Last week, the Scottish Parliament was asked to vote on a motion, tabled by Mark Ruskell MSP, to declare a nature emergency. Disappointingly, the opportunity was missed to take this bold step, with SNP and Conservative MSPs voting instead for an amendment removing the words ‘nature emergency’ altogether and congratulating current efforts. Scotland would have become the first country to formally recognise the urgency of this decline as an emergency.
Yet, Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon declared a climate emergency in April 2019, and in the following May addressed the related biodiversity crisis, stating that “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.” The Scottish Government may be a leading voice on climate change but an increase in ambition and investment in policies and projects to increase biodiversity is vital to nature’s recovery.
2021 will be a key year for making progress on reversing biodiversity declines. An international deal for nature will be agreed at the Convention on Biological Diversity conference in the autumn. This must be matched by domestic ambition. For over a decade, Scotland has striven to meet bold climate change targets, the same must now be put in place to address the nature crisis. In 2019, the State of Nature report found that 49% of UK species have declined as well as 1 in 9 species at risk of national extinction. Nature is in crisis, both in Scotland and around the world.
It is great to see growing recognition of this amongst MSP Species Champions. At the beginning of November, 30 Species Champions signed a letter to the Cabinet Secretary for the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform calling on the Scottish Government to deliver an ambitious, legally binding set of targets and milestones to secure nature recovery. At a time when environmental issues are increasingly brought to the fore, the need to have informed, passionate and supportive MSPs in Parliament ensuring our wildlife has a voice has never been more critical.
We were delighted to see Species Champions standing up for nature at the debate last week. Mark Ruskell MSP, Species Champion for white-tailed eagle, stated “Just as our legally binding climate targets have brought focus and scrutiny, so, too, are nature recovery targets needed in law to commit to halting the decline within a decade and fully restoring nature soon after.” For over a decade, Scotland has embarked on an ambitious programme to address climate change, with legally binding targets, and specific milestones and timeframes, which are stretching but achievable, and which are monitored and reported upon. The same must now be put in place to halt the loss of nature by 2030. Claudia Beamish MSP, Species Champion for forester moth, highlighted that Scotland has missed many of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets set in 2010. She stated that “Scottish Labour wants targets for nature recovery to be set into legislation”.
Alongside calling on the Scottish Government to set legally binding nature targets, MSP Species Champions highlighted the importance of delivering a Scottish Nature Network in order to increase connectivity of habitats and establish important links for wildlife. Claudia Beamish MSP stated: “We need to enhance, connect and expand all habitats and look to build a nature network”. A Nature Network across Scotland represents an investment in a wide-reaching natural solution with benefits for today’s climate emergency and nature crisis, as well as a thriving and resilient country. A Nature Network is a strategic, long term approach to manage, restore and enhance Scotland’s habitats and landscapes. Its approach builds a nature friendly landscape, which is pervious to nature and provides life affirming wildlife and nature encounters to all people. Sarah Boyack MSP, Species Champion for small skipper, supported Claudia’s Beamish’s statement by highlighting “We need to link biodiversity and tackling the nature emergency as part of the key policy framework in the upcoming national planning framework… we need a joined-up approach to land use management that brings wider benefits.”
In order to address the nature crisis, Scottish Environment LINK’s Holyrood 2021 manifesto calls on the next Scottish Government to set new, legally-binding targets for nature recovery to increase the abundance of wildlife species in Scotland and the restoration of their habitats. An ambitious set of targets is needed to clean up our air, soils, seas and rivers, by driving the development of policies that deliver the recovery of Scotland’s natural habitats and increase biodiversity. Nature is declining at an alarming rate and the climate emergency is intensified by the emerging global biodiversity crisis. Tackling the emergency that threatens the very existence of many species in Scotland needs to start right now. Restoring the obstacles humans have put in nature’s path so nature can move freely is more important than ever.
Juliet Caldwell
Nature Advocacy Officer at Scottish Environment LINK
Scottish Environment LINK, a coalition of Scotland’s leading environmental charities, has today welcomed initial improvements to the Scottish Government’s EU Continuity Bill, which delivers crucial post-Brexit environmental protections, including an environment watchdog.
