What on Earth 82: Friends of the Earth Scotland Members' Magazine

WHAT ON

EARTH FRIENDS OF THE EARTH SCOTLAND’S MEMBERS’ MAGAZINE

Issue 82 I Winter 2020/21

Climate talks delayed but the struggle continues

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 0/21

2 Winter 20 Issue 82 I

Photo: James Glen

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, 75 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.

C O N T E N TS Working for a Green Recovery

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Friends of the Earth Scotland is an independent Scottish charity SC003442

Looking ahead to Glasgow Climate Talks

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

Keeping the Big Polluters out

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We hear from Oil and Gas Workers

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Incineration plans revealed

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T: 0131 243 2700 E: info@foe.scot W: www.foe.scot Editor: Connal Hughes Cover: Sara and Dipti, Friends of the Earth International Climate Coordinators at Katowice Climate Conference.

Photo: Babawale Obayanju / FoEI 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

The FoES team working from home.

One year to go.

By the time you read this we will be coming to the end of our Just and Green Recovery Week of Action and an online Global Gathering of talks, workshops and strategy session on climate change will be well underway.

The delay of the UK Budget and resulting uncertainty about the scale of the Scottish Budget for next year has meant it has been hard to talk to the Scottish Government about making sure the recovery from COVID-19 is both just and green. The Week of Action has involved working with many of the groups who sent a letter to Nicola Sturgeon in May, and saw hundreds of people from across the country telling politicians of the need to create a better Scotland as we emerge from the pandemic.

Mid-November marks the mid-point of the UN climate talks in Glasgow, if they had gone ahead as planned. Now postponed until late 2021, this means the world’s governments have escaped the global scrutiny these annual talks always bring. We are already central to what will happen around these talks, having helped create the coalition of civil society groups that is working together across the UK, and we host the Scottish coalition co-ordinator Quan who you’ll hear from inside this issue.

We’ll be helping organise whatever mass demonstration can take place and also looking after the international Friends of the Earth delegates who come to the conference – COVID-19 permitting – to speak up on behalf of people and nature around the world.

With this issue of What on Earth you will find an appeal asking you to help us work, over the next year, to make sure that politicians cannot forget about climate change, and activists and campaigners are well prepared to make the most of the global talks coming to Glasgow.

Hundreds of people from across the country have told politicians of the need to create a better Scotland as we emerge from the pandemic

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For a Recovery that works for people and planet

By Caroline Rance, Climate and Energy Campaigner

It’s now been eight months since the UK went into lockdown. Few of us knew back then that restrictions would last so long or reach into so many corners of our lives. While this is an incredibly difficult time for many of us, across Scotland people are uniting to dream of, and demand, a better future where we put people and planet first.

The campaign for a Just and Green Recovery for Scotland has been busy connecting people up and down the country to share their priorities for building back better. Together with a coalition of over 80 other charities, grassroots groups, churches and trade unions, we’ve met Government Ministers and MSPs, supported health workers and climate strikers to take their message to Government headquarters in Edinburgh, and held online rallies, webinars and workshops. As this lands through your letterbox, hundreds of people have taken part in a Week of Action, meeting their MSPs online.

Kickstart a Green Jobs Recovery The UK is now in the deepest recession since records began. Tens of thousands of people have already lost their jobs in Scotland, with unemployment higher here than across the rest of the UK and expected to rise further now that the furlough scheme has come to an end. Meanwhile, a year has passed since the Scottish Parliament passed our new climate targets and there has been no new action to cut emissions.

That’s why we’ve been calling on the Scottish Government to kickstart a programme of green job creation. Our plan for a green jobs recovery would see thousands of new jobs, all working in areas that would help cut Scotland’s climate emissions with investment in national green infrastructure projects, including in energy efficiency, sustainable transport and renewable heating.

We’re also supporting trade unions fighting for workers facing redundancies in Scotland’s existing green industries, including electric bus manufacturer Alexander Dennis and wind turbine company CS Wind. These are exactly the kind of jobs we need to support and grow for the future.

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Turning government promises into action The Scottish Government has talked about building a green recovery and a wellbeing economy, but so far we haven’t seen the plans to make it a reality. If they’re serious about building back to a fairer, greener Scotland we urgently need to see those promises turned into action.

