What on Earth 74: Spring 2018

WHATON

EARTH FRIENDS OF THE EARTH SCOTLAND’S SUPPORTERS MAGAZINE

Issue 74 I Spring 2018

N O T A H W

H T R A E T L A N D’S RT H S C O F T H E E A AGA Z IN E O S D N F R IE TERS M SUPPOR 18

Spring 20 Issue 74 I

Friends of the Earth Scotland (FoES) is: > Scotland’s leading environmental campaigning organisation > An independent Scottish charity with a network of thousands of supporters 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

Friends of the Earth Scotland is an independent Scottish charity SC003442

40 years of campaigning

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

Plastic Free Fridays

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T: 01312432700 E: info@foe.scot W: www.foe.scot

Scotland's most polluted streets

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Editor: Connal Hughes Cover illustration by Andy Arthur is a re-working of our first ever membership leaflet. www.magnificentoctopus.com

What is in the Climate Plan? 14

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.

If you would prefer to receive a digital version of What on Earth please contact us: info@foe.scot Printed on Cocoon silk 100% recycled paper

Councils investing in fossil fuels

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Growing Young FoES

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Director’s view

By Dr Richard Dixon, Director @Richard_Dixon In this issue of What on Earth, the first in our 40th year, we take a look back at our four decades of campaigning history and look forward to the challenges we still face in protecting the environment and people.

When I arrived for my first stint at FoE Scotland in 1994 (see photo above) we produced a guide to all the recycling facilities in Scotland. As you might imagine, it wasn’t a long document but it was the first time anyone had brought this information together. Average household waste recycling rates were just 3%. Now they are over 45%, but we’ve just had to launch our new #PlasticFreeFriday campaign because although our planet-trashing habits may have changed, they are still alive and well.

From stopping the Harris Superquarry and promoting community renewables, and from increasing recycling rates to the fracking ban, we’ve achieved plenty, but there is, of course, still much more to do.

We’ve got the Scottish Government to commit to Low Emission Zones to curb air pollution in our four biggest cities, but we have to stop the first one just pointing the finger at buses and ignoring cars, taxis, vans and lorries. We have a new climate change bill brewing but we have to overcome the inertia which could see it lock in low ambition and fail to honour the spirit of the 2015 Paris Agreement. We’ve seen yet another university decide to ditch fossil fuel investments but the slog to get the big public sector pensions to do the same will take years.

The areas of argument and the campaign tactics have changed but Scotland still very much needs Friends of the Earth. Thanks for your support throughout the decades which has enabled so many of these environmental victories. Here’s to the next 40 years.

The areas of argument and the campaign tactics have changed but Scotland still very much needs Friends of the Earth.

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By Dr Richard Dixon, Director @Richard_Dixon

YEARS of campaigning

1978 saw a number of significant happenings. The oil tanker Amoco Cadiz was wrecked off Brittany, Pluto’s moon Charon was discovered and the Space Invaders arcade game was launched. As well as these excitements, FoE Scotland came into being, separating from FoE UK, which had existed since 1970.

Over the last four decades, staff, volunteers, local groups and activists have campaigned doggedly and creatively on a vast range of issues starting with protecting otters all the way to last year’s massive victory in getting fracking banned.

Other big successes have included stopping the Harris Superquarry, fighting off the proposal for a coal-fired power station in Ayrshire, getting tough targets in the 2009 Climate Act, the forthcoming Low Emission Zones in Scottish cities and changing the law so communities have more rights to go to court.

Campaigns over the years have included air pollution, packaging, acid rain, bathing water quality, the M77 and Aberdeen Bypass, tropical timber, recycling, toxic chemicals in your home, and renewable energy, as well as our work on the climate-trashing policies of RBS. We pioneered the concept of environmental justice in Scotland and opposed GM crops. We also helped introduce 20mph zones, shaped Scotland’s Freedom of Information legislation and trialled energy efficiency information for house buyers – now a legal requirement.

We have also trained up generations of activists, through formal programmes and in our local groups. And made strong contributions to the campaigns of FoE International and FoE Europe.

FoE Scotland contributions have been amazing. You were the first Northern group to embrace the environmental justice concept, as well as ecological debt. You have been leading demands for a radical change of the energy system, and fighting and winning inspiring campaigns against fracking.

