A blog by Rob Brooker, Head of Ecological Sciences at the James Hutton Institute, and is also a member of the British Ecological Society, including its Scottish Policy Group.
To mark the COP26 Presidency Theme ‘Science and Innovation’, Rob explores how science can help to deliver innovative solutions that will contribute to meeting the challenging climate change targets that will come out of COP26.
One of the COP26 Presidency Themes for Tuesday 9th November[1] is Demonstrating that science and innovation can deliver climate solutions to meet, and accelerate, increased ambition. I read it several times before trying to write this blog. I’m still not completely clear what it means, but decided not to worry too much about the precise wording and to think instead about what I believe it’s trying to get at: can science help to deliver innovative solutions that will contribute to meeting the challenging climate change targets that will come out of COP26?
I can see that for some research fields – for example studies of fusion power – there may be sudden step changes in our knowledge and its application which generate a related step change in what’s possible in terms of climate change solutions. Looking at this from an ecologist’s perspective, although ongoing and planned research will deliver important new understanding about the links between climate change and nature, I don’t think we’re going to get a sudden shake up in our fundamental ecological knowledge. More radical innovation might come from what we do with that knowledge.
Importantly, COP26 coincides (roughly) with COP15 of the Convention on Biological Diversity. COP15 is a key staging post for the CBD, coming at the end of the UN Decade on Biodiversity, and the point at which we must assess how we’ve done in terms of delivering the Aichi Biodiversity Targets. Unfortunately, as set out in an excellent new briefing from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe)[2], “All previous international targets for biodiversity have been missed and research shows that “urgent and transformative action” is required to halt the biodiversity crisis”.
One of the major challenges for delivering the Aichi targets, and for delivering many other nature conservation goals over the past decades, has been the perceived conflict between biodiversity conservation and the delivery of other policies, or the failure of other policy sectors (for example farming, energy generation, transport) to take biodiversity into account. The critical opportunity that the alignment of COP15 and COP26 brings is the chance to address the combined biodiversity and climate crises by making it clear that nature conservation can be (and must be) part of the solution to tackling the climate change crisis.
The case for this integrated approach is set out very clearly in a recent report by the British Ecological Society (BES) focussing on Nature Based Solutions for climate change in the UK[3]. As the report says “Nature-based solutions (NbS) address societal problems in ways that benefit both people and Nature” and there are many ways (as set out in the report) in which conserving and appropriately managing nature can help deliver both mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions, and adaptation to the impacts of climate change which we are already experiencing.
But as the BES report also makes clear, there are a range of challenges. Amongst these are some clear scientific knowledge gaps – for example challenges in assessing carbon sequestration across multiple habitats – which, unless addressed, will hamper the uptake of nature-based solutions to climate change. We also have challenges in terms of integrating across policy sectors, although the coincidence of COP15 for biodiversity and COP26 for climate change presents an unparalleled opportunity for integrated action. Finally, we need to understand better how to work with private finance and business to generate some of the investment needed to deliver appropriate NbS in the right place and at the right scale.
Organisations such as Scottish Environment LINK – working in partnership with bodies such as the BES – have played a really important role in helping ecologists to better understand and work with policy makers. I think it’s fair to say, though, that big business might not be something many ecologists understand or have historically wanted to get involved with, not least because of substantial negative impacts of some business sectors on the environment, and concerns about greenwashing[4], including in current discussions about the use of NbS. But in the run up to COP15 some businesses are making clear their recognition of the need for significant change to help deliver a healthy planet[5]. And rather than refuse to engage, I think it’s essential that scientists use the evidence we do have to explain why NbS are part of the solution – but not an alternative to emissions reductions – and why they need to be done in the right way and in the right place to achieve their full potential. It’s in this area of engaging with business where we’re going to need innovative thinking and action from scientists to realise the potential of these nature-based solutions to address the climate change and biodiversity crises.
This blog is part of the LINK Thinks CoP26 series. Click here to read the series of blogs by LINK staff, members, Honorary Fellows and invited guests who highlight the COP26 presidency programme with a nature-climate twist.
A blog by Fanny Royanez, LINK’S Marine Policy and Engagement Officer
To mark the COP26 Presidency Theme ‘Adaptation, loss and damage’, Fanny highlights how COP26 is unique opportunity for governments across the UK to champion the importance of ocean recovery to help tackle the climate crisis.
We live on Planet Ocean. Over 70% of the planetary surface, 97% of all water and 99% of the habitable space on our planet is ocean. Around half the oxygen we breathe, any maybe more, comes from oceanic phytoplankton[1], and marine habitats and ecosystems have a greater capacity to capture and store carbon than terrestrial ecosystems.