In the coming weeks, the Government will be writing and publishing Scotland’s spending plans.

The Budget must include new investment for making our homes warmer and more energy efficient, and powering our transport and heating systems with renewable energy.

In September, the First Minister announced £1.6 billion to be spent on heat and energy efficiency over the next five years. It is a welcome long-term commitment, but the money wouldn’t actually begin for a year. To kickstart the recovery and create much needed jobs, the Government has to start spending now.

A thorough review of spending could redirect investment away from high carbon polluting projects, such as road building into improving broadband connections. Crucially, there must be no more public money for new fossil fuel projects, including the false solutions of Carbon Capture and Storage, and fossil fuel-derived Hydrogen.

Learn more about the campaign: www.justgreenrecovery.scot

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Climate talks are delayed but the struggle for justice must continue

Protest about Carbon Markets at Madrid Climate Conference. Photo: Victor Barro / FOEI

By Sara Shaw Friends of the Earth International’s Climate Justice & Energy Programme Coordinator This week marks the moment when activists from around the world would have gathered together on the streets of Glasgow to call for Climate Justice. The halls of the SEC would have been packed with delegates, civil society and, somewhat depressingly, fossil fuel lobbyists, for COP26 – the 26th year of UN climate talks.

However, 2020 has not gone according to plan and the SEC, and the streets of Glasgow are standing largely silent. Covid-19 has brought huge suffering globally, and is compounding the interrelated climate, environmental and inequality crises, especially in the global South.

Understandably, COP26 is postponed to November 2021. This is a blow for climate activists around the world, especially those hit hardest by the impacts of the climate crisis. While the pace of negotiations is achingly slow, and the talks are weighted in favour of the global North, delivering only a fraction of the level of climate action needed to address the climate emergency, this is the one global forum

where, in theory, every country gets an equal voice. Of course real world power relations, not to mention the pressure that big polluters exercise, come into play.

What is at stake in Glasgow Some of what the climate justice movement does at these talks is hold back the tide – for example there is a huge push by some governments backed by big polluters to finalise agreement on new global carbon markets.

Carbon markets allow polluters to continue emitting greenhouse gases, for a price. This means that those with the money and power to do so (who are most responsible for climate change and should be doing the most to cut their emissions) are able to continue with business as usual.

Carbon markets also lead to land grabs and human rights abuses in the global South. The global climate movement managed to block agreement on new markets at COP25 in Madrid, and this is a fight we will continue in Glasgow.

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The danger is rich countries will hide behind weak ‘net zero’ targets to evade responsibility (l–r) Dipti and Sara, FoE International Programme Coordinators. Photo: Babawale Obayanju / FoEI

The talks will also be important because despite years of wrangling we still don’t have finance in place to compensate poor communities for irrecoverable loss and damage due to climate change. Nor are rich countries meeting their commitments to provide finance for developing countries to adapt and transform their energy systems. This is not optional generosity but a debt owed by rich countries who have caused the most climate damage.

Without this money developing countries will struggle to make a just transition away from fossil fuels and ensure that everyone has access to safe clean energy. We must fight for climate finance at the national and international level.

2020 is the year when countries were meant to ramp up their climate targets. So far action has been sluggish. We need to keep the pressure up at the national level through this year and into next to see bold and ambitious commitments in

line with countries' fair shares. The danger is rich countries will hide behind weak ‘net zero’ targets to evade responsibility, disguise climate inaction, and in some cases even scale up fossil fuel extraction and burning. They must be held to account and pushed harder so that at COP26 there is genuine progress towards reducing emissions in line with climate science in a fair way.

This month global civil society will gather online for From the Ground Up hosted by the COP26 coalition. Next year, we hope we will be together again in person. Because the COP is not just a moment for governments inside a conference centre. It is also a moment for activists from across the global to gather together, to learn from one another's struggles, to gain strength and inspiration for the fights ahead and to demand climate justice from our leaders.

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COP26 Coalition is organising from the ground up

By Camille Barbagallo & Quan Nguyen, COP26 Coalition Coordinators

With Scotland and the rest of Europe now being in the middle of a second wave, most of us know that the COVID-19 pandemic has only given us a taste of what to expect from the “new normal” of climate breakdown, as the impacts fall with violent disproportionality between the wealthy and the poor.

