This month saw this parliamentary session’s first debate on the nature and climate emergency, centered on a motion put forward by Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero, Energy and Transport Michael Matheson. After an election campaign in which nature and climate featured prominently – through discourse around the climate and nature emergencies, but not least through the need for a green recovery from the pandemic – the debate was a key opportunity for the government and the opposition to lay out their plans on climate action and nature restoration for the next five years. The debate showed a very welcomed understanding from all parties of a need for urgent action. However, it unfortunately also continued a trend in which the nature crisis is put second to the climate emergency.
The Cabinet Secretary opened the debate by highlighting the way in which ‘Scotland has taken a world-leading, distinctive and ambitious approach to tackling the twin crisis of climate change and ecological decline by putting in place legislation, targets and governance for reducing emissions, building our climate resilience and protecting our environment.’ It was encouraging to see wide ranging support to bring a revised Climate Change Plan forward early in this session, support which hopeful reflects an understanding of the severity of the challenges ahead.
However, debating MSPs gave significantly less attention to the nature emergency. The climate crisis is intrinsically linked to solving the nature emergency, meaning neither of the twin crisis can be solved by reducing greenhouse gas emissions alone. Just as ‘we are already seeing the impact of the global climate crisis’ in Scotland, as Mr. Matheson drew attention to in his opening remarks, we are also seeing the impacts of the biodiversity crisis. The State of Nature Scotland 2019 report finds that one out of nine species in Scotland are at the risk of distinction. The importance of restoring nature to our efforts to tackle climate change was drawn attention to by Alex Cole-Hamilton of the Liberal Democrats. In doing so, he supported the earlier statement on the importance of peatland by the Cabinet Secretary, SNP’s Emma Harper and Green’s Lorna Slater. These crucial contributions to the debate suggest there is no lack of knowledge in the parliament on the need to restore our nature. Now we need to see the equal importance of the nature crisis be reflected across the work of our MSPs in the next five years. A crucial next step in the fight to restore nature is adopting Nature Targets. Nature Targets would ensure that efforts to tackle the nature crisis, just like the climate crisis, is steered by world leading legislation.
More promising was the overall focus of MSPs across the political spectrum on the need for action. Conservatives’ Liam Kerr stated that ‘it is way beyond time that we focus on delivery.’ Stressing that delivery must also relate to the nature recovery, Mr. Kerr drew attention to Scotland’s failure to reach the Aichi biodiversity targets. The 5th Global Biodiversity Outlook report revealed that these targets, which 194 countries signed up to in 2010, have been spectacularly missed across the world. As such, Mr. Kerr’s statement is a welcome reminder of the scale of the action needed in the years ahead. Additionally, Labour’s Monica Lennon stressed the need for urgent action to bring forward a Circular Economy Bill and Green’s Lorna Slater urged for action on the 166 cross-party recommendations on alterations to the Climate Change Plan agreed in the last session, showcasing the breath of action needed to tackle the twin crisis. Together, the focus on action provided the hopeful prospect of a parliamentary session in which we see more action and less unmet promises.
Concluding the debate, the Minister for Environment, Biodiversity and Land reform Mairi McAllan provided a stark reminder of why urgent action is needed. Saying that ‘it is not only for Scotland’s future generations that we need to act; we need also to demonstrate leadership throughout the world’, Ms. McAllan showed an understanding of how what we do in the next five years will not only affect those of us who were able to vote in this latest election, but also young people and people across the globe. Now, we need our newly elected MSPs to act on the promise of action. Future generations cannot wait. Neither can nature.
This blog is from LINK’s Advocacy Officer Anne Funnemark.
Land use and land ownership is a live issue in Scotland. Debate around who owns Scotland and what they do with that land has never gone away. How land is managed is coming into sharper focus now in the face of climate and nature emergencies. Land management is fundamental to how Scotland can meet our climate targets plus reduce the ongoing loss of biodiversity and improve the wellbeing of Scotland’s people.
Who benefits from land use is also key. We all benefit from land use; those who work the land, who live on it and in communities supported by it, those who visit and those who depend on the services it provides, like clean water, healthy food, flood control, health and wellbeing through contact with nature.
Taken together, this all points in a direction of a much wider set of goals for the farming sector than those relating purely to food production and carries a clear implication that a much wider range of interests and voices should be involved in shaping its future.
There is distinct acknowledgement at the highest levels of Government that the climate and environment emergencies require a radical change in approach to the way we manage and use our land, to address the challenges we face: The challenges facing biodiversity are as important as the challenge of climate change, and I want Scotland to be leading the way in our response. Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s First Minister, July 2019.
In early 2019, the Scottish Parliament debated future rural policy in light of the UK voting to leave the EU. As a result, the Farming and Food Production – Future Policy Group (FFP-FPG) was established by the then Cabinet Secretary for Rural Economy, to develop and make recommendations for policy from 2024 onwards. This group, launched in June 2019, has so far not been able to publish its findings.
While the Future Policy Group has been unable to publish their report to date (June 2021), farmer led groups have also been tasked with identifying ways forwards for each farming sector in response to climate change. They have all published reports.