From 1 January 2021, the EU’s world-renowned environmental protections will no longer apply to Scotland. The Scottish Government’s EU Continuity Bill seeks to establish a new environment watchdog to protect Scotland’s nature going forward, but campaigners have warned that major omissions mean the Bill must urgently be strengthened.
MSPs voted for several key amendments to the Bill this week (Tuesday 24 November and Wednesday 25 November) to increase the independence of Scotland’s new environment watchdog, Environmental Standards Scotland (ESS). The legislation now requires members of the watchdog’s board to have environmental expertise and Ministers have also agreed to discuss further changes that ensure that ESS has sufficient funding, and that this sufficiency is subject to parliamentary scrutiny ahead of the final vote on legislation in December. These changes will increase the watchdog’s independence from Scottish Ministers, heeding the concerns raised by thousands of supporters of the Fight for Scotland’s Nature campaign.
MSPs also secured commitments from the Scottish Government to discuss and seek to agree new measures in December to ensure Scotland’s process of maintaining alignment with the EU (the so-called ‘keeping pace’ power) secures high environmental standards. The Fight for Scotland’s Nature campaign has said that these new measures will be vital for ensuring that Scotland can be a progressive leader on the environment in the future and that there will be no backsliding in protections for nature.
However, Scottish Environment LINK has expressed concern that vital amendments to empower the watchdog to take enforcement action on individual complaints about environmental damage raised by citizens have not received government support. Without these changes to the draft legislation, people in Scotland are at risk of losing access to environmental justice once the UK leaves the EU at the end of 2020.
Vhairi Tollan, Advocacy Manager at Scottish Environment LINK, said:
As part of our EU membership, Scottish citizens have enjoyed rights to raise complaints about cases of environmental damage and have the EU watchdog investigate and take steps to enforce changes. However, similar powers are not included in the Scottish Government’s proposal for a new Scottish watchdog. Environmental Standards Scotland would be unable to take enforcement action on individual complaints, raising concern that we will lose this crucial means of accessing environmental justice at the end of 2020. At a time when 1 in 9 Scottish species is at risk of extinction in Scotland, key changes to the Continuity Bill must be made ahead of MSPs’ final vote in December to ensure Scotland’s new watchdog is a credible and robust enforcer of environmental protections.
Environmental Standards Scotland should act on local concerns, argues Miriam Ross, coordinator of the Fight for Scotland’s Nature campaign.
When a local beauty spot – a beach, a wood, a hillside – comes under threat, local people are very often its most passionate defenders. Meetings are held, alliances formed, knowledge rapidly acquired and shared, and politicians lobbied in a quest to save a much-loved piece of nature. Instinctively, we know we have both the right to enjoy a healthy environment where we live, and the responsibility to ensure it remains so. For many, the sense of connection to local nature has increased during the pandemic.
It seems extraordinary, therefore, to propose that a new institution being set up to defend Scotland’s natural environment will not be able to act in response to people’s efforts to protect a specific place or environment from harm.
But the Scottish government has done just that, in a bill currently before parliament.
The bill is the EU Continuity Bill, and the institution Environmental Standards Scotland, the new environment watchdog proposed in the bill to replace the crucial role the EU has played in monitoring and enforcing environmental standards.
There is much to welcome in the bill, including the incorporation of key European environmental legal principles into Scots law. And the creation of a new watchdog to fill the gap that would otherwise be left after Brexit is a very positive step, indicating an understanding that governments must be held to account on their compliance with environmental law.
But the new watchdog, as set out in the bill, contains a major omission which would leave Scotland’s people without real recourse to justice on the environment. The new body won’t be able to take action in response to complaints from people who believe that their local environment is at risk due to the failure of the responsible authorities to uphold the law designed to protect it.
In other words, if a local person, a community group or a charity makes a complaint about a decision to pollute a beach, chop down a wood or bulldoze a hillside, Environmental Standards Scotland won’t be able to do anything about it.
Complaints such as these make up the bulk of the European Commission’s environmental work, and so their exclusion belies the Scottish government’s stated intention to ‘replace the system of environmental governance provided by the institutions of the European Union’.