You are already making great contributions to our discussion on just transition, integrating not only an environmental perspective but also social.

KARIN NANSEN, CHAIR OF FOE INTERNATIONAL

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From public inquiries to public protests, we’ve always been creative. We blockaded the French Consulate to protest nuclear testing, took barrels of radioactive waste to the Australian Consulate, dumped CFC-filled fridges on the steps of the Scottish Government, blew the top off a mountain outside the RBS AGM, held green-masked tea parties on roundabouts, placed skeletons on the Torness tour bus, placed trees on Terry Wogan’s lawn and highlighted polluting factories from Muir of Ord to Leith docks.

An anonymous caller threatened to burn down the office after we confronted people driving one to a car in the Edinburgh rush hour while dressed as Eco-Wardens.

One Chair of the Board hung off a crane to protest nuclear sponsorship of youth work. We produced the first guide to recycling facilities in Scotland and even a successful cook book. People in suits sang songs and drank oil. Penguins, polar bears, inflatable chain saws, carbon dinosaurs and giant white elephants have all put in an appearance.

Through this all the contribution of our members and supporters has been vital, from running the organisation in the early days to giving us the resources and political power to win campaigns today.

We have achieved great things but there is still plenty to do.

In particular, the new Climate Bill due in May is a big opportunity to work together to make sure Scotland’s ambition and delivery are fit for the next 40 years.

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40

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years of FoES 2018 is all about celebrating our supporters and members, without whom we could not have achieved our amazing campaign victories, including the recent ban on fracking.

We’d like to say a very heartfelt “Thank You”, whether you’ve been with us from the very start or discovered us only recently, and very much hope you will join our big birthday celebrations.

If you’d like a reminder of what we’ve achieved together so far, take a look at www.foe.scot/successes and give yourself a well-earned pat on the back!

100 We have set ourselves an ambitious recruitment goal this year: to gain 100 new members. As our membership growth has been slow in recent years, we are ramping up our efforts. We have included a set of postcards in this copy of What on Earth.

Please share them with your green-minded friends, colleagues or family members and encourage them to join FoES. Every one of us has a powerful positive influence over the people we care about. Collectively, we can achieve great things!

Our members are crucial to our success: when thousands of activists speak up, politicians listen. And regular donations from our members enable us to plan ahead and also to respond to new campaign areas as they come up. Membership starts at only £3 a month – the price of a Sunday paper or a coffee. If only a small percentage of our current members manage to recruit one other person, we would easily surpass our goal.

members campaign

If you’d like to get more involved in our recruitment activities this year, please drop Olivia a line at onater@foe.scot. There will be many opportunities to help out at stall events, such as fairs and festivals, so do get in touch if you fancy a fun day out while engaging the public in our work.

If you’d rather run your own fundraising activities, whether part of a local group or independently, you are of course most welcome to do so. We are always happy to advise and support you in any way possible so please let us know about your ideas.

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EVENTS

Anniversary ceilidh We kicked o 2018 in style with our special 40th anniversary ceilidh at the magniďŹ cent Greyfriars Kirk. This also happened to be our 10th collaborative ceilidh with our friends at the Ceilidh Collective so there was a lot to celebrate. It was wonderful to see so many familiar faces come together and share stories.

The excellent Hud yer Wheesht provided live(ly) music throughout the night, and we enjoyed a lovely interlude by singer Nicolette Macleod. For those in need of dance breaks, the FoES history display provided an opportunity to reminisce over some memorable campaign moments.

Save the AGM date: Sat 30 June The next AGM will take place on 30 June 2018 and our special guest will be Karin Nansen, Chair of Friends of the Earth International.

The formal invitation including venue information and details about the day will be sent out to members in April.

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News in Brief Ineos challenge fracking ban In January Grangemouth operator and would-be fracker Ineos launched a legal challenge against the Scottish Government’s decision to ban fracking. Sadly, the move is unsurprising given the aggressive tactics employed by the company as it seeks to advance its fracking plans in Yorkshire, Cheshire and the East Midlands, which are being met with strong local opposition.

We are confident that the process to ban fracking was robust and fair and the courts will find against Ineos.