The gap that remains is the original remit of the Future Policy Group to map out the current context and the future direction of policy travel needed. Without this strategic overview, the sector led plans will need to come together to identify and fill gaps and eliminate overlaps. Farms in Scotland need clear pathways towards farm profitability in a net zero and nature positive future.
To this end there are a number of principles that would guide the direction of travel for Scotland, would cover cross sectoral concerns and would provide the context for sector led actions. These include the following:
1: Ambitious, coherent, clear and measurable objectives: able to contribute to meeting Scotland’s net zero obligations and biodiversity targets, meet local food needs and reflect the need to sustain and enhance natural resources and the services our land provides.
2: Payments and interventions: must deliver clear outcomes that meet policy objectives for society, economy and the environment.
3: Effective ambition: food, farming and other Scottish Government policy goals must be aligned. These include meeting local food needs and increasing the availability and accessibility of healthy sustainable food.
4: Investment in research, knowledge transfer and innovation: to support and facilitate the rapid transition to a sustainable rural economy, with pilot projects and demonstrations and a fit for purpose advisory service enabling all to benefit.
5: Protection, restoration and investment in biodiversity and natural capital: to ensure future generations have access to fully functioning ecosystems and services, including healthy soil, clean water and air, species diversity from genes to pollinators. Agroecological principles are key.
6: Fair and proportionate policy creation: the costs of implementation and regulation must be shared fairly and proportionate to environmental, societal and economic benefits
7: Wide collaboration and buy in: must be central to future land use decisions. National ambitions, priorities and targets should match with local realities, knowledge and aspirations
8: Just Transition principles must be central: transformation has far-reaching implications for people across Scotland.
With CoP15 in October and CoP26 in November and the need to act within this Decade of Ecosystem Restoration to achieve change, Scotland must act now. We need to be ambitious, given the opportunity we have to learn lessons and step outside the constraints of the Common Agricultural Policy. We need to offer a clear direction of travel. Farmers, land managers and food producers need to know where Scotland’s future rural policy is heading in order to prepare for the future and target their investment and activity effectively and efficiently.
Scottish Environment LINK first launched its Species Champions initiative in 2013. Since then, it has far outstripped the success we thought it might have had and not just in Scotland. It has inspired similar programmes in Wales, Northern Ireland and England. Conceived in the wildlife garden at Balallan House in Stirling, the idea was enthusiastically taken up by LINK members and Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) from all Parties and has resulted in some strong relations between eNGOS and MSPs, between MSPs and their constituents and MSPs and some iconic species. Some of the evidence is in the images of Liam MacArthur, MSP, towering over the Scottish primrose, Stewart Stevenson, MSP, crouched next to a spiny lobster or Andy Wightman, MSP, grinning over an unfeasibly large golden eagle chick.
The first films we made when we invited MSPs to tell us why they had chosen their species, included poetry about sparrows, laughter over tongue twister species names, reminiscences about wildlife sightings with children and even childhood memories of marching for whales. You can see one example, from 2013, here. This has forged a strong relationship between MSPs and nature in Scotland.
This relationship has been to everyone’s benefit. Nature has benefited – not just through the frequent references to particular species in the Chamber but through MSP constituency engagement in schools and green spaces. MSPs have learnt more about the amazing species we live amongst: the natterer bat’s booming voice, the brown hare’s land speed records are just two examples. Each nugget of information revealed to the adopting MSP how amazing the nature in Scotland is and gave them a personal reason for engaging regularly with it in policy matters.
Our new short film celebrates some of what has happened amongst species and MSP Champions over the last Parliament. You will certainly spot faces you recognise, human, feathered, petalled, leaved and furry. Watch it here.
I don’t want to bamboozle you with numbers but here are just a few:
111 MSPs have championed a species, from Shetland to Galloway, Outer Hebrides to East Lothian. And from all political parties.
We’ve had champions for mammals, insects, birds, trees and plants, jellyfish and whales, slow worms and newts, lobsters and sea fans. And a host more.
Species Champions have lodged Parliamentary motions, declared their interest as a species champions in debates, with some amusing asides, asked parliamentary questions, held field and site visits and created videos, and of course seen press coverage in local and national papers, BBC and lots of social media action, including facebook films, tweets and instagram imagery.
100 day challenge in 2018 to celebrate reaching 100 Species Champions: had species champions all doing something for nature in those 100 days, resulting in 180,000 social media engagements
In 2021, 2,044 people from right across Scotland signed up to call on their candidates to sign our Pledge for Nature. And 68 candidates did so. It is still running and we hope you’ll be able to support it if you haven’t already. Details are here.
And now, 7 years on, we are relaunching the initiative, this time as Nature Champions. With >80% of MSPs engaged in the last Parliament, we ‘re looking to top the level of engagement this time round and are giving even more choice of species and habitat for MSPs to visit, learn about, engage personally with and champion in Parliament. We have charismatic species, diminutive species with amazing stories to tell, common but declining species and vitally important habitats that all need championing so we can make sure today’s generations and future generations can share in our wonder.