In recent years, the Scottish Government worked to establish Scotland as an environmental leader on the world stage, including through its Greenhouse Gas Emissions reduction targets. With Climate Change Conference of the Parties in Glasgow 2021 (COP26), the global spotlight will be on Scotland. COP 26 has four main goals:
Secure global net-zero by mid-century and keep 1.5 degrees within reach
Adapt to protect communities and natural habitats
Mobilise finance
Work together to deliver net-zero
As COP26 could be the world’s last best chance to address the intertwined climate and nature emergencies, now is a unique opportunity for all governments across the UK to champion the importance of ocean recovery to help tackle the climate crisis.
Ocean Recovery: A vital Step to Secure Net-Zero and Protect Communities and Natural Habitats
The ocean is central in regulating the Earth’s climate. It has absorbed more than 90% of the excess heat caused by climate change and captures about 40% of human carbon emissions[2]. Yet, it is under pressure like never before, with many wildlife populations and habitats in a spiral of decline.
Scotland’s coast and seas are among the most productive in the world. They support an estimated 39,200 species of plants and animals, including valuable inshore and offshore fisheries and internationally important populations of basking sharks, seals, seabirds, whales and dolphins. They are also home to “blue carbon” habitats such as seagrass meadows, kelp forests, shellfish beds and maerl beds, which absorb and store atmospheric carbon dioxide or are a vital pathway to long-term storage.
To reach the COP26 goals of securing global net-zero by mid-century, and adapting to protect communities and natural habitats, our governments must act to restore marine ecosystems to health. Recent scientific research highlights that conservation of current environmental conditions is not enough and that ecosystem recovery should be placed at the core of political decision-making (Jones et al., 2020; Baskett & Barnett, 2015). Protecting and enhancing blue carbon habitats would not only support the ocean’s capacity to mitigate climate change impacts but also benefit coastal communities, for example by enriching fish and shellfish breeding grounds creating a “spillover” effect and by providing more opportunities for low impact tourism. A well-managed MPA network and wider seas measures such as climate smart fishing and ecosystem-based marine planning that protect and recover blue carbon habitats are precious tools to help address the climate and nature emergencies.
With an MPA network covering 38% of its seas, Scotland is among the leading countries in the world by area of designation. However, most of the network awaits legal measures to be put in place to properly protect the MPAs from the most damaging industrial activities such as heavy bottom-towed fishing gear. The few protection measures that are in place in a handful of MPAs will not restore marine ecosystems at the scale we urgently need to address the climate and nature crises. In the MPA Guide, Grorud-Colver et al. (2021) indicate that only high levels of protection[3] can protect and enhance the marine environment. Protecting and restoring blue carbon habitats is essential to boost the ocean’s latent capacity to capture and store carbon, maximising its contribution to achieving the net-zero targets we desperately need.
In our Ocean Recovery Plan, Scottish Environment LINK call for nature recovery targets for land and sea in law; for at least 30% of our seas to be highly protected by 2030 and for a third of which, so at least 10% of our seas, to be fully protected through the transformation of the MPA network. Ensuring at least 30% of our seas are highly and fully protected, is essential for Scotland, and all maritime countries, to meet net-zero and biodiversity targets. The Scottish Government/Scottish Green agreement to have at least 10% of Scotland’s seas as Highly Protected Marine Areas, where no fishing, aquaculture or development occur, is a welcome game-changer that must be implemented to lead the way within the UK and Europe.
Mobilising Finance to Deliver Ocean Recovery
COP26 is a crucial opportunity for our governments to mobilise finance to restore marine ecosystems and address the climate and nature emergencies. As our plan highlights, developing innovative finance models and scaling up investment to support ocean recovery and a just transition of activities operating in and around the sea are urgently needed to help reach net-zero and protect communities and natural habitats.[4]
Scottish Environment LINK calls for the Scottish Government to provide and incentivise investment in ocean recovery and sustainability to match the scale of the nature and climate emergencies[5]. Scotland has a real opportunity to lead by example at COP 26, by committing to invest in proactive ocean restoration, including of blue carbon habitats such as seagrass and native oyster beds, and to support other nature-based solutions vital to help reverse the climate and ocean emergencies.
Working Together to Deliver Ocean Recovery
Industries operating in and around the marine environment play a key role in tackling the climate and nature crises. Transformational change in how we manage human activities at and around the sea is vital to drive ocean recovery at scale. Reducing anthropogenic pressures on the marine environment is crucial to ensure our seas continue to provide benefits for biodiversity, food and climate regulation.