MPs call for end to fossil fuel investments Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn and SNP Westminster Leader Ian Blackford joined over 100 current and former Labour, Conservative, Liberal Democrat, Green, SNP, SDLP and Plaid Cymru MPs calling for divestment from oil, coal and gas companies.

A cross-party group of over 100 MPs and former MPs have called on the £612 million Parliamentary Contributory Pension Fund to stop investing in fossil fuels. The pledge calls for action to tackle climate change and for “phasing out fossil fuel investments over an appropriate time-scale.”

Global temperature records smashed again 2017 was the hottest year ever recorded without the extra warming El Niño effect, and overall the third hottest year on record after 2016 and 2015. We’re now seeing global temperature records smashed year after year and this terrifying trend brings us yet more unpredictable and extreme weather events. Last year saw an alarming number of wildfires, hurricanes and droughts around the world, with devastating consequences for millions of people. For Scotland, this means more floods, storms and droughts, more difficulties for our farmers and crofters, affecting the food on our tables.

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Plastic Pollution

By Mary Church, Head of Campaigns @mmachch Plastic pollution has been making headlines for some months now, as programmes like BBC’s Blue Planet and new research draw attention to the horrifying extent of the problem. The sheer volume of plastic pollution is highlighted by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s work suggesting that there will be more plastics than fish in the sea by 2050! Meanwhile, the impacts of plastic pollution range from the immediate, like rubbish on our beaches and direct harm to birds and other wildlife, to the far reaching and lesser understood long-term impacts on habitats, food chains and human health.

The response to these alarm bells has been heartening, with inspiring community initiatives like Ullapool banning plastic straws and Councils and businesses across the country making similar pledges. The Scottish Government is also to be congratulated for its recent commitments including the promise to introduce a deposit and return scheme for bottles and cans, a ban

on plastic cotton buds, and the phase out of nonrecyclable plastics by 2030 in line with the EU. We’ve kicked off our own #PlasticFreeFriday pledge to encourage people to cut their use of plastics and see all the knock-on benefits doing so can bring. We are also working to draw attention to the cause of the problem, as plastic pollution is all too often simply one end of a long, environmentally damaging journey from resource extraction to litter. The vast majority of plastics are derived from fossil fuels – with Grangemouth operators Ineos importing large volumes of fracked US gas to produce plastics. Tackling the tide of plastic must be part of an overall shift to a Circular Economy, informed by planetary limits, the waste hierarchy, ethical sourcing and resource efficiency.

Take the #PlasticFreeFriday pledge at www.foes.do/plasticpledge

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Pollution hotspots highlight the need for urgent action Emilia Hanna, Air Pollution Campaigner @emiliajaneagain The last edition of What on Earth was published just after the Scottish Government promised a set of progressive policies to make our transport system fairer and cleaner. We celebrated its commitments to introduce Low Emission Zones in every major city by 2020, to better regulate and support the bus sector, to double the budget for walking and cycling projects, and to phase out the need for petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2032.

Despite this good news, we had a reality check in January when we analysed the official Scottish air quality data to compile our annual list of Scotland's most polluted streets. It showed that streets in many parts of the country still continue to have illegal and dangerous levels of air pollution, almost a decade after a 2010 legal deadline was due to be met.

Glasgow’s Hope Street was ranked as Scotland’s dirtiest street yet again. St John’s Road in Edinburgh, Dundee’s Seagate and Dumbarton Road in Glasgow are also repeat offenders on this list of pollution hotspots.

Most polluted streets in 2017 Figures are annual averages in microgrammes per cubic metre (μg/m3).

Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) Glasgow’s Hope Street

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Edinburgh’s St John’s Road

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Glasgow’s Dumbarton Road

43

Dundee’s Seagate

43

Dundee’s Lochee Road

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Edinburgh’s Queensferry Road

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European Ambient Air Quality Directive NO2 limit is 40μg/m3. Compliance deadline was 1 January 2010.

Particulate Matter (PM10) Edinburgh Salamander St

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Edinburgh Queensferry Road

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Perth Atholl Street

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Glasgow Clarence Drive

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Edinburgh Glasgow Road

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Glasgow Dumbarton Road

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Scottish statutory standard for PM10 is 18μg/m3.

Compliance deadline was 31 December 2010.