This is now even more important than ever. It would have been fantastic to have been able to say, that 7 years after we first launched it, species and habitats are in a better state now than they were then. This isn’t the case. The State of Nature Scotland reports in 2016 and 2019 show continuing decline. Scotland, and the other UK countries, is near the bottom of the international Biodiversity Intactness Index, which measures the resilience of our nature through assessing how much nature is left from a pristine state. Nature needs our help more than ever – ironically at a time when we’ve leaned on nature more than ever and the joy and comfort it has provided over the last 15 months.
I hope you are inspired to take part in our new initiative. More information is here.
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. This initiative is all about making that happen. As an individual, ask your MSP to become a Nature Champion and make your voice heard by adding it to our campaign here: tell us why and how nature matters to you.
Last week, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon of the SNP and Scottish Green Party co-leaders Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater announced that their respective parties would hold ‘formal talks’ on a potential cooperation agreement. The SNP-Green Party talks represent an exciting opportunity for the new government to prioritise nature’s recovery by adopting statutory Nature Recovery Targets – but it won’t happen without your help.
The SNP manifesto makes a welcome commitment to introduce a new Biodiversity Strategy for Scotland by autumn 2022. However, the ultimate success of that strategy will depend heavily on whether the government adopts legally binding Nature Recovery Targets – commonly referred to as statutory targets. While the SNP manifesto makes no public commitment to statutory targets, the Scottish Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green manifestos back legally binding targets. With cross-party support already evident in parliament, this is the ideal opportunity for the new government to demonstrate real commitment to delivering for Scotland’s nature by agreeing to statutory targets. By writing to your SNP and Green MSPs, asking that they recognise the emerging consensus and commit to statutory Nature Recovery Targets in their negotiations, we can revive nature in Scotland and make an important contribution to global restoration.
You can find the name, party affiliation and email address for your constituency and list MSPs by entering your postcode into the Scottish Parliament ‘Find MSP by postcode’ search tool. Almost everyone is represented by a Green or SNP MSP in their constituency or on the regional list. Once you’ve identified your Green and SNP MSPs, download our template email below, allowing you to contact each MSP individually and speak up for nature in a matter of minutes.
We are living through a mass extinction. Since 1970, our world has seen a drop of almost 70 per cent in the average population of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fish, and over a quarter of assessed species are now threatened by extinction. While developing countries in sub-Sahara Africa and South Asia repeatedly suffer first and worst, wealth isn’t a shield. Scotland is a wealthy nation, yet half of all our species are in decline, with 1 in 9 at risk of extinction, and two-thirds of our peatlands – vital natural infrastructure in the battle against climate change – are degraded. Time is running out, by setting ambitious, legally binding nature recovery targets, the new Scottish Government can revive nature in Scotland and make an important contribution to global restoration.
A natural starting point
When we want to achieve something, setting a target is a natural starting point, whether in our personal lives, in business or in government. Targets allow us to monitor our rate of improvement against a clear objective, meaning we can adjust our approach accordingly to stay on goal. When we’re open and honest about our plans with others, it helps us feel accountable and motivates us to keep on track. To achieve that sense of accountability with government, Nature Recovery Targets must be statutory, with regular progress reports. It means citizens can hold the government to account on overall progress and hold industry to account on sectoral-specific targets.
The Scottish Government already measures progress against agreed targets on issues as diverse as child poverty, social housing, and climate change. If we want to restore nature in Scotland, adopting legally binding Nature Recovery Targets is a logical first step. Effective targets would measure species abundance, distribution and extinction risk; the quality, extent and connectivity of habitats, and contributions towards our collective goal, with sectoral-specific targets.
Scotland cannot be left behind
This year, at the beginning of the UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration, the UK Government and the EU Commission are on course to set legally binding Nature Recovery Targets for England and the European Union, respectively. Scotland cannot be left behind. We need our own statutory Nature Recovery Targets, committing our government to revive Scotland’s species and habitats, with communities, businesses, local authorities, and government agencies all playing their part.
By inviting the Scottish Green Party to participate in formal talks, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has shown that her new government is open to a more consensus-based politics. With three out of five parties in the Scottish Parliament already supporting statutory Nature Recovery Targets, there is a clear opportunity for the Scottish Government to embrace genuine cross-party consensus while keeping pace with the rest of the UK and the EU. Statutory Nature Recovery Targets is an idea whose time has come.
Pupils from Hillhead Primary School in Glasgow support the call to put nature at the heart of Scotland’s recovery
MORE than 35 organisations, including primary school children, have joined forces to call on the First Minister to put nature at the heart of Scotland’s post-Covid-19 recovery.
Together, they want the newly elected government to take urgent action to halt the rapid decline in Scottish wildlife and plants and to see legally binding targets by 2022 to help set Scotland’s nature on track to recovery by 2030.
The call comes ahead of COP26 in Glasgow this year and at a time when Scotland’s nature is facing grave challenges, with biodiversity here and worldwide declining faster than at any time in human history. In Scotland alone, almost half of our species (49%) have declined in numbers in the last 50 years, and one in nine is at risk of extinction. The latest findings also show that Scotland has missed 11 out of 20 of its agreed United Nations targets to sufficiently protect plants and animals.