Scottish Environment LINK’s Ocean Recovery plan advocates for a just transition to nature and climate positive, spatially managed fisheries, with policies and legislation introduced where necessary[6]. The Scottish Government published a Future Fisheries Management strategy last year, including intention to protect vulnerable spawning and juvenile fishing grounds, and the recent Scottish Government/Scottish Greens agreement included a welcome policy to cap and reduce inshore fisheries effort and deliver the remaining fisheries management measures for Scotland’s MPA network by 2024. Following exit from the European Union, the Fisheries Act 2020 must also be seized as an opportunity to help transform fisheries management. It includes legal objectives on climate change, sustainability and the ecosystem, requirements to publish a Joint Fisheries Statement and Fisheries Management Plans, and provisions for the distribution of allocated quota and maintaining or restoring fish stocks. All UK Fisheries Administrations, including the Scottish Government, aim to publish the Joint Fisheries Statement by the end of 2022. With roll-out of the Future Fisheries Management strategy and development of the JFS currently in progress, now is a pivotal moment to ensure that the industry contributes to net zero through the development of climate-smart fisheries[7].
Both the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) and The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports (2019) [1,2] show, with rigorous scientific underpinning, that we are running out of time. We only have a decade to change our ways to limit climate temperature increase below 1.5 degrees and halt and then reverse the loss of nature on land and at sea. If the COP26 Parties are to deliver the Paris Agreement, now is the time for the ocean’s health and its vital contribution to climate change regulation and mitigation to be at the core of all considerations.
COP26 could be the world’s last best chance to tackle the climate emergency and reverse the damage caused by people to nature. This decade, Scotland must lead on the world stage, setting ambitious targets and actions to deliver the recovery our ocean so urgently needs.
Notes
[1] IPBES (2019), Global assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.5517154 Available on https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5517154
[2] IPCC (2019), Climate Change and Land: an IPCC special report on climate change, desertification, land degradation, sustainable land management, food security, and greenhouse gas fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems. Available on https://www.ipcc.ch/srccl/
[3] Jones et al., (2020) Area Requirements to Safeguard Earth’s Marine Species, One Earth 2, 188–196 February 21, 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2020.01.010
[4] Baskett, M.L. & Barnett, L.A.K. (2015). The ecological and evolutionary consequences of marine reserves. Annu. Rev. Ecol. Evol. Syst., 46, 49-73. DOI Available on https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12247
This blog is part of the LINK Thinks CoP26 series. Click here to read the series of blogs by LINK staff, members, Honorary Fellows and invited guests who highlight the COP26 presidency programme with a nature-climate twist.
To mark the COP26 Presidency Theme ‘Nature’, Deborah highlights the role of nature based solutions in tackling climate change.
Year
World population
Carbon in the atmosphere (parts per million)
Remaining wilderness
1937
2 billion
280
66%
1978
4.3 billion
335
55%
1997
5.9 billion
360
46%
2020
7.8 billion
415
35%
David Attenborough’s Witness Statement 2020.
Climate warming and biodiversity loss are gathering speed and impacting increasingly large areas of the world. While tackling climate emissions is crucial, doing this in isolation from action to halt the loss of biodiversity, to reconnect nature and restore damaged ecosystems is pointless. Addressing these issues together requires new approaches and the involvement of us all. We are going to need to adjust how we live, what our aspirations are if we are to avoid an increasingly unstable environment that is unable to support us. We need a new approach.
The recent Scottish government commitment to nature targets is extremely welcome. Targets will help drive action on nature loss now as well as on climate emissions. Once we know our target, it’s easier to map the direction towards it.
IPCC and IPBES (Joint workshop report June 2021) describe the future we want as a habitable climate, self-sustaining biodiversity and good quality of life for all. The question is, how do we get there, quickly?
Given the pressures of shrinking habitats, species loss, pollution, climate warming and over exploitation, the need for enhanced and well targeted conservation effort has never been more important. What’s more, the risk of loss though inaction or inattention is greater than ever before.
Part of our journey involves ‘nature based solutions’. As long as local and national communities work together, nature based solutions can produce local as well as global benefits, and avoid tipping points and negative feedback loops. Guarding against the co-option of nature based solutions as offsetting schemes, for example, is also required.
Nature based solutions can reduce the impact of climate change by making ecosystem more resilient to external changes. Higher genetic, species and ecosystem diversity makes ecosystems more resilient and able to maintain ecosystem services longer into the future.
Protected areas are one such solution: today, these represent the reserves of biodiversity we have left. But protecting a static and unconnected reserve, in the middle of a changing landscape, is no longer sufficient. Protected areas today need to function as part of the wider landscape and be part of the way we manage the surrounding land to build wider resilience. The area of intact and effectively protected areas on land and at sea is too small to meet the three objectives of the new future.