The European system of addressing individual complaints has real value, not least because judgements have often set legal precedents, helping to protect places far beyond the one referred to in the original complaint. And, because the Commission has the power to enforce its judgements, it holds weight with governments: often just the suggestion of a complaint to Europe is enough to persuade the relevant public authority to up its game.
The insufficient degree of independence the new Scottish watchdog is also concerning. The Scottish government is proposing that its own ministers should appoint the senior officials at Environmental Standards Scotland, with little oversight from parliament, calling into question how effectively it will hold that same government to account.
For people in Scotland, the ability to complain to a watchdog that can actually enforce the law becomes even more apparent when you consider the lack of affordable alternatives. The cost of seeking a judicial review is beyond the reach of most citizens, and judicial review can only look at procedural errors rather than examining the merits of the case.
The Scottish parliament is scrutinising the EU Continuity Bill over the next few weeks. The strength or weakness of the new institution it creates is likely to have profound implications far into the future. MSPs have the opportunity to amend the bill to establish a watchdog with the power and independence to defend Scotland’s people and nature, at a time when the challenges we face have never been greater. Now is the time to get it right.
30 MSP Species Champions signed a letter to the Cabinet Secretary for the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform calling on the Scottish Government to deliver an ambitious, legally binding set of targets and milestones to secure nature recovery. The letter, organised by Scottish Environment LINK, calls on the Scottish Government to champion nature.
Real action is needed to protect our environment so that it can continue to amaze us but also to continue performing the critical functions that enhance our health and wellbeing and are the foundation of our prosperity as a nation. In order to be world leading on nature recovery, Scotland must support a clear global goal to restore nature, with legally binding targets to address the nature emergency.
While fun and light hearted, the Species Champion initiative ultimately looks to address failing environmental policies and increasing threats on our natural environment by highlighting the need for habitats and species to be better protected, for the benefits of a thriving natural environment to be considered in all aspects of decision-making. At a time when environmental issues are increasingly brought to the fore, the need to have informed, passionate and supportive MSPs in Parliament ensuring our wildlife has a voice has never been more critical. By signing this letter, MSP Champions have taken the opportunity to champion not just their given species and its habitat but also wider policies and strategies with a significant impact on Scotland’s environment, climate, land and sea management. Thank you to the 30 Species Champions for standing up for nature and supporting the development of Scottish nature recovery targets.
‘Today nature is vanishing at rates never seen before in human history,’ warned David Attenborough in September’s hour-long documentary looking at how our planet’s wildlife and habitats are faring. It made for necessary, but uncomfortable, viewing highlighting trends that have been identified by researchers and campaigners across the world: species and habitats are declining and the pressures driving this decline are intensifying, from climate change to growing urban developments and mass consumption.
The UN described this moment as a crossroads for humanity in a major new review of global biodiversity trends that was released in September. It points to the international community’s failure to act collectively to reduce environmental harms, calling the past decade ‘a lost decade’ for nature.
However, the UN Secretary-General noted there is an unprecedented opportunity as we emerge from the immediate impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic to seize the initiative to make sustainable transformations across our society and economy that will put us on track for nature recovery. Next year, world leaders will once again come together at an international summit to determine a new set of targets to reverse biodiversity decline and it is vital this marks a turning point in countries’ commitment to restore the natural world.
The events of recent months have shown us just how necessary protecting nature is: Covid-19 emerged due to an intensification of human activity bringing humans and wild species into closer contact. As industrial agriculture, forestry and mining expands into new areas, bringing urban societies into more frequent contact with wild animals, there is an increasing risk of similar viral diseases jumping from animals to humans.
Scotland is no exception to the global trend of biodiversity decline. The latest State of Nature Scotland report showed that 1 in 9 species is at risk of extinction from our country. Yet many of us have recently come to appreciate the nature on our doorsteps more than ever, with local walks and garden bird watching providing a much-needed respite as lockdown restricted our travel.
It’s not too late for Scotland to turn this situation around and, if we act swiftly now, we can reverse nature’s decline. The natural world has an amazing capacity to recover from crisis and by taking steps to expand our native woodlands, restore carbon-locking peatlands, move to nature- and climate-friendly farming and step up protections for Scotland’s seas we can look ahead to a brighter future.
