The Fight for Scotland’s Nature campaign has been pushing for an independent, well-resourced watchdog.
New EU Continuity Bill a welcome step forward, say charities.
Scottish Environment LINK, a coalition of Scotland’s leading charities has today welcomed the Scottish government’s announcement of a new EU Continuity Bill to safeguard vital environmental protections that would otherwise be lost in December this year, at the end of the Brexit transition period.
The coalition has also warned that the draft law must be significantly strengthened in a number of areas in order to ensure Scotland’s natural environment doesn’t lose out from weakened protection once we leave the EU.
Deborah Long, Chief Officer of Scottish Environment LINK, said:
“We welcome the arrival of this crucial piece of legislation to secure key environmental protections in Scotland post-Brexit. This is an important step to keep Scotland’s high environmental standards in place for the years ahead, however, we know that with a Bill of this complexity the devil will be in the detail.
“We will be examining the Scottish government’s proposals in detail to ensure the new watchdog is fully independent and well-resourced, backed up by strong environmental principles. Whilst we support the direction of travel in the Bill, a first glance shows that some work will be needed to ensure the Principles and Governance requirements meet the standards needed to safeguard Scotland’s amazing nature long into the future.”
During the Covid-19 lockdown many people have started to garden more. It is a good thing to see sales of vegetable seeds soaring, so much so that they have been hard to find. Initially, at least, it was also difficult to obtain other necessary garden products and I struggled to get hold of peat-free compost. I saw this as an encouraging sign that many gardeners are now moving away from buying horticultural peat compost and using some of the many alternatives now on the market.
Alternatives are crucial as voluntary targets have been in place across the UK for some time with the aim of ending the sale of horticultural peat by 2020 and the use of peat in professional sectors by 2030. LINK published benchmarks on peat extraction and use by 2020[1]. None of these have been met.
The reason for these targets is the massive carbon savings that can be made by keeping peat in the ground, peatlands being one of the world’s largest natural carbon stores. For thousands of years, humans have mined peatlands for fuel and fertiliser, but the extent of worldwide peatland destruction means that governments are now taking action to restore and protect these boggy places. Peatlands actually take in carbon from the atmosphere, helping to tackle climate change as well as being vital habitats for wildlife.
In the past 200 years there has been a dramatic decline in the area of lowland raised bogs [2]. In Scotland the area of bog retaining a largely undisturbed surface is estimated to have diminished by over 90% from an original 28,000 ha to 2,500 ha [3]. Raised bogs and blanket bogs are not just important habitats for rare and threatened wildlife, they also play a role in the storage and regulation of huge amounts of carbon and water, helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and prevent local flooding. Globally, peatlands are estimated to hold up to one third of the Earth’s terrestrial carbon, despite only covering about 3% of the world’s surface.
If our peatlands dry out, they can no longer store as much carbon for us and our rivers may no longer protect us from flooding if rainfall levels rise. Over time, there is also the potential for positive feedback within the carbon cycle to lead to an increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and a worsening of the effects of climate change.
With Scotland aiming to have net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045, the Scottish Government has recognised that our peatlands are a low hanging fruit when it comes to tackling climate change. In January, they announced they would provide £20 million for peatland restoration in 2020-21 with a commitment to invest £250 million over the next ten years. This was described as “an absolute game changer for CO2 emissions reductions, biodiversity and the rural economy” by Roseanna Cunningham, Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform. However, the Scottish Government has recently been criticised for its lack of data on how much peat is actually extracted, as it currently doesn’t keep records. Environmental bodies in LINK have raised concerns about the lack of monitoring and information which is key to ensuring the practice is phased out effectively.
It is also concerning that three planning applications to extend the duration of peatland extraction have recently been lodged, two in Dumfries and Galloway [4] and one in South Lanarkshire [5], which would enable operations to continue on existing peat extraction sites into the 2030s.
LINK member organisations have sent joint objection letters to the local authorities stating that any further peat extraction will undermine Scotland’s net zero target and specifically be contrary to the Council’s obligations under the Climate Change (Scotland) Act (2009). The applications also run contrary to minerals and planning policies. We sincerely hope that the applications will be refused, as this is a no brainer in terms of working towards Scotland’s climate change targets. Not only that, if the Government is spending millions of taxpayers’ money on peatland restoration projects it seems more than a little mad to continue to grant permissions to extract it, particularly when good alternatives are available.