Nature networks, another nature based solution, are key to this by offering ecosystem resilience to change: linking together protected areas, providing routes though a landscape for species, including plants, fungi, insects, birds and mammals so they can move as conditions change.
Restoration is of course, another key nature based solution. Halting the loss and degradation of high carbon habitats including forests, peatlands, salt marshes and kelp forests all maintain biodiversity, and limit carbon loss. Halting the loss and restoring the extent of these habitats is a win win – it saves money, retains ecosystem services and is the start of networks that build future ecological resilience.
Investing in sustainable agricultural practices is another win win: supporting all farmers across Scotland to build carbon holding soil and habitats, build biodiversity levels to retain ecosystem services including pollination and flood management brings benefits of more stable and productive farmland to the farmer, benefits of stable landscapes to the local communities and benefits of locally produced, sustainable food to wider society.
These win wins are not just for Scotland’s rural communities. In our urban areas, greening initiatives including green roofs, urban trees, biodiversity rich parks and urban gardens reduce summer heat, break up winter wind and storms, provide pollinators to increase urban food productivity and provides an environment that supports better mental and physical health.
However, nature based solutions do not always provide a win win. Action on climate and biodiversity has impacts on nature, climate and communities: ignoring any of these impacts can create unintended consequences that may be difficult to resolve given the lower resilience levels we are now facing in an unstable natural world.
What this means is that tipping points can be easily reached, with extreme consequences for people, biodiversity and climate. For example, tree planting with species that sequester carbon with no regard for species diversity or habitat stability can increase the likelihood of soil loss or flooding. Conversely the rapid spread of changed behaviours and social norms can lead to positive tipping points. Examples include urban gardens, community owned renewable energy generation and local community involvement in creating and implementing plans that build local biodiversity. Engaging more people, with wider skills sets and perspectives holds the potential to build towards transformative change anyway.
Transformative change also needs levers that have the power to alter future trajectories: these include alternative visions of what a good quality of life is, rethinking what we consume and what we waste, rebuilding our relationship with nature, reducing inequalities and access to the fundamentals of life in terms of a healthy environment and productive work.
The demand for transformation at scale and at speed has never been higher. Nature based solutions, where used well, can help put society on a pathway to positive vision of good quality of life for all in harmony with nature: a future we want and need.
This blog is originally from the Royal Scottish Geographical Society’s magazine ‘The Geographer‘.
This blog is part of the LINK Thinks CoP26 series. Click here to read the series of blogs by LINK staff, members, Honorary Fellows and invited guests who highlight the COP26 presidency programme with a nature-climate twist.
To mark the COP26 Presidency Theme ‘Youth and Public Empowerment’, two young people have highlighted Ramblers Scotland’s Out There Award. Research, commissioned by Ramblers Scotland in 2017, showed that after ‘Scottish weather’, young people cited their two biggest barriers to getting out walking as: lack of knowledge and awareness of where to go for a walk, and lack of people to go with. The Out There campaign was launched in 2018, with ‘breaking down barriers to walking’ as one of its three key objectives and the Out There Award as a key mechanism for delivering that aim.
The free Out There Award has been designed to help kick-start 18 to 26-year-old adults’ journeys into the outdoors, while helping them meet people, boost their CVs and build confidence along the way. The award is split over three non-consecutive days, each with a different focus: outdoor skills, a challenging walk and volunteering. Each day is designed to help break down the barriers that sadly stop many young adults from enjoying the outdoors, while helping them to form a new network of like-minded people. During the Covid-19 pandemic, it has been important for young adults to have the skills to enjoy Covid-secure walks and responsibly access the outdoors.[1]
Heather and Iqra tell us of their experiences with the Out There Award; from breaking down barriers that stop many young adults from enjoying the outdoors to recognising the importance of nature for our mental and physical wellbeing.
Heather
I had an amazing experience on The Out There Award. Previously I’d found it difficult to know where to start when getting outdoors, there was so much conflicting information I was overwhelmed on what to bring, where to go, how to plan a route on a walk. But the award provided fantastic guidance on this and more! As an empowered young walker, I’ve gained an increasing respect and admiration for nature and all it can offer. The programme highlighted the benefits of preserving the natural environment from cutting waste to responsible camping to allow future generations to enjoy all that Scotland has to offer!
Working with an environmental charity is a fantastic addition and emphasises the Out There Award’s value for young Scots who would benefit from being educated about walking. But this also benefits those walking with us young people who see us being respectful when engaging with nature. Being knowledgeable about Scotland’s access laws has given me the drive to make a difference and ensure walkers such as myself are as well informed as I have been.
As young people we can often lack the confidence needed to get walking so having 1 to 1 help with a patient instructor who celebrated all that Scotland had to offer was much more helpful than watching a video or reading a book on the subject. I believe that finding effective learning methods such as this hands-on programme is the best way to educate and empower youth and improve all of our actions in tackling climate change.