Before lockdown, Glasgow was poised to host annual UN climate change negotiations (COP26). The November 2020 summit was billed as yet another crucial effort to bring countries together to step up efforts to rapidly reduce carbon emissions in the face of climate breakdown.

Postponed until November 2021, COP26 will now be one of the first meetings of world leaders in the wake of COVID-19. They will be seeking a pathway to recover from the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.

So far, nothing indicates that their chosen path will lead to a fairer, more sustainable global society – rather the opposite.

This responsibility falls to our movement and our allies, both in Scotland and abroad, to demand that this so-called recovery be green, just, and global, tackling the scourges of inequality and climate breakdown at their roots. Now is the time to talk about climate change, call out polluters and profiteers, and build a powerful global movement to tackle multiple crises and fight common injustices.

The COP26 Coalition – drawn from civil society in Scotland, the UK and the world – has come together to fight for real, transformative solutions to the climate crisis.

We are organising for change from the ground up – centring the voices of those most affected by the multiple crises and building a space for action and hope.

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London Climate Strike 2019. Photo Nathan Thanki

Over the next year, we hope to build a global campaign of escalation, holding governments and corporations to account over their failure.

We will mobilise around the Scottish elections, the G7 meeting in the UK in 2021, support direct climate action against the fossil fuel industry, and support our international allies in taking action. When COP26 takes place, we will be ready to call out the governments’ greenwashing and corporate false solutions.

To mark when the COP would have taken place, we are organising From the Ground Up – Global Gathering for Climate Justice. This will host online discussion on a range of issues which are central to understanding the struggles of those resisting climate breakdown as well as how we create just solutions and use the knowledge of those most affected.

Reflecting the diversity of action people can take we will also host workshops on topics such as resisting polluting projects in your community, starting a community garden, campaigning during the pandemic and tips for avoiding activist burn out.

This Global Gathering is an opportunity for Scottish, UK, European and international climate justice movements to build momentum and capacity, and to connect to broader civil society to build power for system change. We aim to provide a space for coming together in these times of isolation, to connect and share the diversity of experiences that make our movements so powerful.

The change we want will not be given to us by our leaders. We need to organise it ourselves from the ground up.

Friends of the Earth Scotland are a founding member of the COP26 UK Coalition.

Join us: www.cop26coalition.org

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No place for polluters at Glasgow Climate Talks

By Scott Tully, Glasgow Calls Out Polluters

So, the UN climate talks a.k.a. COP26 is coming to my home city of Glasgow and I still have to pinch myself: one of the most important international summits to date is a half hour walk from my flat!

I can only speculate as to why Glasgow, of all places, was chosen. But once I knew that Glasgow was the venue, I felt a sense of opportunity and responsibility to organise around this historic moment.

Now, of course, I was not alone in thinking this.

The UK Divestment movement – which I am also involved with – had agreed at a gathering in Autumn 2019 to focus on COP26. This makes sense, as divestment activists are quite used to opposing the presence of big polluters in our institutions, and one of the major issues with the COP has been the insidious presence of big polluters within the talks.

One of our activists described Madrid’s COP25 as a playground for polluters, which seems about right. And previous UN climate conferences haven’t been much better: coal companies get sponsorship deals, shady lobby groups run free and Shell even claimed to have written some of the Paris Agreement. It is no surprise that past COPs advanced some of the most tired (but corporate-friendly) solutions such as carbon markets, whilst the serious and binding change we need remains absent.

In response to this problem, Glasgow Calls Out Polluters aims to prevent big polluters from influencing the talks. We include any large company that profits from planetary destruction in that definition. This includes fossil fuel financing banks, biomass companies and airlines, for example.

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Just as Big Tobacco are not allowed at World Health Organisation events, Big Polluters should not be allowed at climate talks.

We demand that governments should not take sponsorship money from fossil fuel companies or major polluters. The UK Government – as host nation – should push for actual emissions reductions instead of passing the buck onto speculative technological solutions. And the UN should create a Conflict of Interest Policy. Just as Big Tobacco are not allowed at World Health Organisation events, big polluters should not be allowed at climate talks.