Finding good alternatives is crucial: peatland is a valuable commodity across the world and essential to our efforts to tackle climate change. We need to not only halt extraction in Scotland, which is damaging vital habitats, removing fundamental ecosystem services including carbon storage, but we also need to build demand for peat free alternatives to prevent the problem being exported.
The Covid crisis and associated lockdown has brought into sharp focus many aspects of our life, our society and our economy; what is important to us and how well equipped we are to deal with sudden shocks. The recovery package being considered by the Scottish Government offers an opportunity to set our economy on a different trajectory – one that puts people and the environment first.
Prior to the recent abrupt downturn in economic activity, our economy was eating its way through the world’s natural resources at a rate that was both unsustainable from an environmental point of view and undesirable from an economic resilience point of view. The world’s consumption of materials has hit a record of 100 bn tonnes a year, and the proportion being recycled is falling – was the sobering headline from January’s Circularity Gap report.
What’s more, the quantity of raw materials consumed is a key driver of our climate and nature emergencies. The 2019 Global Resource Outlook shows that extracting and processing raw materials is responsible for half the world’s carbon emissions and 80% of biodiversity loss and the consumption of natural resources, which has tripled since the 1970’s, is set to further double by 2060. Unsurprisingly, Western societies are the main culprits. We are consuming far more than our fair share and if everyone lived like UK citizens, we would need about 3 Earths to sustain ourselves, according to ecological footprint data.
Currently we are incredibly wasteful – we generally grow or extract raw materials, make products, use them and then, at the end of their life, discard them. We need to re-programme our economy to extract less from the planet, reuse what we’ve already taken and reduce our waste. This is called a circular economy.
The economic fallout from Covid is going to be huge and governments around the world are thinking about recovery packages. The Scottish Government has committed to a green recovery. We need a more circular economy to be a key focus.
There is public support for this – people do not like waste and are becoming increasingly aware of the impact of our consumptive lifestyle. In a recent survey, over 70% of respondents agreed with the statement that Scotland needs an overall reduction in the amount of raw materials that are used.
Now is the time for a purposeful redirection to a less wasteful, and more circular, restorative and resilient economy.
To achieve this, the Government needs to draw on the expertise in Zero Waste Scotland where there is a wealth of knowledge on different aspects of a more circular economy. Government needs to follow the recommendations of the Infrastructure Commission and make sure that investments in infrastructure support and enable a less polluting and less wasteful economy. It needs to engage with repair and re-use enterprises, to learn about how best to support this sector – a recent survey shows that the Scottish public want repairable products and feel that the Scottish Government should make sure they have access to repair and reuse services as well as recycling services. It needs to think about supply chains and how to close loops. The current crisis has exposed the vulnerability of our global economy and international supply chains. It needs to remember that enterprises that use the land and sea need to be restorative and support those that actively look after the soil, biodiversity and the sea.
Also important in the recovery is what we don’t support. For too long, good initiatives have been supported alongside business as usual. It is time to be bold and decisive – governments need to invest in the infrastructure and enterprises that will contribute to the type of economy we aspire to and to not support practices that lock us into a linear, polluting and wasteful economy. Support for such enterprises, should be conditional on commitments and plans to change.
Let’s hope that a more circular economy is one of the positive outcomes of this difficult time.
Dr Phoebe Cochrane is the Sustainable Economics Officer at Scottish Environment LINK and leads on the project: A Circular Economy for a Fairer Footprint
Following the Scottish government’s recent announcement that refusal to extend the Brexit transition would have a damaging impact on Scotland’s recovery from the Covid-19 crisis [1], Scottish Environment LINK (LINK), a coalition of Scotland’s leading environmental charities has warned that the accompanying loss of EU environmental protections for Scotland would also put at risk ambitions for a post COVID-19 green recovery.
Currently 1 in 9 wildlife species in Scotland is facing extinction [2]. LINK has warned of this threat and has urged for urgent measures to help prevent a further decline of Scotland’s nature and to avoid undermining a green recovery for Scotland.
Since 2018, more than 35 organisations joined forces under the coalition LINK to launch the campaign, Fight for Scotland’s Nature, to push for legally binding targets for the protection of Scotland’s nature and an action plan for delivery. This included calling for a new and independent watchdog to enforce environmental protections after Brexit.
As much as, 80% of Scotland’s environmental protection stem from EU legislation [3].The charities now fear that Scotland’s natural environment will be put at further risk if time runs out to negotiate a comprehensive deal on the EU exit by the end of the year. Both the UK and Scottish governments need to ensure that measures are established to protect Scotland’s world-renowned natural assets before we leave the EU. Together, the charities also warn that much work needs to be done to put in place strong and lasting environmental protections and to have legislation that is meaningful and adequate.