The award was out of my comfort zone but a comfortable environment to make mistakes and learn whilst doing so safely. We could ask questions and engage with an experienced walker something I wouldn’t have had access to if it wasn’t for the programme. As a student, having an award that was free also motivated me to join in. Many of my peers lack the funds to pay for walking/hiking courses that would cover the valuable information shared in the award and being able to walk and access the outdoors could have an excellent impact on their mental and physical health like it has mine. I think it would be a shame if people like me had to miss out on such a fantastic award and education on Scotland’s vital environmental issues.
Overall, the Out There Award has had an excellent impact on my life and the benefits extend well beyond myself, to environmental conservationists, climate change activists, the Scottish government and many more people. Providing a starting place for youth to get involved in the natural environment is all that is needed, from there we can get involved in the fight to prevent climate change in ways the award may have not have even recognised before.
Iqra
Climate change is something that seems far removed: in China’s smog cities, in The United States with its industrial complexes and Artic glaciers melting many miles away.
However, climate change is right here, right now.
Until we entered lockdown, I had never realised how close to home, to Glasgow, the climate issue was. Picking up hiking and walking in rural outdoor areas helped me to realise the spaces we seek to protect are on our doorsteps.
I began hiking through the Out There Award with the Ramblers, which reduced my key anxieties for hiking like figuring out equipment, where to hike, and safety issues. It also became a reason why I began reflecting on how proximity to effects of climate change lead to people caring.
The Out There Award provided a year worth of free membership with the Ramblers, and from more hikes with the organisation I began to see how we should preserve these spaces that are a safe haven for both animals and our own mental health.
Deforestation in Scotland means only around 1% of our native pinewoods remain. Fossil Fuels in the U.K. are overused due to a lack of insulation. There are over 12 endangered species in Scotland alone. All of these issues are a stone’s throw away, and I can only express shame at not realising this until I got outdoors myself to realise how pertinent these concerns are.
This reflection became further research- people’s psychological closeness to climate change correlates with greater concern and greater preparedness to reduce energy consumption. For me and many young people, psychological closeness can come through social media, as although we are not physically near, young people are more intertwined due to a constant bombardment of climate effects.
Empowering and mobilising these Young People, who care but don’t know what to do, is an important purpose of education in Climate Action. We know the problems, however we need the options and information to find more solutions. For me, this came through the Out There Award.
Later, I am hoping to do the Out There Award Plus with Ramblers too, which will entail learning about responsible camping and working with an environmental charity to help protect Scotland’s natural environment and ecology. I truly believe outdoor education can improve people’s motivation towards climate action, as it helped myself realise Climate Change is closely attached to each of us.
As I said, climate change is right here, right now. What will you do next?
This blog is part of the LINK Thinks CoP26 series. Click here to read the series of blogs by LINK staff, members, Honorary Fellows and invited guests who highlight the COP26 presidency programme with a nature-climate twist.
The nature crisis and the climate crisis are deeply interlinked. Efforts to tackle climate change and biodiversity loss must be approached jointly for the best results.
In 2019 people of all ages came together across Scotland to demand action on the climate crisis and within just five days the Scottish Government increased its 2030 emissions reduction targets to 75%. We cannot afford to lose that momentum for nature as well. One crises cannot be solved without the other.
The UN biodiversity conference in Kunming, or Cop15, should not be overshadowed, as biodiversity loss is an equally grave threat to humanity. When all eyes are on the climate crisis, we must not forget nature’s vital role in climate mitigation, resilience and adaptation. As healthy ecosystems, including forests, wetlands, seas and grasslands, have served as enormous carbon sinks and helped mitigate climate change, a better way is to coordinate the two CoP processes for a synergised solution.
This series of blogs by LINK staff, members, Honorary Fellows and invited guests highlight the COP26 presidency programme with a nature-climate twist.
This blog kicks off a series by LINK staff, members, Honorary Fellows and invited guests who will bring a nature-climate twist to the COP26 presidency programme. Click here to find out more.
2021 and 2022 are the big years for action to save nature and the climate. Both the climate CoP26 in Glasgow in November 2021 and the nature CoP15 in Kunming in May 2022 will be crucial in setting the necessary level of ambition.
We are living in a climate and nature emergency. These are so closely intertwined that you cannot solve one without solving the other. It would be pointless to try. Finding solutions to both will be key to our future. It means both CoPs need to bring about a paradigm shift to ecological transitions, now non-negotiable for any future on earth.
