What on Earth 83

WHAT ON

EARTH FRIENDS OF THE EARTH SCOTLAND’S MEMBERS’ MAGAZINE

Issue 83 I Spring 2021

Our new Parliament must deliver on climate commitments

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

Spring 20 Issue 83 I

Photo: Anna Kalota

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.

C O N T E N TS The new Scottish Parliament

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Friends of the Earth Scotland is an independent Scottish charity SC003442

Carbon capture technology exposed

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

Investing in climate breakdown

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Most polluted streets

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Right to a healthy environment

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T: 0131 243 2700 E: info@foe.scot W: www.foe.scot Editor: Connal Hughes Climate Strikers at Scottish Parliament in March 2019

by Ric Lander 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 100% FSC Silk

Get social with us: /foescotland /foescot

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Director’s view Dr Richard Dixon, Director @Richard_Dixon

The FoES team working from home

As Friends of the Earth’s team enters our second year of working from home, we face our biggest year ever – in terms of budget, number of staff and level of activity. Most of this is because the UN climate talks are coming to Glasgow in November, but it is also because we plan to more directly take on the lies the oil industry continually tells to justify keeping on pumping oil for decades - despite being responsible for most of our climate change emissions.

An important factor in both of these is the soon-to-be decided question of who is running the country. In the run up to the election we discussed policy with all the parties, published a manifesto of key ideas, helped organise online hustings events and asked people to ask their candidates key questions.

This should have been the climate emergency election, the first test of the parties’ policies since the new Climate Act, the declaration of a Climate Emergency and the protests by 40,000 people in Scotland calling for more action to reduce emissions. Instead, it is now a covid-recovery election, so our messages about climate change are strongly flavoured by thoughts about creating a green, wellbeing economy and generating the green jobs we need to make the just transition away from fossil fuel production.

The politicians elected in May will make absolutely vital decisions over the next five years which will either deliver that just transition or will delay the action we need and prolong our fossil fuel fixation. The appeal with this edition of What on Earth asks you to help us make sure our parliamentarians deliver the urgent positive change we need.

Finally, I hope to see many of you at our AGM online on Sat 29 May. Register at www.foe.scot/agm2021

The politicians elected in May will make absolutely vital decisions over the next five years.

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What do you want Scotland to look like in 2026?

We want to see a country where people can travel to their new, good green jobs by free public transport, with less climate pollution, and homes powered by renewable energy. The MSPs and Scottish Government we elect in May will have the power to make this happen.

Whilst there was significant progress on some issues, the last Scottish Parliament has been defined by targets, short-term commissions, and often empty rhetoric. The next Scottish Government must move beyond strategising and symbolism, and start taking urgent action.

The next 5 years must mark an end to climate hypocrisy, where politicians talk the talk on climate ambitions, while propping up the burning of fossil fuels, corporate interests and continued major road expansion.

This next Parliament is crucial for both recovering from the pandemic and delivering the action needed to meet our climate commitments. MSPs will be tasked with rebuilding from the impacts of COVID-19, whilst sitting for five of the nine years we have left to achieve our crucial 2030 climate change goals.

All political parties and candidates must commit to tackling these crises in tandem – in a way that enhances our wellbeing and creates quality, new green jobs. Delivering the pace and scale of change required will need a complete reprogramming of our economy. We can’t go back to the thinking and policies that got us into this mess.

We sent a full ‘manifesto’ of policies to parties ahead of the election, but here we highlight four key actions which will help create the kind of change which Scotland needs: > Launching a publicly-owned renewable energy company, generating power > Time for Scotland to go fossil fuel free > Free bus travel, on publicly owned buses > Putting people and climate action at the heart of decisions about the economy

Our election page includes more detail on these demands and ways to ask your local politicians to support them: foe.scot/election2021

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A publicly owned renewable energy company, generating power

Photo: istockphoto.com

We need to see urgent and far-reaching action to shake up Scotland’s energy system, creating rapid growth in clean, renewable energy that powers our lives at fair prices, using equipment built locally. We must transform our approach to energy, making the system fairer and work in the best interests of people, while tackling the climate emergency.

