THE state of lockdown imposed after the onset of the Covid-19 taught us a salutary lesson: we can rise to meet the challenge of a crisis and adapt rapidly. And, while change on this scale is never easy, doing nothing is clearly not an option. On Thursday, The Herald, in conjunction with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) and the California-based Global Footprint Network, convened a virtual event to confront the environmental shift that must be undertaken as part of its Earth Overshoot Day 2020 campaign. Choosing Our Future By Design Not Disaster attracted 500 delegates from some 100 organisations in locations that included Albania, Brazil, France and the Philippines, as well as cities in America, ranging from Honolulu and Houston to Chicago and Washington DC. Between last January and this month humanity has used as much of Earth’s resources as it can renew in a whole year – the equivalent of using 1.6 Earths when we only have one. “We want to live well on this planet and that’s why, working with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency we are promoting one planet prosperity. “The alternative is one planet misery, which is not such a great alternative.” Sepa’s chief executive Terry A’Hearn agreed, saying: “If you were to tell a business that every year its costs are 1.6 over revenue it would have to fundamentally change. “We as a regulator plus every citizen, every business, school, hospital and so on has to change to rise to this challenge and create a different sort of prosperity.”

Herald 8th Aug 2020 read more »

One of the architects of Scotland’s recovery from the pandemic has claimed “ideological zealots” in the green movement risk wrecking the economy, as ministers pledged to do more business with Scottish firms. Benny Higgins, chairman of Nicola Sturgeon’s advisory group on economic recovery, published a series of recommendations in June aimed at helping the country avoid an “unemployment tsunami” sparked by the pandemic. The Scottish government yesterday endorsed many of the proposed measures, including investing £50 million to support youth employment and making it easier for smaller firms to compete for public sector contracts. Mr Higgins, a financial advisor and former boss of Tesco Bank, said he was encouraged that the “flightpath to recovery” had been broadly accepted. “The grand challenge for the Scottish government is to achieve both robust economic growth and job creation, alongside ensuring the economy is based on tackling fairness, inclusion and sustainability,” he said.

Times 5th Aug 2020 read more »

Scotland needs a solid ‘greenprint’ for economic recovery – Elizabeth Leighton. This week the Scottish Government publishes its ‘blueprint’ for Scotland’s economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, stating that “everything we’re doing, whether it be on skills, business support, investment, is focused on sustainability and ensuring a just transition to net zero by 2045”. The ‘Economic Implementation Plan’ accepts all 25 recommendations from the Advisory Group on Economic Recovery. The Climate Emergency Response Group (CERG) couldn’t agree more – the economic case for green recovery policies has never been stronger with ‘shovel ready’ projects that will protect and create jobs all over Scotland, and opportunities to grow new skills and enterprises for those hardest hit by the current crisis. For us, it is the only route to reach the Scottish Government’s ambition for a well-being economy – resilient, healthy and low carbon. Decisions taken now and over the next few months will shape our economy for the next decade – either putting us firmly on track to meet our climate targets or locking us into a fossil fuel economy at great cost and risk to society. In July, CERG published the report, Eight policy packages for Scotland’s Green Recovery. It contains a set of practical, realistic solutions that the Scottish Government can implement now in order to move Scotland towards a net-zero economy, while recovering from the Covid-19 crisis. Some of these ideas appear in the implementation plan, though with limited detail on the ‘how to’ deliver on the ground. The plan suggests that detail will come in the Programme for Government – so what should it contain to give us confidence in the government’s desire to ‘rebuild better’ – and to do so with urgency? Here are some of the steps that can be taken immediately. Some of these measures are also recommended by the Just Transition Commission in its recent report on the green recovery. We need to make cities and towns more liveable and resilient – with space for physical distancing in pedestrian areas and cycle lanes faster, reliable and zero emission buses with dedicated bus lanes; and a Community Health and Wealth Fund to help local authorities design big low carbon projects – district heating, active travel, EV charging – attracting private investment and creating a steady pipeline of construction jobs. We can retrofit our leaky and energy-wasting buildings all over Scotland by immediately doubling existing fuel poverty and energy efficiency programmes which already have large numbers of clients waiting in the queue. Financial support and advice should also be ramped up to encourage homeowners and businesses to switch to clean, modern, renewable heat, at the same time maximising opportunities for manufacture and installation.