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Air pollution from traffic has a devastating impact on our health, especially on children and people with existing health problems. These worrying figures highlight once again how society is far too car dependent and the cost we bear for that addiction.

We were really pleased that this research was picked up in the media across the country for the sixth year in a row. This helps to keep the issue in the public eye and puts pressure on the Scottish Government to deliver its promises.

Low Emission Zones Glasgow City Council have made a commitment to introduce a Low Emission Zone by the end of 2018. Last November, Friends of the Earth Glasgow hosted a well-attended public meeting to hear from Councillor Anna Richardson who is championing the LEZ. She confirmed that the Council will produce a timetable this Spring that will outline when different vehicle types will be included within the scope of the LEZ. We have been working with FoE Glasgow to put pressure on the Council to ensure that the Zone includes buses, vans, and lorries by the end of this year, followed by cars and taxis by 2020. Thank you to all of you who have urged the City Council the make this Zone effective and ambitious.

In the other cities, there is work to be done with engaging with Councillors to speed up their plans for LEZs. Please get in touch with me if you or your local group would like to be involved: ehanna@foe.scot

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Air pollution Buses The Scottish Government has promised to reform the bus sector following years of dwindling passenger numbers, cuts to routes, and increased fares.

We’ve been working with Get Glasgow Moving and others to show our support for new laws which will enable local councils to own and operate bus services. Nearly 2000 of you took action online to call for improved bus services. We are hopeful that the Transport Bill, which we expect to be laid before Parliament during this year, will deliver the changes we need to see to shake up the bus sector.

Walking and cycling The recent Scottish Budget confirmed the Government announcement that it will double the amount of money spent on walking and cycling to £80million per year.

We need to keep this pressure on and ensure that walking and cycling campaigns continue to be heard so that the Government further increases the funding for active travel. A great way to do this is to come along to Pedal on Parliament on Saturday 28th April. It's always a great family day out and we’d love to see you there!

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Planning for a better Scotland

By Mary Church, Head of Campaigns @mmachch The places where we live, work and play matter hugely to our health, wellbeing and identity. The planning system plays a crucial part in helping us to get about by healthier and greener forms of transport, delivering essential housing, supporting local economies, making sure the air we breathe is clean and enabling supportive, sociable communities. These outcomes are more often achieved when people, communities and civil society organisations are effectively engaged in the planning process.

But all too often the planning system puts developers’ profits before communities’ needs leading to unsustainable developments, exacerbating inequalities and damaging our environment. Confidence in the planning system is at an all-time low, with an alarming lack of trust in the system evidenced by the Scottish Government’s own research, commissioned as part of its current programme of planning reform.

A recent survey by the National Trust for Scotland also found that most people feel they have no influence in planning decisions that impact on their day-to-day lives and environment.

The Scottish Government is now taking forward new legislation that, despite the fine rhetoric of community empowerment, would actually remove opportunities for communities to engage in planning processes and make matters much worse.

Our view is that meaningful community engagement and equal rights of appeal to help level the playing field between communities and developers are key to fixing the planning system.

That’s why we are working with partners in the Scottish Environment LINK network to push for these vital changes to the planning system as the bill progresses through parliament.

You can add your voice to the campaign by sending an email to your MSPs at: www.foes.do/plan2018

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A group of 14 staff and activists from FoES and YFoES went to Bonn for the opening of the UN Climate Conference in November.

Photo credits: Richard Dixon and Amelia Collins / FoE

The mystery of the missing million tonnes

By Caroline Rance, Climate and Energy Campaigner @carorance Action in the next decade is critical in the fight against climate change. To keep the world below catastrophic levels of global warming, and to set Scotland on the path to a fossil free future, we need both ambitious short term targets and credible plans to reach them.

That’s what we were hoping to see in the Scottish Government’s Climate Change Plan published at the end of last month, a document which should set out the actions planned to meet our climate targets for the next 10-15 years.

We know the switch from burning fossil fuels to a zero-carbon Scotland won’t be made overnight, but if we don’t begin planning now, we won’t get there at all. New policies could have transformed energy, transport, agriculture and how we heat

our homes, delivering benefits right across society. But when the Plan was announced last month we were disappointed with its contents.