The drivers of both emergencies need addressing. One of these is the drive towards GDP. Measuring the world’s success through GDP isn’t working. It values all the wrong things: a natural disaster has a massive negative impact on our ecological capital but generates financial capital through clean up schemes. The ecological loss goes unrecorded, and the financial boost is mistakenly valued. We need to move into measuring what matters: social and planetary wellbeing. If either our social or ecological capital is going down, we are not being successful.
A key part of that is a just transition to new ways of working within Earth’s planetary limits. Young people are, quite rightly, demanding change. They can very clearly see the mess they are inheriting and are angry. They are angry not just about the mess, but about the delays and inaction of governments across the world as they watch their future and their children’s future not matching up the future that past and current generations have been lucky enough to inherit.
Both CoPs mark a point in the road. What do we hope comes out of them? 2021 is the start of the Decade for Ecosystem Restoration. This decade must be a success: without ecosystem restoration we will fail to bequeath a planet worth living on. Success means this next decade will be one of hard work. It will need to be based on much longer term thinking and planning; a governmental term is not enough, ten years is not enough. But ten years is enough to see whether the Climate Action Plan and the new Scottish Biodiversity Strategy will make the scale of changes needed to achieve our 2045 climate net zero targets and the 2050 nature restoration goals. It will need to be a decade of new funding: the scale of action required both in terms of the amount of work to do and the geographical scale it needs to cover are so vast that current sources of funding are simply inadequate. In Scotland, the £500 million nature restoration funding from government is welcome and half of what we need to see – and then that needs to be matched by another £1 billion from philanthropy, £1 billion from business, all matched by resources in kind from society through volunteering and individual actions at home.
This new decade will need to be a decade of enlightenment as we move entire countries towards measuring what matters. Scotland’s National Performance Framework is a good start towards measuring and valuing wellbeing, but we need to move further from GDP as a measure of success. We need to encourage and inspire and learn from others: everyone can contribute, and everyone has a role. It needs to be a decade of empowerment and responsibility: we need to be able to listen and everyone needs to be empowered to play their part. Citizen Assemblies in Scotland have come up with effective and innovative solutions: we need to build on their suggestions and run more of them. It will be a decade of innovation and new thinking, of new priorities and creative solutions. And it will be a decade of excitement and purpose as we learn and make progress. It will need to be a decade underpinned by altruism and empathy when we all work together. That’s a huge ask in today’s increasingly fragmented, disrupted and angry world but we all share a single planet. Cooperation and mutual support are the best survival tools we have.
If the next decade is all those things, it will also be a decade of burgeoning nature, healthy and accessible food, clean air and clean water. We’ll see forests spread across the landscape, and oceans teem with life. And we’ll see a generation with new hope for the future.
COP15: the two-part UN biodiversity summit will kick off today until the 15th October and will finish next May in the city of Kunming with the completion and adoption of the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, a crucial stepping stone towards the 2050 vision of “living in harmony with nature”. Over the course of the next five days, MSP Nature Champions will be providing real-life examples of crucial species and habitats that maintain ecosystem function whilst raising awareness of the inextricable link between the nature and climate crises.
The Nature Champions Back Biodiversity initiative shines a spotlight on a variety of plants, marine wildlife, pollinators, animals, peatlands and native woodlands that are vital in maintaining ecosystem function. This initiative also highlights the importance of nature in tackling the climate crisis on the run up to the UNFCCC COP26; from the role of whales in the carbon cycle, the importance of grasses for carbon sequestration, to the under-appreciated potential of seagrass meadows as carbon sinks. People depend on nature, from oceans to forests, to supply clean air and water, and to regulate rainfall that is vital for food supplies. If too many species vanish, and ecosystems start to fail, our natural life support services will falter.
Why is COP15 important?
The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) originally signed at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 and later ratified by about 195 countries, is designed to protect diversity of plant and animal species and ensure natural resources are used sustainably. COP15 aims to set both long-term goals for mid-century and shorter-term targets for 2030 and, crucially, push for those to be enshrined and delivered through national policies. At the CBD 2010 talks in Nagoya, Japan, 194 countries (or Parties) signed up to a series of 20 targets, called the Aichi targets, to be met by 2020. Fast forward a decade to 2020, and the 5th Global Biodiversity Outlook report revealed that these targets were spectacularly missed across the world. The UK failed in their contribution towards the targets, and Scotland did too, in failing to meet 11 targets.
A new international deal for nature must be matched by domestic ambition to put nature on a path to recovery and deliver commitments made under the CBD. Scotland is home to some incredible and iconic wildlife. However, 49% of species in Scotland have declined and one in nine is threatened with extinction. The recent Biodiversity Intactness Index has shown that Scotland is listed in the worst twelve percent of 240 countries and territories around the world for the amount of wildlife and wild places lost due to human activity. The UN has designated 2021-2030 as the Decade on Ecosystem Restoration in recognition of the scale of action required to tackle the biodiversity crisis. The UN has designated 2021-2030 as the Decade on Ecosystem Restoration in recognition of the scale of action required to tackle the biodiversity crisis. Nature is in trouble now, and we need to act now.