Proposals for a Scottish environmental watchdog had been due to be set out in the Scottish government’s Continuity Bill this past spring. With the legislation delayed as the government responds to the pandemic, time is now running out to ensure key protections for the environment are developed and in place by the end of 2020, when the transition period to leave the EU ends.
Deborah Long, Chief Officer of Scottish Environment LINK said,
“The unprecedented health and economic challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic have posed challenges to governments at all levels. Despite this, there remains the huge and vital challenge of tackling the continued loss of nature and climate change, reversing the declines of habitats and species. We need a new environmental watchdog with the powers to independently safeguard our natural assets and enforce their protection so that they are not eroded and undermine Scotland’s green recovery. Many of us have relied on nature for our wellbeing during the lockdown; it’s now time for us to fight for Scotland’s nature.”
Media enquiries to:
Azra Wyart on 07788437819/mediaandeventsscotland@gmail.com
A blog by Juliet Caldwell, Species Champion Coordinator at Scottish Environment LINK.
The last few weeks have seen an unprecedented and disruptive change to our daily lives in a bid to keep us safe. In a time of uncertainty, what is certain is that the current situation and the advice regarding social distancing and self-isolation will have a massive impact on our mental health and overall sense of wellbeing.
The human-nature relationship is an important one. Studies across the world are clarifying what many instinctively know; that we often feel restored when we spend time in nature. Over the past few years mounting research has shown that interactions with nature lowers blood pressure and decreases levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which calms the body’s fight or flight response. Most research has focused on the visual aspects of nature experiences. However, humans are multi-sensory and benefits are delivered through non-visual senses such as sound, smell, taste and touch. Watching birds and listening to bird song can help filter away stress.
Globally, people are shifting their relationship to the natural environment at a time when access to shared outdoor space has rarely been so difficult. The COVID-19 pandemic may be a chance to shift perceptions of what “nature” really means and finding new hyper-local ways to appreciate it. At a time when the mental health effects of mass isolation and anxiety over a rising death toll are still unmeasured and unknown, experts have highlighted the importance of getting up close with nature in whatever way possible. Vitamin D from the sunshine boosts immune systems and bone health. Immersion in greenery has been linked to reduction of stress, healthier heart rates and blood pressure.
However, the current lockdown is proving challenging for millions of people across the country who do not have access to greenspace. Access to greenspaces has become a luxury, despite access to them being fundamental to our ability to stay healthy. Public parks have closed their gates and neighbourhoods are losing vital access to green space. While strict isolation rules have been implemented to keep us safe, not having access to nature in an outdoor space has dangerous knock-on effects on physical and mental health for many. However, an increased quantity and quality of green space won’t just benefit us – it’ll help conserve biodiversity and reverse nature’s decline so that wildlife can thrive, not just survive.
Our opportunities to engage with nature may be fewer during the pandemic but there are numerous ways to stay connected to the natural world and look after your wellbeing. Noticing nature through a window, tending plants or taking green exercise all can improve your well-being and self-esteem. We are currently watching spring unfold, a symbol of renewal and regeneration. Humans are inherently social, and the prospect of forced isolation has led many of us to reconnect with nature. Nature will nurture us. However, the relationship will only survive and remain balanced if it is reciprocated.
There’s nothing good about the coronavirus pandemic. Since we’re fated to go through this passage, we may as well learn something from it. There are a few insights to learn. The COVID-19 crisis has seen humans act with unprecedented solidarity. It is abundantly clear now that prevention is better than cure. The pandemic has revealed some truths: that disasters do not respect borders; that solidarity brings strength; that science and expert advice matter; and that delay is deadly. The same lessons hold true for today’s nature crisis, where nature, in Scotland and across the world is diminishing in terms of species diversity and habitat occupation. While the pandemic was sudden and will be temporal, the impacts of nature loss is incremental, but also severe and persistent. Without support and investment, nature cannot continue to provide the wellbeing and livelihoods we depend on.
People around the world are realising the importance of nature for our wellbeing. The world has come to a standstill and we’ve never had so much free time. People are turning to gardening and small-scale agricultural activities. We have time to reflect upon our relationship with nature. People of all ages are craving open spaces; realising the wellbeing and health benefits of being in nature. We need nature more than ever, as a solution, as a resource, for respite and for our mental health and wellbeing. Appreciating nature and having access to it has never been so important.