The draft Plan was published in January 2017, and in the months that followed four Parliamentary committees urged the government to strengthen it. Over a year later, their recommendations have largely been ignored, and the final version not only fails to set out detailed actions we need, but in some areas it actually reverses on ambition.

The Plan does contain some welcome steps forward in tackling transport emissions previously revealed in the Programme for Government.

These are vital measures which will cut both climate emissions and help to clean up our air pollution problem.

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Climate Campaign Workshops & Film Tour This is a critical year for climate campaigning in Scotland. To find out more about the new Climate Bill and how to get involved, join us and Stop Climate Chaos Scotland at one of these workshops. Each workshop will be followed by a film screening with Take One Action.

However the main move forward came not from government action, but a leg up from new science. Experts now understand that Scotland’s forests are able to soak up more greenhouse gases from the atmosphere than previously thought, offsetting some of our emissions.

Instead of using these gains to increase action overall, the government has reversed plans for renewable heating in our homes and on cutting emissions in agriculture.

In fact, overall, the actions in the final Plan will mean nearly one million more tonnes of CO2 are released into the atmosphere by 2030, compared to the draft. This is seriously short sighted at a time when we know we need to be ramping up our climate action, not reversing it.

We do have a chance to fix this. In May the Scottish Government will publish a new Climate Change Bill to update our climate targets, and those same MSPs who made recommendations about the Plan will have the opportunity to amend the Bill for higher targets and more action. But it’s up to all of us to keep the pressure on make sure the new Bill delivers the ambition and action needed.

Sunday 3 June Edinburgh Saturday 9 June Aberdeen Sunday 10 June Dundee Saturday 16 June Glasgow Sunday 17 June Inverness Saturday 23 June Dumfries Sunday 24 June Stirling

More dates being added!

Find out more and book at www.foe.scot/climate-action

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Scottish councils are fuelling the climate crisis

by Ric Lander, Divestment Campaigner @ricjl Our report ‘Councils: Fuelling the Fire’ showed how Scottish council pension funds are still investing £1.8 billion in fossil fuels – the industry most responsible for climate change.

Local councils bear the responsibility of looking after their workers in their retirement. To do this they invest in the Local Government Pension Schemes.

These pensions are managed with input from our elected local councillors and have a major role to play in creating a pensions industry that is not just paying out pensions, but also making sure that we will have a future worth retiring for.

Scotland’s largest Pension Fund, Strathclyde, invested the most in fossil fuels at £803 million. Dumfries and Galloway was the worst offender in percentage terms, investing 9.4% of their entire pension fund in fossil fuels.

Fossil fuel investments make up 4.2% of the total value of Council-run Pension Funds across Scotland: a £3,580 stake in fossil fuels for every member of the local government pension scheme in the country.

Local Authority Pension Fund

Total Fund Value (millions)

Fossil Fuel Investment (millions)

As %

Dumfries and Galloway

£834 m

£78.6 m

9.4%

Falkirk

£2,060 m

£142.2 m

6.9%

Fife

£2,158 m

£118.5 m

5.5%

Highland

£1,763 m

£80.9 m

4.6%

Lothian

£7,421 m

£152.6 m

2.1%

North East Scotland

£4,000 m

£179.2m

4.5%

Orkney Islands

£338 m

£5.7 m

1.7%

Scottish Borders

£655 m

£30.3 m

4.6%

Shetland Islands

£450 m

£36.1 m

8%

Strathclyde

£19,659 m

£802.8 m

4.1%

Tayside

£3,428 m

£183.7 m

5.4%

Data correct for 2017

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The report was published jointly with Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland, 350.org and Platform as the UN Climate Change Conference got underway. These talks were chaired

by Fiji, an island nation where villages have already been forced to move to higher lands. Up to 1.7 million people from the Pacific Islands could be displaced by climate change by 2050.

Across the UK, council pension investment in fossil fuels totalled £16.1 billion, a £2.3 billion increase from 2015 figures.

Local governments elsewhere are acting to tackle fossil fuel companies. In January 2018 New York City announced it will divest its $191 billion pension fund from fossil fuels and is also filing a lawsuit against top fossil fuel companies – holding them responsible for the damage climate change is having on the City.

Several councils in England have committed to divest from fossil fuels including Southwark, Haringey, Hackney, South Yorkshire and Waltham Forest.