As we now know, COP26 was delayed until November 2021. Whilst there are a lot of COP-related decisions that I find objectionable, this one was at least understandable, given the all-consuming nature of the pandemic. It’s far from ideal that the global action we so desperately need gets delayed for another year, but from an organising perspective it has afforded the strange luxury of an extra year of planning.

We have continued to organise trying to kick big polluters out of COP26 and also gravitated towards challenging the Scottish Government's relationship with big polluters. We have written an open letter to the UK Government, a petition in collaboration with groups such as 350.org and are launching our tongue-in-cheek Scottish Polluter Awards, which should be on our website by the time this is published.

But we are planning more action over the next few months and are hoping to accelerate our campaign. If you are someone who is equally appalled at the space major Polluters get to influence climate policy, and want to take action, feel free to get in touch!

Visit our website: www.gcop.scot Drop us a message: glasgowcallsoutpolluters@gmail.com

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What oil and gas workers told us about the industry and their future

By Ryan Morrison, Just Transition Campaigner Over the past few months, we have been hearing from oil and gas workers sharing their views on their industry and the transition away from fossil fuels. Together with Platform and Greenpeace we produced the ‘Offshore’ report discussing the findings and implications of this survey.

Energy workers play a vital role in all of our lives, ensuring we can switch our lights on, heat our homes and travel around our communities.

However, the climate crisis demands that the source of this energy changes through a shift from fossil fuels to renewables.

The products our oil and gas workers are going to work with must be different but their vital role in each of our lives will stay the same. When people talk about the future of energy, they too often overlook those people who have the skills and experience to actually make a transition happen.

We wanted to change that, and so we set out to hear from them directly.

The most common solutions suggested in the workers' responses.

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What offshore oil and gas workers told us Of the 1,383 workers who took the survey (an estimated 4.5% of the offshore workforce), 43% have been made redundant or furloughed since March 2020. Unlike other sectors, this was not a new experience with many referencing the last oil price collapse between 2014–16 and the significant impacts on their livelihoods. There is a palpable exhaustion with boom and bust leading offshore workers to identify job security as the part of their job they are least happy with.

The survey also asked how respondents felt about the support provided by the local, Scottish and UK Governments with most saying there has been “nowhere near enough”. This included frustration over the free rein for companies to use increasingly precarious contracts, poor investment in training opportunities as well as inadequate Universal Credit payments.

More than 80% of the respondents told us they would be open to moving out of oil and gas into other parts of the energy sector. Only 7% wouldn’t consider a switch with most of these saying they were simply too close to retirement. The survey offered ten alternative fields with offshore wind (53%), other renewables (51%) and rig decommissioning

Marten van Dijl / Greenpeace

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(38%) the most popular options. We asked the workers what their biggest priority would be in moving fields and 58% selected job security, reinforcing the frustration with precarious work in fossil fuels.

The full Offshore report contains more of the survey results and also includes the direct testimonies of eight workers themselves. Despite the willingness to engage with us in these discussions, and the extensive skills and expertise offshore workers bring to the table, a final statistic is perhaps the most striking – 91% of those who responded to the survey had never heard the term ‘just transition’.

A just transition must be shaped by workers, communities and environmentalists A just transition requires a complete transformation away from fossil fuels, but in this process we can create quality and sustainable jobs in a fairer economy. That so few workers recognise the term is evidence the Scottish Government are yet to make it anything real to those likely to be most impacted, despite their increasing just transition rhetoric.

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Workers must be at the heart of decision making to ensure they can shape policies that affect their livelihoods and communities.

Offshore concludes with several recommendations to the Scottish and UK Governments to address this by harnessing the extensive knowledge workers have of their industry and what is needed to make a transition happen.

Workers must be at the heart of decision making to ensure they can shape policies that affect their livelihoods and communities.

Instead the Scottish and UK Governments too often rely on industry executives to lay out their preferred path – the same people who have undermined climate science while treating their workforce and local communities across the world with contempt.

The Offshore report is part of our efforts to wrestle control of ‘just transition’ away from those oil bosses who are focused on next year's bonuses. Instead we should put real power into the hands of workers and their trade unions, communities and environmentalists to craft an alternative vision for energy in Scotland and the UK. The report demonstrates that offshore workers want to be part of that process, they know the problems with their industry today and have solutions to address them for a better, greener future.