When planning for this event, no one could ever have predicted how this theme would come to serve not only its original purpose – to focus minds on creative synergistic solutions to the twin biodiversity and climate emergencies – but also to resonate with such profound clarity as we move through the global pandemic and look towards a fundamentally transformed future.
The collective realisation that the way this transformation will unfold lies in our hands, that, despite collective loss and suffering, despite recession and job losses, we stand at a uniquely unfrozen moment, is tangible.
People are already beginning to find and take the opportunities inherent in our new context, to work towards a better world.
In New Zealand, a country with a human population virtually identical to Scotland’s, the government this week announced a $1.1 billion investment to create 11,000 new environment-based jobs[1]. The focus and thrust of this investment is the restoration of nature: regional environment projects; the control of invasive species and biosecurity to prevent future problems; new jobs in the statutory conservation agencies’ programmes for protected areas and beyond, including species and habitat monitoring; and a new budget to fund biodiversity restoration on both public and private land.
Also this week, the European Commission is releasing its long-awaited Biodiversity Strategy – but in a progressive move, simultaneously launching its Farm to Fork Strategy. Agriculture and fishing are among the most important drivers of biodiversity loss across the planet. The simultaneous launch signals that a new norm may be emerging in Europe – where food production and nature work to mutual benefit for a healthy and sustainable future. LINK organisations have yet to analyse the detail of these strategies, but initial indications are promising: they aim to increase nature protected areas on land and at sea by 30%; to restore 10% of farmland for biodiversity, with more and better managed field margins, hedgerows and wildflower areas; to introduce binding nature restoration targets, to restore ecosystems such as peatlands, wetlands, forests and marine habitats – essential nature-based solutions for an effective package of climate change mitigation and adaptation.
The COVID-19 pandemic must offer lessons for us all. For me, it has brought home the simple fact that a healthy planet is a precondition for healthy human societies and personal wellbeing; that science and evidence should guide and direct policy; and that crises must be acted on quickly if we are to gain and effect control.
These two developments, at contrasting geographic scales and in distant parts of the world, hopefully signal that such lessons from the pandemic are beginning to be learned, and that this learning is being put into practice quickly and decisively.
We all know that despite the sudden and intense shift of focus that the pandemic brought us, the climate and biodiversity emergencies have not gone away. The State of Nature 2019 report[2] tells us that we are losing nature in Scotland. The IPBES Global Assessment[3] tells us that transformative change is needed to reverse such losses and avoid severe damage to human wellbeing from ecosystems degradation.
Scotland’s Environment Strategy and Programme for Government point to an intent to address these crises effectively in future. We already lead in key areas like peatland restoration. Now we are seeing strategic and practical post-Covid developments emerging across the world that signal new and progressive ways forward. I believe that with investment and imagination Scotland can join these leaders – and that a better future is in our grasp.
A blog by Professor James Curran MBE, Chair of the James Hutton Institute and Honorary Fellow of Scottish Environment LINK.
As I write this, the world-wide battle against Covid-19 is underway. In every country, Governments are taking unprecedented action and mobilising enormous financial resources. In the UK there are the first signs of a reduction in hospitalisations and, hopefully, the appalling rate of fatalities will soon decline.
The emergency arose, at least partly, both due to a lack of preparation, even though a pandemic was recognised many years ago as a likely global threat (eg see Fig1 of the World Economic Forum Global Risks 2015 report), and due to a lack of resilience in public and private services. National governments have an over-riding responsibility to provide security for their citizens and every unnecessary fatality, due to poor preparation, is a great sadness and also an inexcusable failure.
We have been witnessing thatgovernments, in extreme circumstances, can take extraordinary powers and have the ability toembrace innovation and take decisions at unprecedented speed. We have also seen that market-based solutions have provided little or no protection to citizens. These lessons must be learnt.
As we turn around the crisis and look towards the exit strategy, then there should be demands for the recovery packages to create a world that is better equipped to respond to such emergencies. We should not tolerate a repeat of the 2008 financial crash, the aftermath of which fundamentally changed very little. It is unacceptable to have an economy which can be facing ruin within a few weeks of the emergence of a new virus. The recovery pathway, this time, will set the direction for decades to come. That recovery may well, and hopefully will, be quite rapid with suggestions that pre-Covid GDP may be attained as early as 2021/22. So, thought must be given to the future.
