeasible areas of land being turned over to nature-based solutions, driven by private corporations that want to maintain fossil fuel production. For example, Shell’s 1.5°C pathway depends on planting trees on an area of land the size of Brazil, while continuing to exploit fossil fuel reserves.

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Photo: Colin Hattersley / FoES

How we’re pushing for climate action in Scotland Along with the essential work on energy, Friends of the Earth Scotland is also campaigning for a greener transport system, the move to a circular economy, and for a change to the way some of the country's largest pots of money are invested.

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there’s never been a more important time to start campaigning on these issues Transport Transport is the biggest source of climate emissions in Scotland, so addressing climate change means improving our transport system. We need to move away from streets choked with cars to a more sustainable system that works for everyone – and the transformation needs to be rapid and ambitious.

In late 2020, the Scottish Government committed to reduce car traffic by 20% in the next decade. To achieve this, we need some serious changes.

These should include: > zero emission zones in city centres > bringing buses back into public ownership and seeing public transport as an essential service like health or education Photo: Bruce White / FoES

> a comprehensive cycle network joining all our towns and cities > stronger planning powers for councils which ensure developments which lead to more emissions, like out of town shopping centres, are a thing of the past.

Friends of the Earth Scotland supports the Free Our City campaign, for free public transport for everyone in the Glasgow region. It’s unjust and illogical that delegates at COP get free transport while the city’s residents pay the same exorbitant fares for a substandard service.

These are the issues we need to raise: transport justice is climate justice. And there’s never been a more important time to start campaigning on these issues.

Learn more: www.foe.scot/transport

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Photo: istockphoto.com

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Circular economy In Scotland, we currently consume as if we had three planets available to produce the resources we use and absorb the waste we create.

Scotland’s consumption of goods and materials accounts for between 68% and 74% of our entire carbon footprint, meaning that moving to a circular economy will contribute significantly to efforts to tackle the climate emergency.

A circular economy is when products are designed to last as long as possible, are easy to repair and made out of materials that can be recycled repeatedly. Essentially, we need to keep materials circulating around the economy for as long as possible before they become waste. Scotland currently operates under a linear economy model where raw materials are extracted from the earth, made into products, and then discarded as part of our throwaway culture, with only limited recycling and very little reuse of products.

A move to a circular economy in Scotland will have other positive impacts on the planet. It will reduce the burden on other countries where

materials are sourced – often through damaging extractive activities like mining and logging.

By keeping materials circulating in our economy for longer, the amount of waste that litters our streets and countryside, pollutes our waters and injures our wildlife will be reduced. It will also help end the current environmental injustice of exporting waste products to other nations.

In order to successfully move towards a circular economy, major changes to the way we make products and consume resources will need to be made, bringing economic opportunities and innovation to both existing businesses and new start-up companies.

We are calling for more robust footprint targets which are needed to move Scotland towards a true circular economy. The targets should include commitments to reducing both emissions generated and materials used to create goods and services consumed in Scotland.

Learn more: www.foe.scot/waste

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Photo: Colin Hattersley / FoES

Divestment Investment in fossil fuel companies is an investment in the destruction of the planet.

It means that those with a stake in these investments have a conflict of interest in tackling climate change by limiting fossil fuel extraction.

At the moment, the Scottish Parliament and local councils across the country invest their pensions in fossil fuels. We are campaigning to change this.

Pension funds have a duty to look after their members in retirement, but as some of the largest investors in the world, pension funds also have a profound capacity to shape the future we retire into.

In Scotland, the Local Government Pension Scheme, valued at £48 billion and run by 11 local authorities, is the country’s largest public store of wealth. As of March 2020, Scottish local council pensions invested £1.2 billion in fossil fuels.

The biggest investor in Scotland is the Strathclyde Pension Fund, administered by Glasgow City Council. It’s estimated they invest over £800 million in fossil fuel companies. As one of Europe’s largest pension funds any move by the Strathclyde Pension Fund would be historic.

In September, Strathclyde Pension Fund approved a new investment policy which risks investment in climate polluters continuing indefinitely. The fund was asked to put in place a plan to divest from fossil fuel companies before the COP, so this move was particularly disappointing.

They must now consider how this policy can be turned into something effective and meaningful, a contribution to climate action that Glasgow could be proud of.

Continued investment in fossil fuels is undermining efforts to go green. It’s banking on the problem when investors should be backing solutions.

It’s preventing any meaningful local action to curb climate pollution that will adversely affect pension investment.

By divesting from fossil fuels, pension funds have the opportunity to end the harmful impact being caused and invest instead in a greener, healthier Scotland.

We’re working with groups across the country who are campaigning on these investments.

Learn more: www.foe.scot/divestment

Help power our campaigns We can only do what we do because of the support of our members.

Help us take action in Scotland to make a global difference. www.foe.scot/donate