The recent commitment in the Programme for Government to a Natural Environment Bill that would include targets to halt the decline of nature in Scotland by 2030 and drive substantial improvements in nature by 2045 is very welcome. However, we need to see real and substantive action towards the CoP15 targets before it is planned to be brought forward until 2023, year three, of the Parliament. Experts in IPBES urge that with less than nine years to enact transformative change before the 2030 deadline – nations and multilateral bodies must begin to act decisively today to create a liveable future for people and nature.
For more than 30 years, the international community has tried and failed to find a path to slow down — and eventually reverse — worldwide declines in the richness of plant, animal, insect and fungi species. These efforts to protect the natural world have yet to achieve the same high profile as those to limit climate change. We have already seen what can be achieved when we speak up for nature. In 2019 people of all ages came together across Scotland to demand action on the climate crisis and within just five days the Scottish Government increased its 2030 emissions reduction targets to 75%. We need to build the same level of momentum for nature itself.
The Nature Champions initiative has been developed by Scottish Environment LINK to encourage Members of the Scottish Parliament to champion endangered or iconic species and habitats, raising awareness and promoting action to restore and safeguard Scotland’s environment. With 1 in 9 species at risk of national extinction, political support for restoring and protecting our natural environment has never been more critical. At the start of this Decade for Ecosystem Restoration, now is the time for Nature’s voice in the Scottish Parliament to be strong, loud and well informed.
By Deborah Long, chief officer, Scottish Environment LINK
In less than one month’s time, Scotland will be host to the United Nations’ Cop26 climate change conference.
Dubbed as the most important climate summit ever, there’s much expectation to get it right and to set our ailing planet on track to recovery. And, with it, Scotland has much to prove. Now more than ever, it must lead by example and turn commitments into action.
Recent major UN reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) have spelled out the need for immediate action to limit global temperature rises to 1.5 degrees Celsius and to restore biodiversity.
The stark warnings come at a time when biodiversity in Scotland and worldwide is declining faster than at any time in human history. In Scotland alone, almost half of our species (49 per cent) have reduced in numbers in the last 50 years, and one in nine is at risk of extinction.
Since 2018, through the campaign, Fight for Scotland’s Nature, Scottish Environment LINK has called for legally binding targets for the recovery of biodiversity, similar to those in place to tackle climate change.
We welcome the Scottish government’s recent commitment to nature-restoration targets, through a Natural Environment Bill to be introduced in 2023-24. The proposal to designate ten per cent of our seas as highly protected is also promising. However, given the grave threats facing our natural world, for measures to be meaningful, Scotland must act now.
We need to see urgent, determined and demonstrable steps that will help halt nature’s decline by 2030 and put it on a path to recovery. Work to protect our natural environment for generations to come, reversing ecological decline and delivering nature-based solutions central to our climate change obligations can no longer be seen in isolation of one another, and a real time effort to tackle these challenges is now an immediate priority.
The Scottish government’s commitments, while welcome, need to be fully resourced if they are to have a fighting chance of success. We need adequate multi-annual funding at scale and for government to take a coherent, whole-society approach by working across communities and sectors.
And while the commitment to £500 million for nature restoration is promising, this is roughly half of what will be required from government to meet the scale of the task ahead.
If this is matched by £1 billion from philanthropic sources and green financing, and if our agricultural support system delivers for people, nature and climate, Scotland has a chance to begin to see the level of action needed to make the transformative change required, not only for nature but also the health of the nation.
The Scottish government’s commitment to a Good Food Nation Bill is also welcome. This offers the opportunity for Scotland to become a leader on nature and climate-friendly food production, increasing access for all to high quality, sustainable and healthy food – but it must deliver measurable progress.
Equally, initiatives such as the bottle-deposit scheme and a ban on non-essential, single-use plastics, heavily delayed by the pandemic and already in place in many countries, must go ahead.
There’s no time to wait. Let’s make the year 2021 count.
The Scottish Government is consulting on the future of farming policy in Scotland. They need to hear a strong message that farming practices should not harm nature or contribute to climate change, and that agriculture policy must support farmers to adopt the right practices.
Of course, it will be important to hear from farmers during this consultation. However, the viewpoints of others matter here, too. It is important that the Scottish Government hears a breadth of views including from consumers, taxpayers and concerned citizens, and from all those who want farmers and our government to take urgent action for nature and our climate.