Read the report at www.foe.scot/offshore-report

Marten van Dijl / Greenpeace

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Brexit’s threat to the environment As the Brexit trade talks rumble on, the outlook for the environment in post-Brexit Britain still looks bleak. Environmental standards, food standards and environmental decision-making are all under threat.

The House of Lords and the House of Commons were fighting over whether imported food would have to meet our own domestic food, animal welfare and environmental standards. Without this kind of guarantee we face the prospect of importing products like chlorine-washed chicken, genetically-modified crops from the US, and food containing residues of pesticides illegal in this country.

Meanwhile, the Scottish and UK governments are still arguing about who controls the 111 policy powers that will be inherited from Brussels. These cover many areas important to the environment from maritime law to energy efficiency and water quality. While we were EU members, the Scottish Parliament controlled much in these areas. e.g. the air quality standard for ultra-fine particles is higher in Scotland than in the rest of the UK. But Brexit means these areas will become the domain of the UK Government for an indeterminate transitional period.

By Dr. Richard Dixon, Director

So we don’t know who will be in charge of environmental standards here from the 1st January. The UK Government say these powers will eventually come to Scotland.

But the temptation will be for the UK to hang on to them, to make sure goods can be sold everywhere in the UK. The Scottish Government has promised to try to keep up with improving EU standards and we can’t do that if the standards are set down south. Will our higher air quality rules still apply next year?

Will it be Westminster or Holyrood who can change them?

Even if we do end up controlling all our environment and food standards, will trying to keep standards high land us in a trade court for supposedly creating ‘barriers to trade’? These kind of secretive corporate courts are common in trade agreements, with big business suing states over policies that protect people or the environment because they dent their profits.

As 2021 hurtles towards us, the many uncertainties over environmental, food and consumer standards and their relation to trade deals are likely to vex us right up to the wire and beyond.

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Scotland is set to burn at least an extra one million tonnes of household waste each year

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LOCATION OF INCINERATORS Operational Under Construction In Planning

1 Baldovie, Angus (existing incinerator) 2 Dunbar 3 Musselburgh

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4 Polmadie Rd, Glasgow 5 Shetland 6 Baldovie 2 (new incinertor)

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7 East Tullos, Aberdeen 8 Kinglassie, Fife

1

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9 Grangemouth 10 Irvine, Ayrshire

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11 Inverurie 12 Glenfarg, Perth

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13 Greengairs, North Lanarkshire 14 North Cardonald, Glasgow 15 Cumnock

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4

9 13

10 15

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By Sarah Moyes, Plastic and Circular Economy Campaigner Our research has revealed plans to increase the amount of household waste burned in Scotland. There are currently five working incinerators for this waste with a total capacity of 788,000 tonnes per year. Over the next few years, a further six are due to start operating which will add capacity to burn a further 1,056,000 tonnes every year.

Even worse, there are at least four more incinerators under consideration.

A ban on sending biodegradable municipal waste (e.g. food scraps, garden waste) to landfill was due to be introduced next year but was pushed back to 2025. This delay by the Scottish Government has given councils time to rush to incineration as the wrong solution to their waste problem.

Incinerators are industrial installations that burn household waste with the aim of reducing the volumes going to landfill. When the waste is burned it turns into gases which are released into the atmosphere and toxic ash that still needs to be disposed of in a landfill. For every one ton of waste incinerated, around 0.7 to 1.7 tonnes of CO2 is released into the atmosphere.

During 2019, the total quantity of waste – including household, wood, animal manure and rubber – incinerated in Scotland was 1.23 million tonnes, an increase of over half a million tonnes from the previous year. Lots of this growth was from household waste where the amount incinerated more than doubled to over 330,000 tonnes.

Most new incinerators now market themselves as ‘energy from waste’ or ‘waste-to-energy’ plants meaning that they can make electricity or produce heat. However these types of incinerators ultimately still burn waste and by using waste as a fuel, they create a never-ending demand for waste as a feedstock. When local authorities approve incinerators, they lock themselves into long-term contracts to supply waste.

We do not believe that any incinerators, including ‘energy from waste’ plants, should be used as an alternative to recycling and reduction.

Councils should instead be focusing on prevention and reuse, which are at the top of the waste hierarchy above recovery and disposal. Scotland’s current household recycling rate is under 50% so any emphasis on incineration undermines our commitment to recycle 70% of household waste by 2025.