Scotsman 7th Aug 2020 read more »

ENVIRONMENTAL campaigners have labelled the Scottish Government’s plans for a green economic recovery “woefully inadequate” – after Fiona Hyslop set out key actions it will take. In June, the Scottish Government’s economic advisory group, led by Benny Higgins, published recommendations as to how the country should go about helping the economic recover. The document stressed that a green recovery was “central to recovery overall” – with the Scottish Government already pledging to become carbon neutral by 2045. Friends of the Earth Scotland have criticised the lack of commitment to kickstarting a green recovery. The organisation’s head of campaigns, Mary Church, said: “The Scottish Government’s blueprint for economic recovery is a woefully inadequate response to the scale of the challenges we face from Covid-19 and the climate emergency. “The so-called ‘green thread’ running through the response is little more than rhetoric with very little in the way of concrete new commitments that would truly centre a just transition to a zero carbon economy. “It’s disappointing that the government has not taken this opportunity to adopt the recent recommendations of the Just Transition Commission including a large-scale fossil fuel decommissioning programme, public investment in renewable manufacturing facilities, buying fleets of green buses for local authorities and doubling energy efficiency budgets. “We are alarmed by the intention to review permitted development rights and urge the Scottish Government not to follow the UK Government in ripping up the planning rulebook to rush through controversial applications against community wishes.”

Herald 5th Aug 2020 read more »

Seize the chance to build a different, better Scotland – Richard Dixon. This week the Scottish Government is expected to announce its response to the recommendation from its Advisory Group on Economic Recovery. I’m hoping they will use the opportunity to make some other positive announcements because the Advisory Group’s report really wasn’t up to much. The Advisory Group was created in April and is one of a number of ways in which the Scottish Government is getting external advice on how Scotland should come out of the coronavirus pandemic. This is a real chance to create a different, better Scotland as we come out of lockdown, a chance to leap forward in tackling inequality and climate change. Indeed the First Minister has said we must have a “green recovery,” build a “wellbeing economy” and build “a fairer, greener and more equal society.” The problem is that it was obvious from the start that the Advisory Group did not have the right people around the virtual table to deliver on these admirable aspirations. It was chaired by Benny Higgins, ex-boss of Tesco Bank and currently chair of massive landowner Buccleuch Group. Neither he nor any of the other members appeared to have expertise in how a recovery might be green nor what a wellbeing economy might look like. No surprise then that when the Advisory Group published its report at the end of June it was pretty disappointing. The report was called “Towards a Robust, Resilient Wellbeing Economy for Scotland.” It contained 25 surprisingly-vague recommendations and hardly anything recognisably green beyond some high-level words. Despite the title, it states the first priority of a wellbeing economy as strong economy growth, thereby ignoring several decades of important debate about what the economy should really be for. What the Advisory Group should have called for is a major boost to funding for energy efficiency programmes, investment in building new renewable heat networks and more renewable electricity schemes, new permanent walking and cycling routes, and action to give people the skills needed for the zero carbon economy. This kind of programme would create thousands of much-needed jobs, while drastically cutting our climate emissions.

Scotsman 4th Aug 2020 read more »

The issues we collectively face with climate change have not gone away. The current pandemic has thrown our tangled global connections into sharper focus and the need to act now for our shared planet is clearer than ever before. There is increasing momentum for us to build back better, through a just recovery that puts people and planet first and education has a key role to play in delivering that vision. Through education, both in and out of the classroom, we have the chance to write a new narrative that puts sustainable development and active global citizenship at the heart of Scotland’s future.

Scotsman 2nd Aug 2020 read more »