Scottish Environment LINK, through the campaign Fight for Scotland’s Nature, successfully campaigned for new Scottish laws to replace the EU’s world-renowned environmental protections after Brexit, and says more should be done to protect Scotland’s people and nature. This week, after months of lobbying from environmental charities, the UK government also committed to amending the Environment Bill to require an additional legally-binding target for species for 2030, aiming to halt the decline of nature in England.
Deborah Long, chief officer of Scottish Environment LINK said:
“Nature is in crisis and climate change, pollution and over consumption are wreaking havoc on our planet, and spell out huge repercussions for the future.
“I welcome the UK government’s decision to amend the Environment Bill to include a legally-binding target to help halt the decline of nature. However, this target will apply to England only. The time has come for the Scottish government to commit to legally-binding targets by 2022 to help set Scotland’s nature on a path to recovery by 2030.”
Andrew Robson,headmaster at Hillhead Primary Schoolsaid:
“We strive to ensure our young people are aware of the importance of looking after the environment and actively involve them in making our school more environmentally friendly.
“Sadly, despite not being responsible for causing climate change and the environmental degradation we’re seeing, they will be the ones who will bear the brunt of it. I’m very pleased to see them involved in this important initiative to help reverse the serious environmental issues we’re facing and have their voices heard.”
Deborah Longsaid:
“The pandemic has been tough for us all and I’m not alone in saying that never before have we noticed and appreciated our natural environment as much as we have during lockdown. Now is the time to give back to nature and ensure a sustainable post-Covid-19 recovery for Scotland. This is our chance to seize the opportunity to build a better, more prosperous Scotland that works in harmony with our natural world.
“I urge the Scottish government to put in place the important steps desperately needed to prioritise the wellbeing of people and our nature, to help ensure a healthy future for us all.”
It’s been said often enough, but many of us have never before appreciated or even noticed our natural environment as much as we have since the pandemic. Like a long lost friend, nature has helped to soften the blow of a tough few months peppered with restrictions after restrictions.
For me highlights have been scuffing leaves along my regular woodland path in autumn, watching the early bumblebees investigate flowering hellebores in my garden in January and now the sparrows squabbling over dropped seed. There are many ways in which for me nature has brought me peace and the wider realisation that we are all part of something much bigger.
For pretty much the first time ever, life at home has meant I watched the imperceptible changes of the seasons, with insects and birds using different spaces in my garden and the village to eat, sleep and play. Seeing all this life close up reminded me every day to keep the bird feeders stocked, to break the ice on the tiny pond and to ensure we have a sequence of flowering plants on show and in use by the bees and butterflies.
Small but important steps to giving back to nature, which is providing me with mutual pleasure. And I know, I am far from alone in this.
The irony is that despite us benefitting immensely from nature and being wholly dependent on it for our survival, our actions tell another story and render our relationship very one sided. Our industries and the consumer choices we make are wreaking havoc on nature and the climate as we continue to take what we want, without much thought or recompense. This is tipping our planet’s balance with increasing signs of perils that spell out huge repercussions for nature and our own wellbeing.
Since 1970, in Scotland alone, almost half (49%) of species have decreased in numbers and one in nine species, including plants, animals, fish and insects are at risk of extinction.
Unless we wake up to the gravity of what we are doing and take concrete steps to halt the loss of nature, this will only get worse. Our lack of care and recognition means that adults today are in grave danger of seriously harming our precious planet to the point of no return and paring it back to a much-diminished version for future generations.
Things are changing though, and people across the globe are pushing decision makers to put in place the steps that will put our natural world on the path to recovery. As we head to the poll, a survey conducted by the National Trust for Scotland shows that almost three quarters of people in Scotland (74%) would support the Scottish government introducing legally binding targets to halt and reverse the rapid decline in nature.
At this critical stage in our planet’s history, whoever gets to lead Scotland from 6 May must put the health and wellbeing of its people and with it the health and wellbeing of our natural world at the heart of all decision making. They must continue to pursue and uphold high environmental standards, supported by long-term funding for Scotland’s environment agencies, and take steps to ensure everyone has access to nature-rich greenspace.
They must also recognise the immediate and long-term danger our natural environment is facing and ensure that Scotland is proactive in reversing biodiversity declines, setting legally binding targets by 2022 to make sure that by 2030 Scotland’s nature is on track to recovery. Having pushed our natural world to its limits means that measures to safeguard and rebuild the health of our environment can no longer be kicked into the long grass.
Scotland’s government will need to put words into action and show clear leadership in the fight for Scotland’s nature, and our planet.
The month of May shows us nature’s lust for life. Nature can recover if we help it, says Fight for Scotland’s Nature campaign coordinator Miriam Ross.
The month of May, I contend, is one of Scotland’s best. Even when spring has been slow to show itself, suddenly in May it puts on a performance, full of bees and blossom and bright green leaves. Nature’s drive for renewal is evident all around us.
Added to that, May is Scotland’s sunniest month, and when the sun shines in May I can fool myself that it’s going to stay with us right through to September.
This May, as coronavirus restrictions are eased, the sense of possibility is even sharper than usual. We could take a boat trip on the Firth of Forth to see the puffins! We could go and visit friends 40 miles away!