To drive success in the coming years, a clear commitment from the Scottish Government to address the nature emergency head on is needed, backed up by measurable targets and action plans to take us on a path to nature recovery. Commitments to nature recovery targets from Scotland’s political parties ahead of next year’s Holyrood elections would be a signal that politicians are taking the loss of Scotland’s nature seriously.
Nature has brought comfort to so many of us during these tough times, it’s now time for us to stand up for Scotland’s nature.
Vhairi Tollan is Advocacy Manager at Scottish Environment LINK
A version of this blog was published as a Scotsman column on 27 October 2020
A guest blog by Sophie Unwin, founder/director, Remade Network
IKEA has made the news as it launches its plans to buy back unwanted furniture – going beyond recycling to include repair and refurbishment, as part of its multi-billion dollar plans to become a ‘truly circular climate positive’ business by 2030.
It’s clear that repair is becoming more mainstream in the large business community. Will this mean that repairing and mending becomes more prevalent in society as a whole?
Remade Network’s Govanhill Repair Stop opened in July 2020 – at the height of the pandemic. Working collaboratively with Repair Café Glasgow, Govanhill Baths Community Trust, and the Glasgow Tool Library we offer an affordable repair service for electronics, textiles, and small electrical goods – currently £5 or £10.
Having come out of three months of social isolation ourselves, for the team, one of the things that has given us the most pleasure is engaging with happy customers – who bring in their items (safely) and hand them to our hatch at Govanhill Baths’ Deep End site. From record players, to jeans, to blenders and phones – each fix involves problem solving and creative thinking in order to return the item to its owner. The technicians have fixed over 120 items in the first two months alone, with an 85 percent success rate, and making no charge if the repair is unsuccessful.
Many people have carried out clear outs during the pandemic and are keen to donate unwanted household items and ensure they go to a good home or to fix the items they have. As one customer said to us, “This project helps us look after our household goods, as they in turn look after us.”
Of course, repair is not a new idea. Look to other cultures and go back in time and an ethic of ‘make do and mend’ was much more commonplace. When there are fewer resources, people need to make them go further. And repair and mending has often been unpaid women’s work, done at home.
The ethos of Remade Network was born 20 years ago, after I spent a year living in rural Eastern Nepal. With new goods hard to find, we reused, repaired and repurposed everything we owned and found. Milk came straight from the cow, vegetables unpackaged from the market, and sacks of rice were refilled at the local shop. In a year our household of six created just one dustbin of rubbish.
This experience led me to set up Remade in Brixton, which became the Remakery in Brixton, and then the Edinburgh Remakery. In a ‘developed’ economy it’s not always possible to make a business case for repair, as buying new is cheaper – but I wanted to show that it would be viable to have a business model centred around repair education – to help people learn the skills that I knew I lacked, practical skills that are really essential for living more lightly on the planet.
A group of volunteers and then a staff team in Edinburgh grew the project from £60 through various phases, to a turnover of £240,000, 80 percent traded income, and 10 members of staff in 2017, when I left. By then, the project had a bustling hub on Leith Walk, and was £15,000 in surplus.
At that point, other communities had started asking about how to collaborate to set up their own repair social enterprises. This seemed an ideal way to share the learning of the previous 12 years. Repair Café Glasgow was one of the first projects to get in touch, which is what led to the Govanhill project.
Lauren Crilley, who works at Repair Café Glasgow one day a week alongside her role at Remade Network explains: “Repair Café Glasgow is built on the idea that our possessions have lots of life left in them when we maintain and repair them. We have been running repair events in community spaces across Glasgow and beyond since 2017. Over the last two years we have built a wonderful community of volunteer fixers and have saved 12 tonnes of CO2e [carbon dioxide equivalent] emissions through repairing electronics, electrical goods, clothes and more. The project has also spawned a new social enterprise – the Pram Project – devoted to repairing prams and redistributing them to refugee families and other families in need.”
Repair cafés are run by volunteers and are an excellent way to bring people together and build community – as well as save goods from landfill. What makes Remade Network’s approach different is that its focus is on creating jobs. We’ve grown from 1 member of staff to 7 over the past year, and continue to recruit new technicians as the volume of repairs grows. Repair creates 10 times as many jobs as recycling, and it seems the ideal model for building quality green new jobs as we navigate our way to a future beyond COVID-19.
