Here we are at the start of 2025. We’re half way through the UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration and half way towards the Global Biodiversity Framework target to ‘take urgent action to halt and reverse biodiversity loss to put nature on a path to recovery for the benefit of people and planet’. We also have the Paris agreement target, which states that to ‘limit global warming to 1.5°C, greenhouse gas emissions must peak before 2025 at the latest and decline 43% by 2030’. So with five years left, where are we at the start of 2025, and what can we do to change things?
We know that 2024 was the first year to exceed 1.5oC above pre-industrial levels (Copernicus Global Climate Highlights 2024). The 2023 State of Nature Scotland report confirmed that 11% of species in Scotland are threatened by extinction. Key pressures on Scotland’s species are still pollution, agriculture, unsustainable sea use, climate change and invasive non-native species. Scotland’s Biodiversity Intactness Index, which measures the health of our ecosystems, is amongst the lowest in the G7 countries.
These statistics and pressures have not changed since the 2019 State of Nature Scotland report, despite another three years of policy making. How, then, can we make the kind of changes that are now even more urgently needed, within a tighter timescale and with rising evidence of irreversible change?
The changes I think we need to put in place in order to turn these statistics around include:
- Much swifter uptake of low emissions technology, particularly in transport and energy use
- Putting nature connectivity at the centre of land use decision making and planning, as an essential and non-negotiable part of our national infrastructure
- Changes in marine management to protect critical and vulnerable marine habitats
- Funding to enable investment in nature friendly farming and fishing
- Deer management to reduce deer numbers to sustainable levels
And here’s what I believe needs to happen in Scotland’s political and policy-making sphere to make these changes possible:
Building momentum
The next Scottish election is in 2026: the environment and the nature and climate emergencies in particular need to be above party politics. That means building momentum in putting in place key incentives and investment to protect against future expense and higher levels of damage.
Regulation
Actions that contribute to climate change and biodiversity loss must be regulated against, with fair protections to enable changes to be made in a timely fashion. These necessary regulations must not be derailed by party politics or electioneering.
Public goods
The public good of a healthy environment, resilient to change and able to support vital ecosystem services, must be pursued wholeheartedly by Scottish Government who cannot afford to be diverted by vested interests looking to maximise their own agendas to the detriment of the environment.
Information
Mis-information and dis-information about climate change, and the environment must be called out and neutralised.
Just transition
Scotland’s Just Transition ambitions must be delivered so that local communities can build, see and support their own sustainable future.
International leadership
Scotland’s role in international politics must be harnessed: Scotland has a reputation in global politics as a forward thinking, outlooking country with leading climate and environmental reputation. Demonstrating leadership from 2025 onwards, in our increasingly fractured world, is a key role for Scotland, helping others commit to standards to achieve a sustainable future for young people and the planet
All this must happen against the background of a new president in the United States whose anti-environment agenda runs counter to a sustainable future for the planet. With one of the world’s most powerful countries out of action on climate and biodiversity it is going to fall to other states to provide the leadership and vision the planet and our global future requires.
It’s not easy to see where this is going to come from. But it is clear that 2025 is most definitely not the time to row back or delay on action. Science and our own day to day experiences are telling us all we must act now.
Dr Deborah Long, Chief Executive at Scottish Environment LINK
Image: Calum McLennan