This May, of course, there’s also the election. The result is going to please some and not others. But no matter where your political allegiance lies, the fact remains that a large cohort of keen new people will be joining the familiar faces at Holyrood this year. Each one of them will have the opportunity to push for action on the issues they care about.
Not least among the issues that should concern MSPs, new and returning, is the state of Scotland’s nature. A staggering 49 percent of species in Scotland have decreased in number since 1970, and one in nine species is at risk of extinction.
It’s far from certain whether future generations will be able to see puffins in the Firth of Forth in May.
But decline is not inevitable. As the month of May so amply demonstrates, nature has quite a lust for life. Just as people can recover, so can nature.
At Forsinard Flows in Caithness, globally important peatlands are being carefully restored, leading to the return of bog plants and wildlife.
At the Mar Lodge Estate in the Cairngorms, regeneration of ancient pinewood forests has allowed juniper, dwarf birch and willows to recover, and rare hen harriers to return.
In 2020, just four years after the seas around the south coast of Arran were protected from scallop dredging, divers discovered a large bed of flame shells – a beautiful shellfish that had almost disappeared from the Clyde region.
Lamlash Bay, Arran
Each small story of nature’s triumph shows us what is possible. To reverse the downward trend, to multiply these small successes and help Scotland’s nature recover on a big scale, we need action across society, driven by government.
This kind of drive is already underway for the climate. Scotland’s ambitious climate targets are vital in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and moving us towards the goal of ‘net zero’ emissions by 2045.
Now it’s time to do for nature what we’re doing for the climate. Three of Scotland’s five main parties – Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Greens – have already committed in their manifestoes to support legally binding targets for the recovery of Scotland’s nature.
As with climate change, we need to act fast. The new Scottish government must set legally binding targets by 2022 to make sure that by 2030 we stop the loss of Scotland’s nature and put it on track to recovery.
For the sake of all the months of May still to live – ours and our descendants’ – I hope MSPs of all parties will do everything they can to make this happen.
A guest blog by Guy Schanschieff, chair of the Nappy Alliance
As a society, we are slowly coming to terms with the fact that there are consequences to throwing something away. Every single bit of waste produced has to go somewhere.
The scale of single-use plastic waste is unmanageable. Globally, we produce approximately 300 million tonnes of plastics waste each year. Of this waste, only 9 percent is recycled, 12 percent incinerated whilst the rest accumulates in landfills, dumps or the natural environment.
There is a fundamental flaw in our approach to managing waste – and it starts with the fact that we need to look beyond recycling. The waste hierarchy has been around for years, and although prevention, material reduction and reuse are important and seen as the ‘gold standard’, too much effort has been dedicated to recycling unnecessary single-use plastics rather than tackling the heart of the issue.
In recent years, steps have been taken to tackle single-use plastics, for example through the introduction of legislation restricting the supply of plastic straws, cotton buds and stirrers, as well as reducing the use of single-use carrier bags through a charge..
Government and local authorities must make it a priority to tackle sources of unnecessary single-use plastics waste, starting at the point of production and encouraging prevention and reusable alternatives wherever possible.
For example, although plastic bags and straws have been in the spotlight, single-use (or “disposable”) nappies also cause significant and widescale impact on the environment. Single-use nappies require huge quantities of raw materials and contribute to climate change. On average each nappy generates around 550kg of CO2 y throughout its lifecycle. From birth to potty, single-use nappies have been found to use the equivalent of 15,000 plastic bags and around half a tree in fluff pulp per child.
On the other hand, the environmental benefits of reusable nappies are becoming clearer. They use 98 percent fewer raw materials and generate 99 percent less waste, can help to save the equivalent of 17 plastic bags per day, or over 6,000 per year per child from being landfilled or incinerated. They also deliver significant financial savings of over £1,000 for parents which increases if they are used on subsequent children or purchased on the thriving second-hand market.
The 2021 UNEP report: Addressing single-use plastic products pollution; using a life cycle approach found that reusable nappies had lower environmental impacts across almost all trial scenarios when compared to single-use nappies. The UK Government’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs will also be publishing a new Life Cycle Assessment of reusable versus single-use nappies in the coming weeks. We hope that the findings will further demonstrate the progress of reusables, and their environmental and health benefits in comparison to single-use nappies.
For these reasons, we believe the Scottish government should be considering new ways to reduce the reliance on single-use nappies by 2025 – building on the very welcome inclusion of a reusable nappy voucher in Scotland’s national baby box scheme. This would also support Scotland’s ambition to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045 at the latest, carbon neutrality by 2040, and contribute to the 2045 NHS Scotland net zero pledge.
Attitudes towards the environment have shifted during the pandemic, with a YouGov survey in October 2020 demonstrating that almost four fifths of Scots are concerned about the volume of single-use items and packaging used across the country. In the run-up to COP26, promoting reusable nappies is a way for the Scottish government to show leadership on an important but often overlooked source of unnecessary single-use plastic waste.
One approach to promote reusable nappies would be to roll out a national reusable nappy incentive scheme that can be administered via local councils. Reusable nappy schemes can come in various forms, including trial packs, reimbursement schemes, voucher schemes, nappy libraries, and educational events/materials. They typically seek to provide information and reduce the upfront costs for families. There is a thriving second-hand market for reusables too, and many parents decide to use the reusable nappies for subsequent children.