In April our future seemed precarious for a moment, but we have been relieved and delighted that we can keep going and growing by responding to the need across the city – both for repair and also for distributing refurbished donated computers to vulnerable families across the city, diverting an additional 117 tonnes of CO2e in the process.
Responding to the pandemic has also drawn parallels with the Remakery in Brixton, a project born from Transition Town Brixton’s work in 2008 at the time of the financial crash. The motivation for this project, too, was to create jobs for the people who had the kind of useful skills we all rely on – but who weren’t earning a livelihood from them. My elderly neighbour was an AfroCaribbean immigrant who used to fix bikes in his front garden, but barely make any income. The Brixton project was gifted a set of unused garages by Lambeth Council, which my co-founder Hannah Lewis converted to the Remakery thanks to a grant from the Lottery. Each garage then became a different social enterprise for repairing and reusing a different material stream – from bikes, to chairs to musical instruments.
Our Remade projects create jobs, build skills, and help build a sense of community as we work at the heart of different neighbourhoods – rather than blaming people for not doing enough, shifting wealth and decision-making to local communities. We are both making it easier for people to behave differently and recognising that those who consume the least are often the people who are disproportionately affected by the impacts of climate change and pollution.
At their heart, we believe that repair is not just about saving waste, it can be a way to tackle inequality too. Is there a tension in mainstreaming something into business practices? Perhaps only if it’s seen that repair is a means to an end of growing business, rather than looking at how business can serve communities. Repair can be not just part of a circular economy; it can be part of a circular economy towards a fairer footprint – one of Scottish Environment LINK’s core aims.
The first test of this commitment is facing the Scottish Parliament. In less than three months, Scotland, and the rest of the UK, will lose the oversight of the European Commission and the European Court of Justice. These institutions have played an invaluable role in ensuring nature is strongly protected, by giving a voice to the public on environmental matters and holding governments to account. It is vital that Scots do not lose the ability to speak up and request that action is taken to protect their environment.
The Continuity Bill, currently going through the Scottish Parliament, is designed to ensure laws in Scotland continue without any interruption as we leave the EU. As part of the Bill, the Scottish Parliament must replace functions of these EU institutions by creating an independent watchdog to oversee and enforce the implementation of environmental laws. This will ensure that the places for nature, species and habitats we love best will continue to be strongly protected in Scotland.
Ensure that environmental protections are being implemented and enforced correctly
Receive public complaints about failures to apply environmental law
Investigate potential breaches of environment law, and refer serious cases to the courts
While the Continuity Bill does include provision for a watchdog, it doesn’t go far enough. It needs to be made more independent of government and it needs stronger teeth so that it can take action when environment laws are not being applied properly.
The ability to take action on specific complaints is a key strength of the EU system and has allowed people to challenge decisions affecting their environment, on land and at sea. But it’s missing from the proposed Scottish watchdog. The bill must be amended to include this power – and to make the watchdog truly independent of government.
Furthermore, the watchdog is not guaranteed adequate or ringfenced funding meaning that they might not be able to properly investigate potential breaches of environmental law, ensuring enforcement and applying sanctions in cases of noncompliance. It also means the watchdog is left vulnerable to future public sector cuts.
The Scottish Government has declared itself to be a global leader on the environment. In order to truly demonstrate leadership, it must not take backward steps upon leaving the EU. The Continuity Bill must be more than just a symbolic gesture; it must maintain the protections already in place and leave the door wide open to strengthening our nature laws so that we can deliver transformative change for nature, climate and people.
These are extraordinary times. Scotland is emerging slowly and cautiously from lockdown and considering how we recover, as a nation, and as part of the global community. Attention has rightly focused on the public health crisis and treatment of the most vulnerable, but as governments begin to look to life beyond lockdown it is clear that the lockdown and its aftermath is having severe consequences for the economy, both globally and nationally. Livelihoods, particularly in hospitality, retail and tourism, are under threat and millions of jobs are at risk.[1] The Scottish Government forecasts an immediate downturn in economic activity of up to 33%[2], while the Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts a downturn of 35% for the UK as a whole[3]. Indeed, current predictions from the Bank of England suggest that this will be the deepest economic recession in living memory[4].