The current world-wide financial support packages and future stimulus packages are already, and most certainly will,farexceed those mobilised in 2008. Those packages must mainstream sustainability and there is likely to be increasing demand for them to focus significantly on social care, social support and health resilience.
The UN Sustainable Development Goals provide an existing model on which to shape the recovery and the European Commission, at the end of 2019, also released it thoughts on a European Green Deal, emphasising the need for a set of deeply transformative policies and a global response. Although specifically targeting the climate and ecosystem emergencies, the proposals set out “to protect the health and wellbeing of citizens from environment-related risks and impacts”. With suggestions that Covid-19 emerged as a result of poor wildlife regulation in China, this European document is certainly well-timed.
In Scottish terms, the proposals align well with our aspirations for inclusive and sustainable economic growth.It is time to create smarter, climate-proofed infrastructure, develop regenerative agriculture, mainstream multi-modal public transport, reform taxation to reflect externalities, and to pursue a low-resource circular economy – all with much increased ambition. This time round, disaster recovery must treat people as part of the solution, and not as an aspect to be managed. Unlike 2008, this emergency really has been shared; the virus has attacked right around the world and attacked both rich and poor. Most of us have relied very heavily on the commitment of service-providers, previously marginalised and often described as low-skill, and certainly low pay. It is to be hoped that greater degrees of solidarity may emerge.
You would expect me to argue that the combined climate and nature emergencyis, and most certainly will become, a challenge that will dwarf even that presented by Covid-19. It has been declared an “emergency” by many authorities and yet the actual response has been insignificant compared to that marshalled against the Coronavirus. The scale of the climate challenge is considerable. For example, a drop of 10% in global GDP in 2020, with a return towards normal in 2021, probably only gives us an extra 3 weeks over the next 30 years to meet the necessary emissions targets. See Figure 1 here for more detail.
Climate change demands global co-operation; it demands behaviour change; it demands public and private investment. However, it doesn’t have the immediacy of the pandemic and it hasn’t established a shared emotion as a powerful driver for change – at least not yet.
So, there will be a struggle to get voices heard for a new approach in amongst the demands, by many and varied interests, for our society and economy to be rebuilt rapidly and on the lines of the status quo. Partnerships like LINK, which take the longer view,should be prepared to shout loudly to be heard above the tumult.
We must marshal the arguments and appeal to the post-Covid sentiment. We need a countryand an economy that is prepared for shocks in the future and that protects its citizens and lifestyles. Indeed, Core Cities UK, a partnership of the UK’s major cities outside London, has suggested this is the time for “reimagining the future of cities.”
Scotland has a broad-based economy and should be well-placed to emerge stronger and more resilient. We have strengths in technology and innovation, in renewable energies, in food & drink, and in the financial sector, particularly insurance. Very low interest rates offer opportunities for public and private investment on an unprecedented scale to rebuild our social and environmental fabric.
Many experts, including LINK, continue to prepare the pathway to a better future and to ensure we have the information which allows us to be ready for the impacts of climate change,and indeed to seize some of the opportunities that will be presented. It will be more important than ever to create a dedicated national green recovery package that will support jobs and livelihoods that will endure, in renewable technologies and in the circular economy. These will be jobs that are more locally based and that add greater value along the supply and delivery chains. They are jobs that will not continue to undermine and exploit our environment and the life support systems provided by nature. Indeed, we must invest in nature-based solutions and green infrastructure, and improved access to life-enhancing natural environments,on a scale and in extent not seen before. The demands of climate change mitigation and adaptation must be addressed simultaneously. We can create a better, socially more just, more economically robust, and a happier and healthier place to live, here in Scotland.
Scientists predicted a global pandemic. It appeared on global risk registers. But we weren’t ready.
Scientists predict a climate and nature emergency. It appears on risk registers. This time we must prepare.
A blog by Kevin Lelland, head of development and communications at the John Muir Trust and a Trustee of Scottish Environment LINK
It’s the black swan of our time. Few of us could have imagined how our lives and society could change so dramatically and quickly by an insidious pandemic that affects all of us and especially the poor, vulnerable, key workers and those who have lost loved ones to Covid-19. For government, businesses and charities alike decisions have by necessity been taken quickly.
For those who can, work from home has been implemented and where the ability to sustain a job role is hindered by personal circumstances or ability to work, the UK government has supported individuals and organisations with a furlough scheme (at the time of writing, until the end of May 2020).