Councillor Simon Miller, the former Chair of Waltham Forest Pension Fund said “I am proud that Waltham Forest has committed to divest from fossil fuels.

Given current pressures on Local Authority budgets, our pension funds have a key role to play, not only in making our economy greener and our communities healthier, but as driver of sustainable, future focused investment in local areas.”

Councils:

Fuelliing

the Fiire

A new report on the local go overnment p pens io ion sche h me and fossil fuels

! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

To read the full report visit www.foe.scot/divest There are active local government divestment campaigns across Scotland.

To find out what’s happening near you email rlander@foe.scot

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Edinburgh University goes fossil free (finally!)

By Ruby Kelman (Edinburgh Uni People & Planet) and Ric Lander After six years of campaigning led by student group People & Planet, and drawing in the efforts of staff, alumni and numerous University bodies and departments and Scottish civil society, the University of Edinburgh has finally agreed to fully divest from fossil fuels.

The University announced it would “complete its transition out of fossil fuel investments within three years”. It’s the largest university endowment fund to be exiting fossil fuels to date.

It is a significant win for the climate movement and a testament to the strength of prolonged student activism on campus.

How did this come about?

The campaign to divest Edinburgh University was launched in January 2013. Motions were passed to gain the support of the Students Association, events and talks hosted, and 1,192 names collected on a petition for divestment. In October 2014, Glasgow University became the first University in Europe to commit to divestment, putting more pressure on Edinburgh to act.

The University formed a special group to reform their investment policy, but matters came to a head in May 2015 when a new policy was unveiled with no specific exclusions for fossil fuels.

Students rushed to occupy the Finance Office and ended up staying for an incredible 10 days, hosting a stream of visitors including Nobel Prize winner Graciela Chichilnisky.

300 alumni signed a petition to withhold individual donations from the University. The sit-in was constantly in the news causing considerable embarrassment to the University, who eventually responded by committing to divestment from coal and tar sands.

this is a significant win for the climate movement and a testament to the strength of prolonged student activism on campus

WHAT ON EARTH SPRING 2018

Despite this milestone, students did not let up and continued to protest, camping outside the Principal’s Office in March 2016 and occupying the Finance Department again in April. Throughout 2017 they continued to negotiate with the University and organise under the banner ‘Divest The Rest’. The University responded by touting its investments in green technology, but stood by their refusal to divest from oil and gas. That’s now all changed, putting Edinburgh University ahead of most others in its efforts to invest for the climate.

Student activist Paula Lacey says “This announcement has been a long time coming and we are overjoyed that the University has finally come round. Now it’s time for us to hold them to their promise to divest within the time frame established, and to ensure that the endowment fund is never invested in the fossil fuel industry again.”

There are now more than 60 UK universities which have fully divested from fossil fuels, as well as other influential bodies such as the New York City pension fund. It is hoped that the University of Edinburgh’s decision will influence others to follow suit, such as Edinburgh Council, which currently invests over £100 million in fossil fuels through its pension fund.

Campaigners anticipate that this positive outcome will inspire other activists across the country by showing that, through sustained and organised student pressure, universities can be changed for the better.

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Will it be a Year of Young People?

By Kate Whitaker, Young Friends of the Earth Scotland Network Development Officer @YFOES You might have seen on the news that 2018 is Scotland’s ‘Year of Young People’. It is described on the official website as a platform to give young people ‘a stronger voice on issues which affect their lives, showcase their ideas and talents, and ultimately aim to challenge status quo and create a more positive perception of them in society’.

2018 is of course also the year Scotland will publish its new Climate Change Bill, laying out emissions targets for the next 30 years. The Government’s current plans fail to meet the ambition of the Paris Agreement to keep global temperature rise below 1.5°C. A recent UN report shows that the current pledges by nations will result in temperature rises of over 3°C. The resource scarcity, political instability and ecosystem collapse that this would cause is unthinkable and terrifying. The impacts of climate change are already being felt across the world and without urgent action this will get considerably worse. Delaying now will push the burden, and the cost, of even more radical responses onto today’s youth and prevent opportunities to adapt to a destabilised climate.

YFoES is asking that climate justice and intergenerational equity are included at the heart of the new Climate Bill.