However, we should not be mistaken that this is the only crisis for which we need an immediate solution. Science shows us that we have 10 years to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and 10 years to reverse the loss in biodiversity[5], happening across the world and in Scotland[6]. While there are a number of paths the Scottish and UK Government could choose to embark upon to lead us out of this crisis, we must not repeat the mistakes of the 2007-08 financial crisis and the following decade and more of austerity measures have crippled the public sector, including environmental services, and driven up inequalities in our society[7]. We must learn from the recent past and choose an alternative path. A recovery that takes us back to the old ways of running the economy is not inevitable – it is a political choice towards an unstable climate and failing ecosystems.
Welcome statements from the Scottish Government Ministers have signalled the intention that the economic recovery should be ‘green’[8]. However, for this to be real, there is a level of ambition for action that is not yet visible. Before the Covid-19 pandemic swept Scotland, we were already facing nature and climate emergencies and the Government’s Environment Strategy recognised that significant action was required[9]. The Government’s response to the Economic Recovery Group Report[10] produced quickly and under limited resources, has some good points but overall lacks the ambition, commitment and urgency that are needed to drive the level of change we need to see. Our tests[11][12] show that a green recovery must stimulate national and local economies that work for people while delivering benefits for nature and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. These issues are not separate to economic considerations – for example, Scotland’s £6bn tourism sector[13] and £14bn food and drink sector[14] depend on a thriving environment.
Our response must therefore be a step change in policy, with tangible results within the next decade, as urged by international scientists and policy-makers[15], and including natural solutions to climate change and reversing biodiversity loss with wide-reaching positive impacts on society and the economy. There are 3 vital elements that are present in part, but not at the scale needed, in the Government response to the proposals:
Partnerships: The scale of the challenges cannot be tackled by government and the private sector alone. It is very clear that we will only achieve the level of buy in and action that we need through proper partnership working – not just between business and government but with local communities and with communities of interest in the arts, culture, environment and care sectors. Together we can create jobs, build the skills base needed and involve everyone[16]. A top down approach simply will not work.
Investment: government cannot fund us out of these crises. They simply cannot afford it. The funds identified in the report are a good starting point. But they must be matched against private investment and leveraged by local ingenuity and charitable sector creativity. That way we may see the scale of investment able to make a positive impact. That investment must also be in the right place and at the right time. The Scottish National Investment Bank has a clear leadership role to play here. In meeting its mission and objectives, it should firmly focus its limited public funding in de-risking green investments and thereby leveraging much greater private investment in initiatives that build back better for society and the planet.
Embedding climate and environmental sustainability into decision making: this is now unavoidable if we are to avoid disasters of massive and long term recession, climate instabilities and uncontrollable ecosystem feedback loops. The Infrastructure Investment Plan for example with 3 strategic outcomes that mirror the green wellbeing economy outcomes, and include climate action and nature restoration is a part but must be so far embedded that environmental sustainability is the fundamental basis of economic growth and not an optional add on. Embedding this across Government is a powerful lever to lead and drive change. When it is matched across the rest of society, business and industry, we start to see a very effective mechanism to move towards the future we all want to see.
This all takes ambition, leadership, drive and commitment. With an election coming up, this is what we want to see in Party manifestos ready to be enacted immediately in June[17]. This has to start now: unless such ambition is clearly committed to in Party manifestos, the scale of change we need to see for Scotland to lead by example and come out of the pandemic, the climate emergency and the nature crisis, simply will not be achieved.
[7] United Nations, 2019. Visit to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland: Report of the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights.https://undocs.org/A/HRC/41/39/Add.1
By Dr Phoebe Cochrane, LINK’s sustainable economics officer
Official figures released last week show a 72 percent rise in the amount of waste burned between 2018 and 2019. The increase is largely due to more household waste being incinerated, instead of being landfilled, and corresponds with several new incinerators becoming operational during this period.