Scotland’s energy system is currently a complex patchwork of private companies whose key priority is profit, not investing in creating green jobs or reducing emissions from energy. That’s why we’ve seen shocking stories where wind turbines off the Fife coast are built overseas whilst the BiFab manufacturing yards just a few miles down the road are overlooked.

To fully unlock our potential, and secure a fair share for Scottish communities, parties should commit to launching a publicly owned energy company. It could act as a catalyst for community and local authority projects - rather than treating them as competitors as private operators do.

This company could develop new wind, solar, tidal and wave energy projects and provide affordable, renewable energy, particularly benefitting for those in fuel poverty. In public hands it would ensure workers are treated fairly as well as supporting local supply chains.

An expansive public energy company could drive growth in renewables at local and national levels, playing a key role in our pandemic recovery, and speeding the transition away from fossil fuel energy.

> Create green jobs in energy generation, including manufacturing wind turbines by prioritising local supply chains. > Increase the amount of renewable energy generated > Offer support for other models, like community-owned energy > Provide energy at an affordable price, prioritising those in fuel poverty

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Pete Markham

Time for Scotland to free ourselves from fossil fuels

Renewables have grown rapidly in Scotland but still only supply one quarter of our energy.

Too much of the energy we use as electricity, to heat our homes and to power our transport still comes from climate-polluting fossil fuels like oil and gas.

We know that to limit climate change we need to leave fossil fuels in the ground, that's why the next Scottish Government must end their support for drilling every last drop of oil and gas in the North Sea. With the UK Government still handing out more licences to drill for oil and gas we are speeding towards climate disaster. Instead we must set an end date for new oil and gas, in line with our international climate obligations.

MSPs must back plans to deliver a rapid but fair transition away from fossil fuels that is shaped by the workers and communities affected. Work in the oil and gas industry has been insecure and precarious for years.

An unmanaged transition risks even greater turmoil.

By committing to 100% of energy use from renewables by 2030, and with the right Government support, we can create even more good green jobs than those phased out in oil and gas. Scaling up energy efficiency and renewable heating can create jobs across the country.

> Cut the climate emissions created by burning fossil fuels for energy > Realise the potential and create three times as many clean energy jobs for every oil and gas job phased out > Support for workers and communities who currently rely on fossil fuels

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Free bus travel, on publicly owned buses

Changing how we travel is key to tackling the climate crisis as transport makes up almost one third of our climate pollution. The next Parliament must focus on moving away from the current system of car domination that is choking our streets and our lungs.

By supporting local Councils to run their own bus services, politicians can help ensure that they are run in the interest of passengers and communities, not distant shareholders. This will make buses a more attractive, affordable and greener option, compared to polluting alternatives like cars.

MSPs must instead focus efforts on increasing access to public transport and boosting walking, cycling, and wheeling. Buses have a key role to play in this change, but Scotland’s bus network is not good enough in many places.

Scotland has significant potential to create green jobs in manufacturing and maintaining buses, including electric buses. By taking these steps, we can boost demand for buses creating more green jobs, as well as protecting existing ones.

Lots of buses are run by private operators who have cut routes and raised fares – losing 100 million journeys in the decade before the pandemic. Bad bus services are likely to have had the most impact on people on the lowest incomes, from ethnic minority communities, and people living with disabilities, who are the least likely to have access to a car.

Parties should commit to extending free bus travel to all, starting with a trial in Glasgow in the lead up to the UN Climate Summit in November 2021.

Particularly in lower-income areas, a free and reliable bus service could connect people to employment, education and social opportunities that would otherwise be unavailable.

> Make buses a more attractive and affordable low carbon option, compared to cars > Connect communities with loved ones and health care, allow access to educational and work opportunities > Tackle transport poverty > Create demand for bus manufacturing and maintenance jobs

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Photo: istockphoto.com

Putting people and climate action at the heart of decisions about the economy We need a new approach to the economy, one that focuses on tackling climate change, creating green jobs, and improving people’s wellbeing.

The Scottish Government’s current economic plan is not fit to meet the challenges we face. It was written before COVID-19 and before the climate emergency was declared. It focuses largely on economic growth, profit maximisation and treats the environment as a free dumping ground.

The pandemic has brought into sharp relief the cruelty and inequality of our current approach.

The unemployment it has unleashed will severely hit families and communities for years to come.