Climate justice means that those countries most responsible are at the forefront of climate action and that solutions are fair for all. Intergenerational equity means that the needs of this generation are met without compromising the needs of future generations.

The best way the Scottish Government could honour the ‘Year of Young People’ would be to publish a Climate Bill that allows us to feel hopeful about that future.

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Adhering to these two principles would require the government to step up their ambition on their climate targets and ensure that significant emission reductions come in the next decade, rather than back loading action to the middle of the century as current plans suggest.

As climate campaigner Bill McKibben remarked recently, “if we don’t win quickly, we will never win.”

I can’t take the Year of Young People seriously until decision makers take into account the real impact of their actions on our future. The best way the Scottish Government could honour the ‘Year of Young People’ would be to publish a Climate Bill that allows us to feel hopeful about that future.

Dumfries Group Another edition of What on Earth, another new YFoES group! Following our AGM in October a group of young people in Dumfries banded together to form Young Friends of the Earth South of Scotland. They have exciting plans including targeting Dumfries and Galloway council pension fund’s enormous fossil fuel investments and running events about issues such as creative activism and the Climate Bill!

If you want to know more or get involved, get in touch at kwhitaker@foe.scot.

YFoEE AGM

Skill share During the first weekend of April YFoES is hosting our second national skill share. This event aims to bring young activists and campaigners from across Scotland together to share ideas, skills, resources and experiences. It will be taking place in a beautiful location in Pitlochry. To enquire about remaining tickets get in touch with Abi at at amelton@foe.scot!

Two YFoES members recently spent five days in Norway at the Young Friends of the Earth Europe AGM. This included a three day intensive training on intersectional organising which they are excited to share with groups back in Scotland.

Keep in touch with us @youngfoes

@yfoes

www.foe.scot/young

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What’s been happening in Glasgow Sara Barry, co-ordinator of Friends of the Earth Glasgow

Mathieu Munsch, Fossil Free Glasgow

The Glasgow Group has been quite busy recently!

In early November, we organised an Air Pollution event with excellent speakers including Councillor Anna Richardson and Emilia Hanna. There was good attendance and we felt that the evening was a great success. Our St. Andrew's Day Quiz Night later that month was fantastic fun and produced a reasonable profit for FoE Glasgow funds.

We are a group of volunteers running a campaign to get the Strathclyde Pension Fund – a local pension scheme administered by the Glasgow City Council – to reconsider its investments in fossil fuels.

The fund currently holds £803 million of investments in fossil fuel companies and is, as such, contributing to prevent solutions to the climate crisis from being deployed.

We also arranged two leafletting stalls on air pollution and Low Emission Zones in central Glasgow at the end of February. We had organised an event about Biofuels, together with Glasgow University Environmental Sustainability Team (GUEST) but the extremely bad weather cancelled it!.

We are also beginning to campaign against properties keeping lights on all day and all night, even in bright sunlight, and are keeping an eagle eye on some proposed developments. Come Spring, we will arrange our first Street Collection of the year.

We have collecting cans in a few shops in the West End – an easy way to bring in a useful amount of funding each year.

Instead of maintaining financial ties to an industry responsible for the spread of climate change denial, environmental destruction and human rights abuses around the world, we argue that these dirty investments would be better channeled into activities beneficial to our local communities, such as sustainable housing and renewable energy projects.

Our group meets every Monday at 5pm in room LT405 (Livingstone Tower) at the University of Strathclyde, and we welcome anyone to join us!

We take so much from the planet during our lives, and it gives us so much pleasure, it seemed like the right thing to do to give something back for future generations.

With the support of thousands of people like you we’ve secured safer food and water, defended wildlife and natural habitats, defeated the fracking industry and coal-burning power stations, and delivered a world-leading climate act for Scotland. We need to keep campaigning on these issues today. And we need to be Scotland’s voice for the planet tomorrow and in the years to come.

With your support, we can continue improving lives by inspiring effective solutions to environmental problems. You don’t have to be wealthy to leave a gift in your will. A gift of any amount can help protect the environment for the future.

You can call John on 0131 243 3717 for more information about leaving a gift in your will to Friends of the Earth Scotland or email jfitzgerald@foe.scot You are vital to the future – for everyone.

Friends of the Earth Scotland is an independent Scottish charity SC003442