The Scottish Government has spoken about the importance of moving to a circular economy but these revelations about their incoherent waste policy makes a mockery of such claims. In a circular economy products are designed to last as long as possible, are easy to repair and made out of materials that can be recycled repeatedly. This model reduces our need for natural resources by keeping materials circulating around the economy for as long as possible before they become waste.

As we look at how best to tackle the climate crisis, it is difficult to see where incineration can fit into that conversation. We do not believe that any incinerators, including ‘energy from waste’ plants, should be used as an alternative to recycling and reduction.

Therefore, we are calling for a moratorium on building new incinerators in Scotland for three main reasons: incineration wastes valuable resources, incineration pollutes and incineration worsens climate change.

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Building a movement

By Kate Whitaker, Activism Organiser

In February I was sat in a crowded town hall in Lochgelly as representatives from NHS Fife, SEPA and Shell (a representative from Exxon had refused to attend) spoke about what they were doing about flaring from the Mossmorran Petrochemical Plant.

Facing them were hundreds of residents from the local area, Cowdenbeath, Lochgelly, Glencraig, Lochore, Cardenden; other Fife residents from Dunfermline, Kirkcaldy, Burntisland and those from further afield like Edinburgh and Dundee.

As the representatives spoke there were murmurs in the audience, shaking of heads as the Shell official spoke about how safe and non-polluting the plant was and audible disgust as it was announced Exxon had decided not to show up to face the community.

Soon members of the audience began to stand up and ask questions of the panel and of the MSPs and councillors sat in the audience.

People spoke of the headaches and nausea

they have felt for days on end, of being kept awake all night by the bright light of the flare, pungent smells and strange vibrations shaking their homes. Others told stories of terrified children, convinced the plant would explode any moment, and one person spoke of how as someone with autism, it was becoming impossible to live in their own home.

The Mossmorran Action Group, a campaigning group run by local residents, has successfully brought the impacts faced by communities around Mossmorran into the national agenda.

They have organised several public meetings where hundreds of residents speak about the issues they are facing and their alternative visions for the area. They record the social impacts online, coordinate media interest, sharing of photos and reporting to SEPA when the plant flares and recently they secured a debate in the Scottish Parliament about a just transition for the plant. Residents are now working together and planning to escalate the campaign with more protests aimed at getting the plant shut down.

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Time and time again, grassroots and community activism has moved the window of what is possible.

The campaigns that we run together at Friends of the Earth Scotland are crucial and powerful.

From securing stronger climate targets from our government, to bringing in low emission zones to protect communities from deadly air pollution.

From tackling a linear economy that wastes, discards and burns crucial resources, to pushing for a just transition for workers in polluting sectors of the economy.

But none of these campaigns are winnable through political advocacy alone, politicians rarely act if it isn’t clear that there is support from their constituents. The transition to a zero-carbon economy can’t be truly just without meaningful participation with communities and workers most impacted.

At FoES we try to empower, support and amplify the work done by local communities and campaigns. We recently launched the People Power Network – an online hub dedicated to supporting local people to build strong and effective campaigns. There you can find resources on everything from starting a group, to getting media attention, to speaking to MSPs. You will also find campaign ideas, webinar recordings on key topics and upcoming events.

We are also building up a map of local climate and environmental groups in Scotland. If you are in an active group you can register so that people in your area can find you and get involved. If you are looking to get active, head to the People Power Network and check out the local campaigns in your area.

This is why movement building and local campaigning is so important for creating meaningful change in our society, in the push for climate, environmental and social justice.

Get in touch at activism@foe.scot if you have any questions or want support getting involved.

Time and time again, grassroots and community activism has moved the window of what is possible.

Learn more: www.foe.scot/people-power-network

Protests outside Mossmorran Plant.

Photo: James Glen

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What is Scotland’s Climate Change Plan?

By Jess Cowell, Climate Campaigner When public pressure successfully forced the Scottish Government to set higher targets for climate action last year, it meant they then had to come up with a plan to achieve these targets.

important that the plan commits to urgent action that gets us back on track. The Scottish Government likes to laud its targets but they must be backed up with stronger policies and real action to meet them.