But the pandemic has also shown the power of Government intervention, the true value of care work and how public institutions are best placed to protect people. Rebuilding after coronavirus must mean reprogramming our economy to instead achieve our shared priorities.

The climate crisis touches everything, meaning that tackling it will require a well managed transition in almost every sector of our economy. We need to see far greater investment and intervention from the next Government, and boosting public ownership particularly in areas like energy and transport.

By developing domestic jobs, skills and industries that offer alternatives to the extraction and burning of fossil fuels, our new MSPs can lay the foundations for a rapid but fair transition to a zero-carbon economy.

As expressed by the Wellbeing Economy Alliance, we must remember that “Balancing social, environmental and economic goals requires remembering that the economy exists within society: it depends on society to function. And that both economy and society exist within the natural world: both depend on the environment to function”.

> Ensure economic decisions work to enhance our wellbeing > Put creating green jobs, climate action and building a fairer society at the heart of all Government decision making > Ensure public services are run in the public interest > Speed up climate action through Government leadership and intervention, particularly in polluting sectors

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WHAT ON EARTH SPRING 2021

Vote for climate

By Young Friends of the Earth Scotland The Vote for Climate pledge has been created

by Young Friends of the Earth Scotland, Fridays for Future Scotland, and Teach the Future Scotland.

We need our government to take on Scotland’s fair share of climate action. We want to show that Scotland’s crucial youth vote is a vote for climate!

According to research, young people aged 16-24 are the only group to rank climate as the issue most important to them. The Climate Strikes have shown us how powerful we are when we act together in huge numbers. It’s time to put the pressure on and show just how many of us there are!

The upcoming Scottish election is a crucial one.

The leaders we elect will make decisions that shape our lives for generations. As Scotland

rebuilds from coronavirus, we have a unique chance to transform our society for the better and put climate action at the heart of it.

But the promises made so far are not good enough. We cannot afford to let climate change slip down the agenda.

We are urging as many young people as possible to make sure they are registered to vote, and to take the pledge to vote for climate We want young people to make sure politicians know what issues you care about, and what climate promises you’re looking for in party manifestos.

Young people can sign the pledge to vote for climate and then share it on social media. Get your voice heard and make it clear that young people are voting for climate!

Take action bit.ly/vote4climatescot

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Carbon Capture technology exposed as unreliable and not ready for the urgent action needed

By Jess Cowell, Climate Campaigner A comprehensive new study by the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, commissioned by Friends of the Earth Scotland and Global Witness, has shed new light on the technology of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) and its role in the energy system. The researchers looked at the ability of CCS to help achieve the urgent action we need to reduce climate emissions within the next decade.

CCS involves separating and capturing carbon dioxide from other gases before it enters the atmosphere. The gas is then converted into a liquid and transported by pipeline or tanker and then pumped deep underground. In Scotland, the Government sees carbon being stored predominantly under the North Sea. The oil and gas industry uses the idea of CCS as an excuse to keep on digging and drilling for more fossil fuels.

The research revealed that there is a huge gap between the previous projections for CCS to reduce climate change emissions, what it can currently do, and what it can realistically be expected to do in the future. Most notably the research showed that fossil fuel-based CCS will not be ready to deploy at scale until at least the 2030s and that there are many significant barriers to widespread introduction.

CCS over-promises and under-delivers CCS is a technology that has been proposed as a means of reducing carbon emissions in order to tackle climate change for over four decades.

For example, although the technical feasibility of CCS was demonstrated in 1996, deployment has been slow and projects have consistently failed to be completed. According to the Global CCS Institute, less than a fifth of CCS capacity under development in 2010 was operational by 2019.

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In the vast majority of these plants, the carbon captured is actually used to extract previously hard to reach oil!

Petra Nova CCS plant, which was shut down in 2020. Photo: RV VM / Wikicommons CC BY-SA 4.0

Despite this long record of failures, CCS features prominently in many future energy pathways and climate plans. There are no working CCS plants in the UK or the European Union and just 26 worldwide. Between them, they would only be able to capture climate emissions equivalent to Scotland’s emissions for one year. In the vast majority of these plants, the carbon captured is actually used to extract previously hard to reach oil!