Existing reusable nappy schemes, such as Edinburgh and North Ayrshire’s Real Nappies starter kits, have been successful in helping reduce single-use plastics waste in Scotland. By promoting reusable nappies through a nationally devised scheme, forming a joined-up approach across local authorities, and providing the resources they need to reach their potential, Scotland would be taking a substantial step towards meeting its ambitious environmental targets.
On 17th April 2021, LINK’s Chief Officer Deborah Long spoke to the 2050 Climate Group’s Zoom Out: taking action for the Green Recovery event, part of their Young Leaders Development Programme, which aims to engage, educate and inspire young leaders. This blog is based on the talk she gave.
So here we are: all living on planet earth. Scotland is a tiny geographical speck. But Scotland has a role much larger than its geography implies. In 1700s, Scotland was at the forefront of the Industrial Revolution, when today’s relentless rise in carbon dioxide levels began. In 1950s, the UK began a drive to become self sufficient in food we could produce here with the start of mechanised farming and large scale production methods and the acceleration in biodiversity loss that has reached crisis point today. Having played significant roles in both crises – one globally and one at home, it is only right that we are at the forefront of tackling both these crises.
It would be fair to say that Scotland has recognised that we have this role: there is recognition at highest level of Government in Scotland that both climate change and nature loss are existential crises for Scotland: The challenges facing biodiversity are as important as the challenge of climate change, and I want Scotland to be leading the way in our response. Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s First Minister, July 2019
We’re seeing political commitment and progress towards the 2045 target on climate change in Scotland, albeit with bumps in the road. What we’re not yet seeing is the same level of commitment to nature loss. We need to change that if we are to make progress on both these crises.
There are three world changing emergencies facing us:
We are suffering human disease on a scale not seen since 1918’s Spanish flu. We are in a climate emergency with global temperatures rising at unprecedented rates and severely impacting on communities and natural habitats on land and at sea. At the same time, we are in a nature emergency where the rate of species extinctions is rising exponentially and where global changes are for the first time being caused by human activity. While we can’t solve all three emergencies at once, one thing we mustn’t do is solve one while making the other two worse. We need to act: but to be effective we need to act together.
On the climate emergency, the Scottish Government is making the links between climate and nature: There is a global climate emergency. The evidence is irrefutable. The science is clear. People have been clear: they expect action……Another UN body, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, issued a warning about the damage human beings are causing to the planet…..Both these reports highlight that it’s not too late for us to turn things around, but to do so requires transformative change. This is not just about government action. And it is not something that only affects Scotland. All countries must act and must do so quickly and decisively…Roseanna Cunningham, Cabinet Secretary For Environment, Land Reform and Climate Change, May 2019.
The nature emergency is defined by the loss of species, which was reported in the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) global assessment published in 2019. This showed that 1 million species across the world are threatened by extinction. This is being driven by five direct drivers of change, which in descending order are:
(1) changes in land and sea use;
(2) direct exploitation of organisms;
(3) climate change;
(4) pollution
(5) invasive alien species
Some of the statistics in that report are bleak:
Three-quarters of the land-based environment and about 66% of the marine environment have been significantly altered by human actions.
More than a third of the world’s land surface and nearly 75% of freshwater resources are now devoted to crop or livestock production.
The value of agricultural crop production has increased by about 300% since 1970, raw timber harvest has risen by 45%.
Land degradation has reduced the productivity of 23% of the global land surface,
In 2015, 33% of marine fish stocks were being harvested at unsustainable levels; 60% were maximally sustainably fished, with just 7% harvested at levels lower than what can be sustainably fished.
Urban areas have more than doubled since 1992.
Plastic pollution has increased tenfold since 1980, 300-400 million tons of heavy metals, solvents, toxic sludge and other wastes from industrial facilities are dumped annually into the world’s waters, and fertilizers entering coastal ecosystems have produced more than 400 ocean ‘dead zones’, totalling a combined area greater than that of the United Kingdom.
Negative trends in nature will continue to 2050 and beyond in all of the policy scenarios explored in the Report, except those that include transformative change.
At the launch of the report, Robert Watson, IPBES Chair said: The health of ecosystems on which we and all other species depend is deteriorating more rapidly than ever. We are eroding the very foundations of our economies, livelihoods, food security, health and quality of life worldwide.”. He continues: “The Report also tells us that it is not too late to make a difference, but only if we start now at every level from local to global,” he said. “Through ‘transformative change’, nature can still be conserved, restored and used sustainably – this is also key to meeting most other global goals.
The nature crisis and the third emergency, the global pandemic, are very closely linked: the covid-19 pandemic has reached us as a result of close contact with wild species and is a direct outcome of today’s nature crisis. Changes in the way we use land; the expansion and intensification of agriculture; unsustainable trade, production and consumption are disrupting nature and increasing contact between wildlife, livestock, pathogens and people. Almost all known pandemics, including HIV/AIDS, SARS, and COVID-19, are caused by microbes from animals. The frequency of new diseases emerging in human population is now increasing and the reservoir of currently undiscovered viruses thought to exist in mammals and birds is massive, c1.7 million; 48% of which could have the ability to infect humans.