The Climate Change Plan is that roadmap for cutting emissions and meeting our climate targets between now and 2032. The plan was supposed to arrive in April but suffered a delay due to COVID-19 and is now scheduled for December 2020.

What should it do?

What’s in the Plan?

The plan should look at where we are now in terms of climate emissions from each sector of Scottish life and where we need to get to. It lays out the progress that has been made so far and should set out the actions that will be taken in reducing emissions from that area.

Given that Scotland missed its targets for cutting emissions last year and is hosting the UN Climate Conference in 2021, it is incredibly

The Plan must address sectors where there has been very little progress to date especially in transport, buildings and waste. In transport for example, emissions have only dropped about 5% in a 30 year period. We need to see stronger action to make sure projects which worsen climate change like major road building are no longer the priority.

Instead, we should be supporting walking, cycling and accessible public transport with a move towards significantly increased bus travel.

This would deliver wider public benefits such as increased ability to travel safely, cheaper and with less air pollution.

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We should be supporting walking, cycling and accessible public transport with a move towards significantly increased bus travel The buildings sector also presents a big opportunity as there has only been slow progress so far in reducing emissions from how we heat our homes. We need to see the Government mapping out how it will increase renewable energy, heat networks, ground source heat pumps and insulate people’s homes. This would keep homes warmer whilst reducing bills and help the 600,000 people living in fuel poverty.

We also need to see a Just Transition taken seriously in this plan. It is crucial that the Government outline how it plans to support the managed phase out of high polluting activities into zero carbon ones that continue to support workers and communities. For example, in transport, the move from fossil fuel powered buses to electric ones should be supported with investment, with the Government spelling out the cost of this change and how many Scottish jobs will be provided in this industry.

Photo: Brett and Sue Coulstock / Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

The updates must also not rely on negative emission technologies such as Carbon Capture and Storage or Bio-Energy Carbon Capture and Storage. These technologies cannot reduce emissions at the scale required and are being used as cover by the fossil fuel industry to keep digging and burning gas. In the Plan we need to see real and proven solutions like putting an end date on fossil fuel infrastructure and investing in wide-scale renewable energy and electrification.

Public pressure won these higher targets so now we need to make sure that the Government has produced a credible plan for achieving them.

With your help, we'll be pushing MSPs from all parties into supporting more action and keeping the pressure on the Scottish Government to deliver on its climate promises.

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Pollution delays threaten our health

By Gavin Thomson, Air Pollution Campaigner In the early months of the pandemic, as people stayed at home and cars disappeared off the roads, our air quality improved substantially.

However, it was only temporary with the traffic – and pollution – soon returning. To make matters worse, the Scottish Government announced in August that a measure to improve our air in more sustainable way would be delayed.

Low Emission Zones, due to begin this year, now won’t be started until 2022. A shocking delay. Air pollution makes people more vulnerable to Covid-19, with traffic emissions causing and exacerbating many of the heart and lung conditions that put people at

heightened risk from the virus. The pandemic should have shown us the need to act now on air quality and protect public health.

Transport is our most polluting sector in terms of climate emissions, so this delay to LEZs also makes it harder for us to meet climate targets at national and local levels. Many of these targets are carbon reductions by 2030. This is very soon in transport terms – families and businesses will probably only make one big consumer decision like purchasing a vehicle between now and then. Stronger regulations need to be introduced now so that everyone has plenty of time to adapt.

Edinburgh bike hire scheme.Photo: Anna Kalota

Glasgow’s Zone was introduced at the end of 2018, but it will only restrict polluting buses for the next couple of years. Edinburgh’s Zone, which only restricts the most polluting cars from a tiny area in the Old Town, was agreed last year by the Council. Aberdeen City Council just finished a consultation process on the size of their zone According to the legislation, anywhere with persistent air pollution problems by 2023 will need to introduce a Zone. This needn’t be a big city; this could be anywhere where people are exposed to emissions from heavy traffic.

Many of us have been cycling much more in 2020, which is great for our health and reducing emissions. But public transport has taken a big hit, financially and reputationally.

Looking ahead to the 2021 elections, and the coming decade, every political party will need to be thinking of game changing transport measures if they have any interest in meeting climate change targets. Kicking the can further isn’t an option; we’ve run out of road.

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