It’s a situation that all of us within the Environment LINK network are getting to grips with and dependent on the current state of each our organisations there are difficult decisions being made that aim to support staff, continue to fulfil the purpose of our charities and all while we try to assess how to secure the long-term health of our organisation when the future is so uncertain.
What is clear is that almost all environmental NGOs will now need to start thinking about what a streamlined organisation looks like in the coming months and what it (and we as a collective) can now achieve for nature, people, communities and the environment during the rest of this year.
As we embark on this next stage here’s six aspects those who manage teams will need to consider…
1) Transparency. It’ll be important to lead the transition to a streamlined team based on values and virtues first. Any decisions made on furloughing and the rationale used will need to be communicated clearly with all your team. Share with everyone in your organisation the need to deal with each other, more so now than ever, with respect, candour, fairness and consistency. Set the example and aim for transparent work methods and communications that seek input across all colleagues as appropriate and ask and expect for comment and ideas without drama. This is a stressful time in which each of your team will be affected differently, but many aspects of work can remain calm and measured.
2) Team work. Make sure regular team meetings and one to one meetings with line managers are a top priority. Ask that they have a clear purpose and agendas that result in positive actions. Encourage active listening and that colleagues seek advice from each other, address uncertainty, give due praise and provide encouragement and support. Look to foster trust by making sure people are clear on what is expected of them, with adjusted roles in place and explanations on how that contributes to the streamlined team. Consider investing more time and energy on internal communications during this period, thinking not just about modern technologies, but also how to strike a balance between process and culture. Look at ways to keep those on furlough informed of what is happening in the organisation and look at how you can also support them to have an option to stay in touch with colleagues in a personal capacity, for example, through work based social media groups. Think about who is best placed to support and champion your desired messages and behaviours inside the organisation.
3) External communications. Look at what you can communicate externally, thinking carefully about volume and frequency with a focus on values-based messaging and the tone of voice that is most relevant to society right now. For the environmental sector values such as unity with nature and health and well-being as part of nature should come to the fore. Be aware of how you communicate any short-term gains or ‘case studies’ we see for the environment as a result of the pandemic, it’ll likely be more effective to focus on the long-term systematic changes our planet needs to make. Are your messages framed to be positive and inclusive and do they balance emotive messages with facts? You can also look at where there could be advantages by increasing investment in specific tactics and or brand awareness especially if timed correctly and as a result of a clear opportunity to address an increased understanding in society of the need to shift behaviours as a result of the pandemic.
4) Positioning. Consider where there will be opportunities to position your organisation and its work as a result of the pandemic. Like any major disruptor that emerges in society, it’ll be those who act, react and interact with the situation as is, not as was, that will go forward, meet their objectives and be supported by people in the future. We may find that if society changes the way it operates due to the pandemic, so too will some charities need to change how they fulfil their purpose. Make space to consider where you might need or want to change what you do, start to think through the rationale and narrative of that now, and the pace at which you can realistically do this given the immediate focus on the current impact on your team and finances – you can go too fast and too slow. Be clear on what resources and activities you need to prioritise. Identify and share with your teams where this could be an opportunity to instigate long-term cultural and operational changes and seek other ideas. Many of us are already being forced to pilot and test new ways of home working, what else might be ideal to test or pilot at this time?
5) People. Our people make our organisations what they are, often providing the voice that connects our charities to nature and people by providing the insights into the issues we care about and changes we want to see happen. Be empathetic to the situation your team finds itself in and look to find solutions with them while being clear about the challenges and difficult decisions the organisation is facing as a result. With such upheaval in general and in each of our personal circumstances, it’ll be important to think about and share the critical roles everyone is still able to play and how to motivate people in the long-term, even if in the interim some people are furloughed or asked to work reduced hours. Furloughed employees can undertake work-based training and or local volunteering. Some of them may wish and need support to take-up these options.
6) Measurement. Recognise where existing performance indicators are no longer valid. Pay attention to putting key metrics in place during this temporary period and do that with the team who will deliver them. SMART targets will be more important than ever. While getting graphs going up to the right and measuring your effectiveness and efficiencies will remain important, have a clear narrative for the team around the areas where you might reasonably expect ‘performance bumps’. Look to avoid what is known as Simpson’s Paradox where an upward trend can appear in one group of data, but disappears when several groups of data are combined.
Finally, be kind to yourself and others that are having to make difficult decisions, recognising there is no precedent to support or guide many of the conversations we are having. Reach out within your network for advice from those who are grappling with the same challenges. There’s an African proverb that says, if you want to go fast go alone, if you want to go far go together. The latter is very much the attitude I see within the Scottish Environment LINK network and one we should foster during these difficult times.