The research also highlighted that fossil fuel-based CCS is not capable of operating with zero emissions – some emissions will inevitably escape – and that a focus on CCS will not help achieve our 2030 climate commitments.

This influenced our work on the current Climate Change Plan update which was published by the Scottish Government in December of last year. The increased commitments to action that we won in 2019 meant the Government had to update their plans.

But instead of scaling up action, the Government wants us to have faith in speculative Negative Emission Technologies (NETs) and their Plan is hugely reliant on CCS to meet our climate goals. This is incredibly worrying as CCS is still an immature technology which has historically faced technical challenges and is unlikely to work on the urgent time scales required.

I gave evidence to the Parliament’s Environment Climate Change and Land Reform Committee (ECCLR) – highlighting the Tyndall research, our concerns about relying on unproven technologies and stressed the Government must map out a Plan B so that, if and when, CCS does not work we still have a viable route to hit our goals.

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Running out of time event outside Scottish Parliament . Photo: Maverick Photo Agency / SCCS

After these evidence sessions we were delighted to see that the ECCLR Committee had taken the concerns on board and recommended in its report to the Scottish Government that an alternate pathway which isn’t based around Negative Emission Technologies be embedded in the Climate Change Plan update.

We believe that the promotion of CCS in energy and the reliance on CCS and other Negative Emission Technologies like Bioenergy Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) and fossil hydrogen are a dangerous distraction from other more readily available and proven options to address the climate crisis.

Shockingly, on the last day of Parliament, the Government wrote to the Committee saying that it was ignoring their report for now. The Government would instead go with their own draft Plan, effectively snubbing the input of MSPs who had collectively spent hundreds of hours listening to experts and scrutinising the Plan.

Instead we need to see a rapid growth in renewable energy, a focus on energy efficiency, clear and concise plans to tackle high emitting sectors like transport by investing in public transport and making walking, wheeling and cycling more accessible and ultimately securing a worker and community-led Just Transition away from high polluting fossil fuels.

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Let’s stop Scotland’s cash from fanning the flames of the climate crisis The last year has been a torrid time for the fossil fuel industry. With workers laid off and stock prices tumbling, it increasingly looks like Big Oil has had its day.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced this realisation for many. Cuts in fossil fuel demand, unthinkable in “normal times”, have been the mark of a global health crisis that has torn up people’s lives and in the process put millions of cars, trucks and planes out of action.

Some investors got out before the trouble hit.

The Universities of Stirling, Edinburgh, Glasgow Caledonian, Abertay, Glasgow, UWS and QMU began their exit from fossil fuels years back and depending on their progress, will have fared better.

By Ric Lander, Divestment Campaigner

Many of those who have pledged divestment were explicit about the need to do so given the scale of the climate crisis, and its incompatibility with continued ownership of polluting stocks.

Explaining further divestment commitments in New York, State Senator Rachel May said “The climate crisis requires bold and decisive action from all segments of government.

Divestment from fossil fuels fulfils both the need for fiduciary responsibility to our state employees and the urgent action required to phase out dirty fossil fuel from our state’s economy.”

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Oil Pollution in Goi, Nigeria.

Photo: Marten van Dijl / FoE

Despite dozens of MSPs calling for change, their retirement fund still has no ethical policy.

Stuck on fossil fuels Most of Scotland's local councils haven’t woken up to this problem. Huge investments in the world’s most polluting industry are costing them cash and credibility.

A recent study found that Scottish council funds lost £194 million from bad bets on oil and gas over recent years and this could just be the start.

Working with Platform and Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland we uncovered £1.2 billion of fossil fuel investments across every local council pension fund in Scotland. £1.2 billion in companies like BHP, one of the world’s biggest coal miners and under investigation for environmental and human rights

abuses. Companies like Shell, who a Dutch court recently ruled against for loss of life, illness and destruction caused by their pollution in Nigeria.

Companies like BP, who are backing the Mozambique gas export scheme that’s associated with militarisation and forced displacement in the cyclone-ravaged country.

More than half of Scotland’s councils have declared a climate emergency, but none have effected divestment of their pension funds from these global polluters. They are still profiting from the companies driving this emergency.

The Scottish Parliament too, have fossil fuel investments through their pension fund.

Despite dozens of MSPs calling for change, their retirement fund still has no ethical policy.