Agriculture takes place on 75% of Scotland’s land area, producing meat, cereals, fruits and vegetables. The types of farming and the methods used have significant impacts on nature and our climate. Whilst some kinds of farming and crofting are positive for nature and low carbon, a lot of the farming we see today is contributing to the loss of wildlife and to significant emissions of greenhouse gases. This needs to change.
Farming policy has a big influence on the decisions farmers and crofters make about how they produce food and manage their land. The policies of the Scottish Government send important signals – through setting regulations and providing financial incentives and advice – about how to farm and use land. The Scottish Government plans to reform farming policy and there is now an opportunity to make sure new policy encourages all of Scotland’s farmers and crofters to farm in nature positive and low carbon ways. Your voice can make a difference.
For many years, as a result of being a member of the EU, farming policy in Scotland was determined by the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Through the CAP, farmers and crofters were able to claim payments through a range of different schemes to a total value of approximately £650 million each year. Much of this money is handed out as direct payments, based on the area of land farmed and the type of land. Larger, more productive farms on better quality land receive the lion’s share of money. Little of the money is used to pay for land management and activities that help wildlife or encourage farmers to take climate action. For example, only about 7% of the budget is allocated to the Agri-Environment-Climate Scheme which supports nature and climate friendly farming.
The UK has left the EU and Scotland now has a chance to do things differently. The Scottish Government has signalled it intends to transition to a new policy by 2025. This consultation is a first step to gather views on what kind of farm support and funding might be needed. It will set the stage for further consultation next year and a new Agriculture Bill in 2023. Now is the time to make it clear that we need to support farming that works for nature and the climate, as well as people.
If you can spare a little time to submit a response to the consultation have a look here for guidance and help on how to do that. The closing date for responses is 17th November so please do this as soon as you can. Let’s make sure our views are heard.
We have a problem with stuff, writes LINK’s sustainable economics officer Phoebe Cochrane. Recently published data shows that people in Scotland consume about 18 tonnes per person per year, while a sustainable amount is estimated to be about 8 tonnes.
People inherently hate waste, and instinctively know our ‘throw away’ culture can’t be good for the planet. What is less well known perhaps, is the key role our use and waste of materials has in the climate and nature crises. We often hear that Scotland is doing well in addressing climate change and, indeed, we are doing OK in reducing the emissions that occur in Scotland.
However, the energy that goes into making products we use emits a huge amount of carbon: 80% of our carbon footprint, much of it overseas. It is also estimated that 90% of biodiversity loss is caused by the extraction and processing of materials. So, our instinct is right and things need to change, pretty radically.
Despite excellent initiatives like refill aisles and repair cafes, cutting our waste can be difficult. Your phone stops working and there’s no information available to help you fix it, so you buy a new one. Your delivery comes in packaging that you can’t reuse or recycle. You put out your recycling, but with a niggling suspicion that a lot of it won’t ever be turned into something new. We need systemic change and everyone needs to be involved.
Critically we need action from governments to create a more ‘circular’ economy in which products are designed to last, waste and pollution are minimised, and everything is used again and again.
The Scottish government was an early proponent of a circular economy, being the first in the UK to ban plastic stemmed cotton buds and commit to a deposit return system for bottles and cans. Much has been accomplished, but there’s so much more to do.
Very encouragingly, the newly formed Holyrood administration has appointed a new minister for green skills, circular economy and biodiversity. It has promised to introduce a Circular Economy Bill within this parliament, and given the urgency of the challenges we face, this should be brought in as soon as possible. But there are a number of other important measures the Scottish government should move forward with in the meantime.
For example, it should require public authorities, which are major consumers, to use their purchasing power to choose environmentally friendly goods, services and works. This would make an important contribution to sustainable consumption and production, through repairing existing products, purchasing second-hand, requiring recycled content in goods, and renting rather than purchasing.
The deposit return scheme for drinks containers, due to be implemented in July 2022, should be the pre-cursor to deposit schemes for other products such as reusable coffee cups.
We have fantastic repair and re-use enterprises, some of which can’t cope with the demand for their services. The government should establish bigger re-use hubs in our cities which combine training with repairing and selling of second-hand items.
When the promised Circular Economy Bill is introduced, to ensure it drives real change it should include headline targets on reducing Scotland’s overall use of raw materials. Tracking progress on these would show us whether we are heading in the right direction. The Netherlands has such a target and the European Parliament has recommended the European Commission develops one. The bill should also include a duty to produce plans mapping out how to reduce our footprint.
A more circular economy must be at the heart of a green recovery. By hardwiring wiser and less wasteful use of ‘stuff’ into the system, we can design an economy that works better for the planet and for people.
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