In 2020, IPBES ran a workshop on nature and pandemics. Dr. Peter Daszak, President of EcoHealth Alliance and Chair of IPBES workshop on pandemics said: Pandemic risk can be significantly lowered by reducing the human activities that drive the loss of biodiversity, by greater conservation of protected areas, and through measures that reduce unsustainable exploitation of high biodiversity regions. This will reduce wildlife-livestock-human contact and help prevent the spillover of new diseases….. “The overwhelming scientific evidence points to a very positive conclusion,”. “We have the increasing ability to prevent pandemics – but the way we are tackling them right now largely ignores that ability. Our approach has effectively stagnated – we still rely on attempts to contain and control diseases after they emerge, through vaccines and therapeutics. We can escape the era of pandemics, but this requires a much greater focus on prevention in addition to reaction.”
Even here in Scotland, studies show that since 2008 infection rates of Lyme’s Disease are rising across the UK but especially in Scotland. Scientists say that it is “highly likely” that the abundance of ticks in our outdoor environments is associated with the rise in deer numbers over the past 50 years, and that in turn may have contributed to increasing incidences of Lyme Disease, as more people and
So how do we build a green recovery that tackles all three emergencies?
We need to tackle both the climate and nature emergencies together. That means that solutions for one mustn’t make the other one worse. There is potential for this for this to happen with biofuel production replacing food production on good agricultural land or natural habitat in key areas or with trees planted in the wrong place, for example. Both are clearly potential solutions to climate change – but they also could make the nature crisis worse. We have other solutions though – nature based solutions that tackle both: nature friendly farming, protecting marine habitats, natural regeneration of woodland, peatland restoration, better soil management for example.
So how are we getting on?
If we look at some of our progress to date:
On climate action: we have updated the Climate Change Plan in Scotland – that’s good. And we are making progress towards the 2045 targets. Globally we’re not moving fast enough and there is of course the argument that we should and could be doing more in Scotland.
On nature action: we’ve missed most of the Aichii biodiversity targets in 2010 and in 2020 in Scotland and globally – we cannot afford to fail in 2030. But unlike climate, we don’t have yet any agreed targets for nature: we’re making it up as we go along, each doing our own little bit but the sum of the parts isn’t adding up to a whole. It is adding up to a hole, but not one with a w.
And finally on political and public will: there is a loud public voice calling for transformative change – but we’re not breaking through yet. And as a result, political will is lagging behind.
Both the nature and climate emergencies are really that; we have a decade to change direction: to meet net zero and to build a nature rich world. That is not long: it is two parliaments and it is within the current decade, declared by the UN as the Decade for Ecosystem Restoration. Bringing about this level and scale of change needed is not easy: halting and reversing ongoing biodiversity loss has no easy solutions and compromises will have to be made. However, the need for change is incontrovertible.
A green recovery to these 3 emergencies relies on 3 tactics: all around diversity. We need diversity in strength; diversity in cooperation and diversity of action in time and space:
Diversity in strength:
Numbers matter: the more people talking about this, the louder the voice for the environment.
Targets matter. We need to have something to aim for – we need something to measure progress against. Targets are hard though. They are hard to define in the first place, especially for nature and they give ordinary people, a measure of progress so we can see when governments, industry and society is not doing enough. We can and should use targets to monitor progress and point out when it falls short.
Cooperation matters too:
This is all too big for government, too big for business, too big for society: we need to work together. Today it can feel like there are too many silos all shouting at each other, while nature breaks and climate warms. There are 2 barriers facing those who are trying to make progress:
The first barrier is shifting baselines and nature deficit disorder. The change in nature loss is largely incremental: which means that as we lose things, we don’t notice.
Nature, as a general rule, has astonishing powers of recovery. It is pretty good at bouncing back from things that kill it, if the killing stops before it’s too late, or is reduced to sustainable levels. What it’s not so good at is recovering when the very ground beneath it is altered….Sometime these changes are visible, but often they are not. …If we have our wits about us we may notice. If not, we don’t notice. It can be hard to see something that isn’t there, impossible to hear nothing.Conor Mark Jameson, Silent Spring revisited 2012
Also, we all start to suffer from shifting baseline syndrome exacerbated by Nature deficit disorder, where fewer children are coming into regular contact with nature and the outdoors across the UK. Even by the 1970s, which is when we started to collect decent data on nature trends, the changes had set in. And since then they’ve accelerated.
How many of our parents and grandparents went fishing for sticklebacks or shrimps? How many collected bunches of wild flowers? How many collected wild berries to make jams or pies? The Natural Childhood report 2012, National Trust found that:
Fewer than a quarter of children regularly use their local ‘patch of nature’, compared to over half of all adults when they were children.
Fewer than one in ten children regularly play in wild places; compared to almost half a generation ago.
Children spend so little time outdoors that they are unfamiliar with some of our commonest wild creatures. According to a 2008 National Trust survey, one in three could not identify a magpie; half could not tell the difference between a bee and a wasp; yet nine out of ten could recognise a Dalek.