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Progress in Glasgow Glasgow City Councillors recently endorsed a proposal to end their £500 million Pension Fund investment in fossil fuels: the first time a Scottish city has set out clear support for divestment.

This decision is not binding, however. To count, it must be approved by the Strathclyde Pension Fund Committee in a highly uncertain process.

A high-profile showdown awaits then, with Committee members, possibly just weeks before their city hosts the UN climate talks, facing a choice over whether to keep investing in climate polluters or to divest.

Council pension funds already know how to do better. Our 2017 investigation uncovered council pension investments in small hydroelectric and wind power schemes, as well as social housing developments in the East of Glasgow and Forth Valley. Such investments represent a double benefit to pension fund members and local councils: a secure return and a healthier future.

With the world coming to Scotland to negotiate action on the climate crisis this year, pension funds now have a clear deadline for addressing their polluting investments. This is the perfect time to ramp up efforts and get divestment done.

Councillors should be telling fund managers to divest. MSPs and MPs should be telling their pension funds to divest. And we should be telling our representatives to get a move on.

Want to take part? Friends of the Earth Scotland have tools on our website so you can easily send a message to your local representatives and there are campaign groups across Scotland.

As Scotland welcomes the world to our shores now is the perfect time to demand fossil free, healthy and sustainable investments for our towns, cities and country.

Take action bit.ly/scotdivest

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Highs and lows on the journey to clean air and safer streets Gavin Thomson, Air Pollution Campaigner Every January we publish a review of the previous year’s air pollution data. This always garners a great deal of media interest, and the story has been the same for many years: air pollution in Scotland is breaking legal limits and our city centres have dangerously toxic air.

However, as we all know, 2020 was a year like no other. Everything changed.

Last year was the first year Scotland has been legally compliant on nitrogen dioxide (diesel pollution), and the annual averages show huge drops in many parts of the country. But the full story is a little more complex.

As the pandemic started to hit Scotland and we were restricted to our homes and neighbourhoods, air pollution fell dramatically.

The air quality data for Spring 2020 shows substantial drops. But as vehicles started to move around more from the summer onwards, pollution crept back up.

This is particularly frustrating as there are clear links between air pollution and Covid-19.

Breathing in toxic fumes causes many of the long-term conditions that leave people more vulnerable to the virus.

Cycling had a huge spike in popularity around this time. With no cars on the road, people felt safe to cycle – many for the first time, or the first time in a long time. Scotland witnessed a huge shift to greener transport, although it was brief and not maintained. By Autumn, traffic and pollution were back up, scaring off the budding cyclists.

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Public transport passenger numbers fell off a cliff in 2020. While £300 million has been handed out to keep the bus industry afloat, the Scottish Government failed to attach any meaningful conditions in exchange for this public money. We have seen other governments take a more active role in transport delivery, but when it comes to buses the Scottish Government has stood back.

Spaces for People measures – temporary road space reallocations to make physical distancing easier - have been introduced by some of our councils. Now, in 2021, we’re seeing some local political battles as opposition parties hostile to safe cycling try to prevent these measures being made permanent.

Interestingly, some sensationalist media coverage would suggest these measures are reviled but surveys and polling suggest they’re very popular. Don’t let headlines put you off – people want safer streets and Councils need to provide them.

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We did not celebrate these temporary improvements in air quality because they arrived at an enormous cost to our communities and societies. There was no intention or concerted political action to reduce emissions.

This is why the falls were not maintained. We need leadership from our politicians to improve the air we breathe in a just way.

The extraordinary changes that were necessary to limit the spread of the virus gave us an opportunity to think differently. For a short time, there was a glimpse of a transport system we could and need to have; low air pollution, safe streets, and families cycling together. These changes eroded away in front of us.

The huge drop in April 2020 brought the annual averages within legal limits. But that doesn’t tell the full story of a lot of missed opportunities to lock in positive changes.

For a short time, there was a glimpse of a transport system we could and need to have...

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Time to turn just transition rhetoric into results

By Ryan Morrison, Just Transition Campaigner

Scotland’s Just Transition Commission was tasked with advising the Government on how to ensure that the transition from fossil fuels to a net zero economy was fair to all.