Thousands of people have died, and thousands more are bereaved. Jobs are lost, businesses destroyed, hopes and plans in tatters. But it could have been even worse.
What if the shops had actually run out of food, not just delivery slots? They didn’t. The massive stocking up, followed by the closure of the entire catering and hospitality sector, created a huge sudden shock to the supply chain. The chain flexed, and it didn’t break.
Of course, for various reasons, many people still don’t have access to food. Government in Scotland, both local and national, is trying to tackle this. But there is no national or global shortage of food.
This resilience in the supply chain is partly about technology, but mostly about trust. Countries didn’t close their borders to trade in food, because they were confident that other countries would keep their borders open. This co-operation has extended to sharing data as well as medical supplies and healthcare workers.
So, what can we learn so far from the Covid-19 crisis about food, climate and nature?
First, that our food system can change rapidly. Overnight, we have stopped eating and drinking outside the home. That’s changing what as well as how we eat.
Food is a key driver of three global challenges – obesity and malnutrition; the collapse of biodiversity; and global heating. If we want to deliver fully on our aspirations for climate, for nature or for public health, we have to change the food system. What we eat is shaped by our food environment, and this crisis has brought home to us how much that environment is shaped by a handful of businesses. The power they hold should be used responsibly.
Beyond the crisis, supermarkets should be making it easier for us to buy and eat what we need to stay well with a healthy, balanced diet. They could and should be reducing the environmental impact of the food they sell, both in terms of climate and nature; for example, by supporting agroecology and by reducing supply chain waste and enabling more plant-based eating.
There have been baby steps of change in this direction, but we now know that new can become normal in a couple of days. That’s why it’s especially disappointing that the Scottish Government’s Good Food Nation Bill is another inevitable casualty of the virus, when it has the potential to bring about the level of change we want to see in a sustainable and socially just society.
Second, this crisis has shown that countries can take rapid and drastic action – whatever it takes – and get support from their citizens. And they can work together to confront a challenge. There could have been some more visible global leadership, but in this real emergency after some early wobbles countries are co-operating in the common interest rather than manoeuvring for advantage. The level of future international co-operation will determine whether this crisis generates a green recovery or a grey depression – neither is inevitable.
Third, that people can get left behind in a transition. For some of us in the UK, so far this has been an inconvenience but not a disaster. Many people have kept their jobs and are being paid as normal, even if they have had to adjust their lifestyle and the way they work. But millions have lost their livelihoods overnight because of events for which they were not responsible. The parallels with climate change are all too obvious.
While most people in the UK are food secure, millions are experiencing food insecurity. There are two groups affected. First, those most vulnerable to the impact of the virus, who have been told to stay at home and whose normal ways of getting food have been disrupted. Government has been slow but is now following up its message to stay home with a coordinated system to make sure people are getting the food they need. Similarly, cash or food is now being put in place for children eligible for free school meals.
The second group are the people whose income is wholly inadequate to meet their living costs: those who have lost their income and have had to turn to Universal Credit and personal loans within a week or two; and the people who were already food insecure before this crisis hit – including many refugees and asylum-seekers who have no recourse to public funds. Food banks and new community level charity efforts are springing up across the UK in light of the lack of coordinated response to this need.
The Scottish Government’s investment of £350 million to strengthen the Scottish Welfare Fund and support the efforts of local authorities and communities is very welcome. Communities have a vital part to play in enhancing our wellbeing, but it must not be left to a scramble of well-meaning charities to pick up the pieces. Not at this time, and not afterwards. When the grip of this crisis has passed, we should remember seven words:
Food matters Whatever it takes Just transition
Pete Ritchie is the Director of Nourish Scotland and the convener of Scottish Environment LINK’s Food and Farming Group.
A version of this blog featured in The Scotsman on 14 April 2020.
Today, more than ever before, we need to focus on the essentials for everyone: good living and working conditions, clean water and air, a thriving natural world, a safe climate for the next generation, and strong and functioning democracies that will continue to protect us in times of need. Today, we also need hope: hope that the future, once we emerge from the current crisis, will be a better one for us all. Focussing on this may help us now.
We now know that the two hugely important UN environment summits in 2020 have been postponed: the Climate COP26 hosted by Glasgow will now take place in 2021 and the date of the October Nature COP15 in Kunming, China, is being adjusted. When the rescheduled Climate and Nature COPs get underway in 2021, they need to deliver on the world’s priorities.
