A new Climate Change Bill for Scotland: our hopes

By Rebecca Bell, Senior Policy Officer.

Last week the Scottish Government launched a consultation (https://consult.scotland.gov.uk/energy-and-climate-change-directorate/climate-change-bill) on a new Climate Change Bill, to bring Scotland’s climate change targets in line with the Paris Agreement.

The 2009 Climate Change (Scotland) Act (http://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2009/12/contents) was a ground-breaking piece of legislation, unanimously passed by the Scottish Parliament, setting targets to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050 and 42% by 2020.  When the 42% target was first proposed, no-one knew how it could be met, people thought it was unachievable – but we actually met it in 2014, 6 years early!

Now RSPB and our partners in Stop Climate Chaos Scotland are calling for a 100% reduction in emissions by 2050, which is what the science demands – we may not have all the answers on how to do it yet, but we know that it needs to be done.

At the moment, the Scottish Government doesn’t share our ambition – we need as many voices as possible to help them change their mind and introduce a bill that keeps Scotland at the forefront on tackling climate change – for people, here and around the world, and for our precious wildlife.

But targets are only a small part of the picture – our success in tackling climate change, and the environmental problems that it exacerbates, will depend on how we choose to meet them.  Renewable energy has a vital role to play in reducing our greenhouse gas emissions, but we need to make sure it is in the right place, so that it doesn’t harm sensitive species and habitats.  We need stronger measures in law to bring our housing up to a good standard of energy efficiency, so that we don’t waste energy heating inefficient buildings; and we need legislation to make sure that our food is produced without over-using fertiliser, avoiding more unnecessary emissions.

We also need the Scottish Government – and other organisations – to make sure that everything they do contributes to tackling climate change, so that decisions in one part of government don’t undo the good work of another part.  The Climate Change (Scotland) Act already puts this duty on all public bodies in Scotland – now we need to see it in action with all parts of the Scottish Government focused on delivering our share of the Paris Agreement aims.

The Scottish Government has made their Climate Bill consultation about targets, but has not included any new efforts to increase action in Scotland to halt climate change..  We think there’s a lot more that can – and must - be done so we are joining our partners in Stop Climate Chaos Scotland in the Act for Our Future campaign. We need as many people as possible to sign up at https://act.foe.scot/sccs-climate to call on the First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to stand up to climate change, and create a better, more sustainable,future for people and nature in Scotland and around the world.