After two years involving 11 commissioners hearing from 60 invited ‘experts’ and over 270 people sharing their views, the Commission's work has drawn to a close. Their Final Report, published on the penultimate day of this Scottish Parliament, presents 24 recommendations for the next Scottish Government to take forward.

Alongside members of the Just Transition Partnership including the Scottish Trades Union Congress, we first called for the Commission to be created in 2016. We have followed their progress, repeatedly encouraging the Commissioners to grasp the massive opportunity of a radical and socially just approach to tackling the climate crisis, if we choose the right policies to make it happen.

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the Government’s job now is to get on with turning their rhetoric into reality.

What did the Commission say?

The Commission’s Report recognised this opportunity and urged politicians to treat the delivery of a just transition as ‘a national mission’ – to capture the benefits and minimise the risks for people across Scotland as we move away from a fossil fuel economy, with recommendations including: > A skills guarantee to ensure workers in high-carbon industries can join retraining programmes to help them move into green industries. > Pilots for free public transport to make our buses and trains a more accessible option for travel, cutting emissions and tackling air pollution. > A Publicly-Owned Energy Company to create new renewable projects, support community energy and provide energy at affordable prices to reduce fuel poverty.

However, the report doesn’t grasp the urgency of the next decade. Too much focus is placed on climate targets for 2045 when we know it’s the next nine years which matter most if we are to avoid climate breakdown.

The Final Report also talks at length about the opportunities for businesses but lacks detail on the scale of the investment needed to reprogramme our economy, or on the ways workers and communities will be empowered to shape the future of their lives and livelihoods.

high profile examples of green industries struggling across Scotland.

Job losses at wind turbine jacket fabricators BiFab in Fife, turbine tower builders CS Wind in Campbeltown and green bus manufacturers Alexander Dennis in Falkirk have understandably seen disappointment, and even anger, from people who have struggled to see anything more than rhetoric from the Scottish Government on a just transition.

In March, Scotland’s Transport Secretary committed £40m to build 172 green buses at the Alexander Dennis site. New electric buses will replace diesel models, cutting emissions and securing a future for a key green industry, but it should never have needed jobs being lost for the Government to put this investment into a highly skilled workforce.

The new Scottish Government must now act faster, invest strategically and plan with workers, communities and environmentalists for a complete transition away from fossil fuels over the next decade. The Final Report of Scotland’s Just Transition Commission calls for this opportunity to be seen as a ‘national mission’ – the Government’s job now is to get on with turning their rhetoric into reality.

What needs to happen now?

The Scottish Government has regularly described creating the Commission as an example of great progress towards a just transition, meanwhile there have been

Photo: Alexander Dennis

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Environmental rights to be enshrined in Scots Law

Photo: iStockphoto.com

By Mary Church, Head of Campaigns Human rights at their most basic are about dignity, liberty, equality and the right to life itself. Rights are interconnected, and all are underpinned by the right to a health and safe environment – without which the enjoyment of any other rights are eroded or made impossible.

The global coronavirus pandemic has done much to demonstrate this by exposing the links between the destruction of nature and the increase in new viruses. COVID-19 has in turn led to lockdowns all over the world restricting the fulfilment of economic, social and cultural rights in order to save lives.

It has also shown how the impact of both the virus and restrictions have been far from equal and are linked to the quality of environment people live in, with a correlation between

higher death rates from COVID-19 and long-term exposure to air pollution, and between access to green space and physical and mental health and wellbeing.

Against the ongoing backdrop of the pandemic and with climate breakdown posing an existential threat to human life itself, the Scottish Government's Task force on Human Rights Leadership recent recommendation to incorporate the right to a healthy and safe environment into Scots Law then could not be more timely or welcome.

Even though these rights already exist in international law, enshrining them in Scots law will make them much more likely to be upheld by decision-makers and easier to enforce when they aren’t.

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we will have to fight to ensure this issue stays high on the agenda Over the last few years we have been engaging with the Task Force and its predecessor Advisory Group to ensure that the case for environmental rights as part of the wider incorporation of human rights into Scots law was articulated in its recommendations.

We are now calling for the new human rights law to be brought forward early in the new Parliamentary session, so that the right to a healthy and safe environment – and other essential human rights – can be enforceable before long.