Competing priorities are the second barrier. Climate change and nature loss are both important and urgent and they both suffer from the Eisenhower principle: “I have two kinds of problems: the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent.“ President Eisenhower, 1954
This means they never reach the top of the To Do list. There is always something more urgent: a financial crash, a referendum, a global pandemic. The irony of the latest urgency is that it is the direct result of the fact we have ignored the needs of our environment for too long and it’s starting to impact us directly. And while the ecological certainty continues to degrade, political solutions keep taking up time and effort that should be spent taking these ecological crises. That bring me onto the final diversity tactic:
Diversity in time and space:
These are planetary emergencies but the solutions lie locally. The pressure for change to incremental problems is not going to come from politicians – it’s going to come from communities:
But though our knowledge is immense, our collective political will is not strong. The energy for change – and thus our preservation – will have to come from grass-roots networks, which is where it’s most often come from. Margaret Atwood, 2012
A Parliamentary term of 5 years is too short and there are too many dependencies and consequences for politicians to be able to act on a longer term basis. Today’s nature and climate emergencies need to be solved in the next 10 years. If politicians start to act 10 years from now, it will arguably be too late. And that’s why change for these type of emergencies comes from grass root communities: they see beyond the next 5 years.
Here’s an example: the kelp industry meets global demand for alginates, used in foods, textiles, pharmaceuticals (bulking, gelling, stabilising). In 2018, Ullapool seasavers started #Nokelpdredge campaign to halt mechanical kelp dredging along the west coast of Scotland. They worked with Parliamentarians, celebrities and eNGOs and watched the Crown Estate Bill voted through the Scottish Parliament to prevent mechanical kelp extraction. This is just one example of saving today’s nature for tomorrow’s future.
What sort of thing do we need?
So before we look at what we can do, I just want to explore some of the things we need. This is not an exhaustive list: it relates back to the key issues of the environment, the economy and our health:
Nature targets: so we can measure progress. In 2019, we published the State of Nature Scotland It showed that 1 in 9 of Scotland’s species are in danger of extinction: 49% of Scottish species have decreased since the 1970s. Nature is changing rapidly, with 62% of species showing strong changes. Drivers of change in Scotland include land management, pollution, invasive non native species, and marine climate change and fisheries.
But while we need targets here in Scotland, we need global ones too. This is where we are looking to the Biodiversity Cop15 in Kunming in October. We’re working with our sister LINKS in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and we’re calling for commitment to halt the loss of biodiversity by 2030 and recovery by 2050.
Resilient ecosystems on land and at sea: we need protected areas because they are the refuge for many of our rare and not so rare species. It is from these refuges that they can spread when conditions are right or when their current habitat changes so they can’t stay. Protected areas need to be flexible enough to build resilience in habitats and amongst species populations; they need to be protected against fragmentation; and they need to be properly protected from damaging activities.
Nature networks are a key way to link up our landscapes so species can move, habitat can expand and contract and ecosystems become more resilient to changes from climate for example. Nature networks are not necessarily contiguous but they build in ecological connectivity so that ecosystems become resilient to change. This short film explains what they are and why we need them.
Circular economy: a circular economy enables us to live within planetary limits: it extracts less from the planet, re-uses what we’ve already taken and reduces our waste. A circular economy bill would lay the foundation for this. Our Circular Scotland project explains more.
Access to a healthy environment: everyone living in Scotland needs to have easy access to a healthy environment. 20 minute neighbourhoods should include ecologically functional greenspace within 20 minutes active travel from everyone’s home. Active travel itself needs infrastructure right across Scotland from urban cycle ways to long distance cycle routes and footpaths. And everyone in Scotland needs the skills and confidence to access the outdoors: the conid-19 pandemic clearly underlined how important being outside is for physical and mental health. The Out there Award at Ramblers Scotland is one example of doing that.
What can we do?
As individuals, we can add our voice to campaigns to demonstrate our support on key issues.
For example, LINK is running a campaign for people to sign up to demonstrate their support for more action for nature, championing nature. In parallel we have a Nature pledge for all candidates standing for election in May 2021. #oorfootprint is a wider social media initiative that demonstrates our connectedness with the planet and each other.
The importance of talking to other and spreading the word cannot be overstated. Again, Ullapool seasavers are showing a way forward by working together, highlighting local and global issues and bringing others on board by inspiring, and sometimes, shaming, them to act.
Obviously Government can do a lot through legislation to protect and enhance the environment and to build in, guide and enforce change. Over the last 20 years, we ‘ve seen some great examples of ambitious and world leading legislation in Scotland, our access laws for example. But we’ve also seen how ambitious world leading legislation doesn’t always lead to effective, timely action. LINK’s Rhetoric to Reality report, published 10 years ago remains valid today.
If you’re looking for more inspiration, watch This is Scotland here, commissioned from Maramedia, who are responsible for Stormbound. This is about Scotland’s nature and why we need to do more, as funders, as people living in Scotland and as visitors. This film is for anyone who supports Scotland’s nature today and wants future generations to enjoy it too.
There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of Nature – the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter….. Rachel Carson, Silent Spring 1964.
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