This trend is likely to continue as waste is diverted from landfill ahead of the ban of biodegradable municipal waste to Scottish landfills in 2025. Scotland has six operating incinerators, also known as Energy from Waste (EfW) plants, and this number could double within the next few years. Is this a wise trajectory, compatible with net zero ambitions?
A new report by Zero Waste Scotland, ‘The climate change impacts of burning municipal waste in Scotland’, looks in detail at the carbon emissions associated with energy from waste. Based on analysis of the plants operating in Scotland in 2018, it found that sending one tonne of residual waste to EfW emitted, on average, 219 kgCO2e. The average carbon intensity of energy produced was found to be nearly double that of the UK grid average (509 gCO2/kWh compared to 270 gCO2/kWh). The report shows that this is sensitive to technology type, with the one Heat Only plant having a significantly lower impact; and composition of material burnt, particularly plastic content. However, it is fair to say that energy from municipal waste is not low carbon.
Incineration has also been shown to impede improvements in recycling rates, since often some of the material burnt could have been recycled or composted. The fear is that building more incinerators will further hamper efforts to increase re-use and recycling and reduce our residual waste, as the companies contracted to run incinerators require councils to provide them with ‘fuel’ in the form of waste.
In Denmark, the government has recently decided that, in order to reduce carbon emissions, they need to incinerate less and recycle more. They will be reducing their incinerator capacity over the coming years and redoubling efforts to increase recycling to achieve a ‘climate neutral’ waste sector by 2030.
Although desirable, it is unrealistic to think that we will be able to use or recycle all our waste – with the best will in the world, we are going to be left with some residual waste; so we do need a plan of how to treat it. A recent report from Zero Waste Europe provides what appears to be a practical solution: Material Recovery and Biological Treatment (MRBT) that combines biological treatment, to stabilise fermentable materials still included in residual waste, with sorting, to recover materials which can be recycled. This ensures that the negative impacts of residuals are reduced when landfilled, and at the same time keeps the flexibility required to continuously improve the performance of waste management systems.
The Zero Waste Scotland report mentioned above looks at various scenarios for managing our residual waste and finds that a strategy that includes this approach could offer the lowest greenhouse gas impacts, but notes that more research is needed.
It is also worth considering the fiscal environment. Should we be taxing waste going to incineration in the same way as we do for landfill, as is done in the Netherlands and Sweden? The Scottish Government does not currently have the powers to introduce such a tax, but the subject was twice debated at the beginning of this year at Westminster, with cross-party support for an incineration tax and a halt to new investment in energy-from-waste facilities.
Scottish Environment LINK has called on the Scottish government to focus on reducing waste through developing a more circular economy and increased re-use and recycling, and and we urge it to develop a waste strategy that is in line with our net-zero and circular economy ambitions.
We will be holding a webinar on November 10th to discuss management options for residual waste. If you are interested in taking part, please contact phoebe@scotlink.org.
The global pandemic has proven that people are far more vulnerable than many of us thought. However, the response to the COVID-19 pandemic has illustrated the power, resilience and potential of grassroots and community-led action. There have been many inspiring examples of how community and voluntary organisations have stepped up to meet the huge challenges that the pandemic poses. As we start to shift from emergency response to planning for the ‘new normal’, we should all be asking ourselves how we can support and strengthen the kindness, solidarity and energy that has been shown in our communities.
The meanings, applications and implications of the concept of ‘resilience’ are contested, varied and not well understood. A definition of resilience needs to recognise that it’s not necessarily about bouncing back to the status quo but the ability to shift and adapt to a fundamental shift in circumstances. Community resilience describes the sustained ability of communities to withstand, adapt to, and recover from adversity. Community resilience must be at the heart of a green recovery.
Amid the resulting uncertainty, a window of hope and opportunity opens: an opportunity to shape the economy in ways that are greener, cleaner, healthier and more resilient. We must seize the opportunity to transform how we understand, plan, finance and respond to risks. We must integrate climate resilience into decisions at all levels of government, local authorities and communities. Communities have a role to play but are not often able to affect systemic change. However, supporting communities to be more sustainable will empower them to respond better to challenges arising from issues such as climate change and the nature crisis. In the context of a green recovery, we must harness community energy and enthusiasm. Scotland’s geography and history has led to the creation of diverse communities: from remote highland and island villages and towns, to the cosmopolitan cities of the central belt. Communities are best placed to make decisions and act themselves, shaped by their own local geographies and demographics.