This was the only decision that could have been made at this juncture and it is the right decision for the wellbeing of our international society. We are in the midst of global pandemic where governments, health workers and communities across the world are putting all their resources and mental and physical energy into combatting this pandemic as it continues to kill thousands of people across the world. Our NHS workers are doing an amazing job. They need the reassurance that we learn the lessons of this pandemic so we prevent future ones but have in place the structures for a better response if needed.
However, 2020 had been seen as a year of hope for the environment: there was the explicit acknowledgement from governments, with the Scottish Government a welcome early leader, of the climate emergency and the nature crisis. With Scotland playing a key role in both COPs, we had high hopes that government and society were finally seeing the environmental impacts we were having across the world as the truly unsustainable impacts they were. We must not lose the hope, however, that when we start to come out of the current crisis, we move forward into a sustainable trajectory – one that counters dangerous climate change, restores nature and builds just societies. Nature sustains us and the interconnectedness between healthy ecosystems and healthy people has been underlined by the pandemic. One is simply not possible without the other.
If anything, the current pandemic, shines an unflinching light on the unsustainable ways the world has been operating. Professor Josef Settele from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ, co-chair of the IPBES Global Assessment Report, noted: “Despite some questions remaining, the global state-of-the art in science undoubtedly shows: The conservation of intact ecosystems and their characteristic biodiversity can reduce the emergence of infectious diseases. Humanity depends on functioning, diverse ecosystems. By destroying ecosystems we are also destroying our livelihoods, as the coronavirus epidemic is showing. That is why we have to join together and commit to transforming our society to protect our foundations of life.”
UN’s environment chief, Inger Andersen has summed it up: “There are too many pressures at the same time on our natural systems and something has to give,” she added. “We are intimately interconnected with nature, whether we like it or not. If we don’t take care of nature, we can’t take care of ourselves. And as we hurtle towards a population of 10 billion people on this planet, we need to go into this future armed with nature as our strongest ally.”
Over the last week, countries are launching stimulus packages to support SMEs, citizens who have lost their jobs or income sources, and the health sector. They are doing this amidst calls to bail out airlines, cruise ship companies, the fossil-fuel sector. We cannot afford to forget that what we spend today will define the future, so we should spend it wisely. Our decision-makers face difficult choices, and it is fundamental that these are carefully considered, that funding decisions are transparent, and that they are conditional on delivering public goods. We cannot afford to allow losses to be nationalised and profits to be privatised as has happened too often in the past.
Under the pressure to act, governments are looking for blueprints for the ideal recovery stimulus package. We would do well, despite Brexit and whatever that brings, to look at the ‘greenprint’ of the European Green Deal. Although not perfect, the framework it offers has the potential to become a truly transformative agenda, driving the decarbonisation of our economies while creating millions of secure jobs and shifting from linear resource-intensive production models to more sustainable circular ones that seek zero waste. This will improve the resilience of our economies. It needs to include effective mechanisms to halt biodiversity loss and resource over-extraction. And to be successful, it must support the resilience of our ecosystems and strengthen our communities. The current crisis has underlined not only the importance of human health to us all, but also the fundamental importance of natural systems with space to function. A framework like the European Green Deal has the potential to put wellbeing of people, built on the wellbeing of nature, at the heart of policies.
In Scotland, work on updating the Climate Change Plan in light of the ambitious emissions reduction targets adopted in September last year has understandably been paused too. However, it is vital that when the grip of this pandemic has eased that attention quickly returns to this necessary update to put us on track to net-zero. Cabinet Secretary Roseanna Cunningham’s statement that the Plan will now contribute to “a green recovery for Scotland” is a welcome sign that the environment will be viewed as central to economy going forward.
For today, and in the coming weeks, we face a choice. It is far from guaranteed that our response to the crisis will be one that bounces us forward to a more sustainable future, and not undermined by responses that prop up polluting activities and that risk creating more problems in the future. The truth is it would be dangerous to return to business as usual after the Covid-19 virus because business as usual gave rise to many of the dangers we still face, not least climate breakdown, catastrophic loss of biodiversity and global plastic pollution. That’s why LINK and our members have been calling for a just transition to a green economy, which values the welfare of workers and our communities and is founded upon healthy and fully functioning ecosystems on a resilient planet. We are looking for a better immediate future for us and a better longer-term future for our children.
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