Encouraging signs on this front include Cabinet Secretary and co-chair of the Task Force Shirley-Anne Somerville MSP committing to introduce the legislation, depending on the outcome of the Holyrood elections. Further, a Parliamentary debate in March saw cross party support for the incorporation of environmental rights into Scots Law. But with a whole raft of priorities and the ongoing impacts of Brexit and the pandemic on the table for the new Government and Parliament, we will have to fight to ensure this issue stays high on the agenda, and to shape the new law to ensure it does justice to all aspects of environmental rights.

We are absolutely delighted to be working closely with the new Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland (ERCS) on this important campaign. FoES, along with RSPB and Scottish Environment LINK, helped set up the ERCS, with its mission to support people and communities to exercise their environmental rights, through public education, advice and advocacy. The ERCS launched quietly last year but expect to be hearing a lot more from them in the future. www.ercs.scot or Twitter @ERCScot

Photo: Anna Kalota

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Do you want to talk about the economy?

Photo: istockphoto.com

By Matthew Crighton, Sustainable Jobs Advisor If you have ever wanted to understand economics better, to use convincing economic arguments in your campaigning or refute the claims that something is ‘bad for the economy’, you should check out the Economics for Activists initiative.

I have been working to set this up Beth Stratford Laurie Macfarlane with a group of activists in Edinburgh who realised that to be effective they needed to get a better grasp of the economic arguments. They have a variety of campaigning backgrounds including climate change, trade unions, peace and community organising. They range from those who had felt that economics was distant and unknowable to those who have read quite a lot and wanted to work out how to help campaigners use economic insights.

For FoES members I’d recommend starting with Laurie Macfarlane, who gave us a take-down of conventional economics and a great overview of alternative economics, and Beth Stratford who explored the 'green growth vs degrowth' debate. We also had guests discussing tax, feminist economics, and how the pandemic is changing capitalism We have been delighted by the quality of the speakers who have freely given excellent presentations in their own time.

You can watch the presentations on YouTube: http://bit.ly/econ4activists We’re now working out how to take this initiative forward. Maybe more sessions like these, or programmes and study groups on specific topics, such as the economics of climate change

If you want to be on the mailing list for future sessions, contact us economicsforactivists@gmail.com

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Kids take action!

Four school children from Kinross-shire, Libby, Zoe, Hannah and Lucy, motivated by concerns for the planet and the climate recently organised themselves a sponsored walk up Bishop’s Hill – all 1,500 ft (460 m) of it. In doing so, they raised a spectacular £1,099 for FoE Scotland and our work!

Zoe added “It was a bit hard because we couldn’t see anybody because of lockdown, so we also contacted our school and got some sponsorships from the staff there. It was very, very sunny on the day, which was lucky because the forecast said it might be rainy. The walk itself was hard at times but it’s easy to keep going if you’re with your friends. We saw little patches of snow on the ground as well.”

Of their brilliant efforts, Libby says, “We wanted to pick something to help the environment and found Friends of the Earth Scotland. Our mums helped make a JustGiving page and then put it out on Facebook to all their friends. We also had a few Zoom meetings with the four of us.

On the day, the walk was fun and I felt very accomplished. We were pleased with what we did”.

Huge thanks to the girls and their parents for making this happen and to all those that donated – including the teachers! If you’re inspired to do something for FoES, you can find out more in the Get Involved section of our website, or start a JustGiving page for us at www.justgiving.com/foe-sco/ Be sure to let us know your plans as well – we’d be delighted to hear about them!

Don’t forget to register for our online AGM of members!

Saturday 29 May 10am www.foe.scot/agm2021

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Supplying these details means you’re happy for Friends of the Earth Scotland to contact you about our work and ways to support it.

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A gift to Friends of the Earth Scotland is a way of ensuring your values and beliefs live on after you.

Please send me more information about leaving Friends of the Earth Scotland a gift in my will.

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Freepost FRIENDS OF THE EARTH SCOTLAND Thorn House, 5 Rose Street, Edinburgh EH2 2PR Alternatively you can email: info@foe.scot Or call 0131 243 2700 (our office is periodically staffed, so if no one answers, please leave a message and we’ll call you back).

For more information about how we handle your personal data please visit www.foe.scot/privacy-policy