Healthy ecosystems help increase the resilience of Scotland’s communities to the impacts of climate change. Securing these through an ‘ecosystems approach’ means taking account of the benefits that nature provides for people and involving people and communities in decision-making. Scotland has multiple organisations offering a diverse range of projects which support and enable communities to connect with nature and ‘green’ their lifestyle to have a positive impact on the planet. Community projects empower individuals to build an understanding of the nature and climate crises by increasing access to green space and improving mental and physical health through connection to nature. Keep Scotland Beautiful campaigns, acts and educates on a range of local, national and global environmental issues to change behaviour and improve the quality of people’s lives and the places they care for.
Barry Fisher, Chief Executive of Keep Scotland Beautiful said:
“Throughout the challenges of the past seven months, Keep Scotland Beautiful has been consistently struck by the resilience and ingenuity of community groups, normally focused on improving our neighbourhoods and climate, in leading positive action to help us get through this difficult time. From Climate Challenge Fund-supported projects such as Bike for Good in Glasgow, which at the height of the pandemic provided free loan bikes and virtual route planning to key workers, to It’s Your Neighbourhood groups such as the Darkwood Crew in Renfrewshire, which distributed food, picked up prescriptions and even hosted a ‘social isolation bingo bus’, the groups we work with have shown incredible energy and creativity in supporting their local communities and helping maintain a sense of social cohesion and solidarity. We firmly believe that recent months have shown the huge potential of community-led action in driving and catalysing positive change, and that a truly effective response to the climate and nature emergencies in Scotland needs to be one that makes the most of what communities have to offer.”
Communities must be viewed as assets and as key actors in both preparedness and long-term resilience. Building public understanding of the nature and climate crises can be a challenge. However, we need to understand what engages and motivates people to respond. Over lockdown, people shifted their relationship to the natural environment at a time when access to shared outdoor space has rarely been so difficult. However, the current lockdown is proving challenging for millions of people across the country who do not have access to greenspace. Greenspace provides important mental and physical benefits for people as well as helping to conserve biodiversity and reverse nature’s decline so that wildlife can thrive, not just survive. Improving the quality of our urban and rural environment is vital if we are to deliver on our ambition to make Scotland a greener, fairer and more resilient country. An example of a charity championing access to the countryside is Ramblers Scotland. Their work involves looking after paths and green spaces, leading walks and encouraging people to get outside and connect to nature.
Helen Todd, Campaigns and Policy Manager of Ramblers Scotland said:
“We have around 1,200 Ramblers volunteer walk leaders across Scotland and each of our 55 Ramblers groups, from Wigtownshire to Inverness, has a programme of regular walks. We all know how important it is for our health and wellbeing to get outdoors all year round, and it’s particularly important now to build personal resilience in order to cope with the Covid-19 Pandemic. There are particular benefits to walking in a group. These include maintaining social contact, building communities and keeping motivated, especially in the winter months when it can be difficult to get out of the door. Older people are supported to keep active through the group walks, but we also have thriving young walker groups who make the most of opportunities to get outdoors together and learn the skills they need.”
Green space, growing, food production and increasing biodiversity have enormous benefits to building sustainable and resilient communities with a wealth of evidence available in terms of benefits of health and wellbeing, community cohesion, ecology and climate change adaptation. Civil society organisations such as Keep Scotland Beautiful and Ramblers Scotland strengthen partnership working between people, government and organisations as well as facilitating public engagement. Coronavirus has reminded us of what is important; looking after each other and our communities. The local layer of action and national initiatives must work alongside each other. National plans are essential for achieving fast and systematic change; however, they must be designed to work with and alongside a local layer of action. Community led action offers a massive and largely untapped opportunity to address the nature and climate crises. To build back a better and greener economy, we need to see this community resurgence as a power source. Communities must be empowered to take the economy on as we rescue, recover and reform in the wake of Covid-19.
Juliet Caldwell
Species Champion Coordinator at Scottish Environment LINK
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