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We applaud the Scottish Parliamentfor establishing our assembly and the Scottish government’s thoughtful response to our 81 recommendations.
The Scottish government must act urgently. It must stop worrying about what it cannot do and adopt a positive attitude, focusing on enabling change.
Members overall are disappointed the government’s response fails to recognise the urgency of our report. There are many pledges to “consider” and “explore”.
We want a clearer plan with more ambitious targets. We ask that the government commits to clearer actions, targets, and timeframes, and then report back to our office, so we can hold them accountable.
We believe the allocation of funds to support our recommendations should be a separate, specific and ring-fenced matter. It seems that impactful quick wins’ were rejected. The government could be a leader in public catering procurement and education about sustainable diets.
We believe carbon labelling is essential to allow consumers to make informed choices. The Scottish government should encourage UK government to think about this and practice good practices.
Concerning our goal for more sustainable land usage to reduce emissions, there’s too much description of existing activity and not enough commitment for new and exciting activity.
The Scottish government should be proactive in engaging farmers, other land users, as well as those who are knowledgeable about the marine environment to help develop a better response to climate change and biodiversity loss.
We are glad that the government recognizes the enormous potential of the circular economy for Scotland. We believe that more ambition and investment in this area will lead to education and behavioural changes, and help build happier and healthier communities.
We recognize positive aspects in the response to our recommendation for community land ownership reform. We expected more ambition, however, since land use planning is devolved. We must give communities more control over Scotland’s underused land in order to address the climate emergency. The Scottish Land Fund should be further increased by the government.
We are concerned about the response of the Scottish government to our goal of retrofitting homes across Scotland in order to reduce carbon emissions. This will cause more people to become fuel poverty. We need to learn more about how low income families, including the working poor are protected when decarbonizing their homes.
We believe the government’s response to a just transition needs to be more practical. Scotland should use its local taxation powers in order to raise the necessary funds.
In order to achieve a just transition, we need to show more urgency and creativity by introducing new sources for public funding.
We are pleased to see government making positive progress in the areas of work and volunteering. The government must increase awareness about green training and apprenticeships and explain how success will measure up in collaboration with local authorities.
We are disappointed at the lackluster engagement on frequent-flyer or air-mile bonus programs. Air travel is a major contributor to emissions. We must increase the air departure tax, especially for frequent fliers, and work with the government to label emissions at points of purchase.
We are also disappointed with the response to banning single use plastic and non-recyclable plastic packaging, in particular banning plastic bag as requested by the Children’s Parliament.
We feel the response to our recommendations to reduce the cost of public transport and increase usage don’t go far enough. We welcome free transport for older and young people, but we would still like to see an ‘oyster card’ in Scotland to help low-income families access discounted transport.
Transport providers should be integrated and provide services that better reflect local requirements. They also need to improve their fleet to reduce carbon emissions.
The assembly is not content with the frequent comment, “we don’t have the powers”. We believe the Scottish government failed to test its existing powers in order to bring about change.
The government must prioritize the most dangerous climate issues first, using expert advice. Public engagement on climate issues must be increased to drive political will across all political parties.
We want government to create a ‘Scorecard for Scotland’ with ten key performance indicators (decided by independent experts) with measurable targets based on impact. Bi-annual reporting, in an accessible one-page format, should include “leading” areas, for example, figures on wind farms, heat pumps, public transport usage etc, and “lagging” areas such as vehicle emissions and air-miles. The report should highlight positive changes and areas where targets were missed.
We want government boldness and an innovative approach to policy-development. We are concerned different levels of government don’t communicate effectively with each other.
We want local councils, communities, and climate experts to work together towards shared goals. We also demand greater collaboration between the devolved nations in order to press the UK government. Additionally, we want more powers devolved to Scotland to address climate emergencies and uphold our COP26 promises.
We would like Scotland as the leader in tackling the global climate emergency both within the UK, and around the globe.
Our collective mission to address the climate emergency in Scotland is to make education a priority. The current understanding of climate impacts among businesses and individuals is inadequate.
We all agree that it is crucial to have a continuous and sustained dialogue between government, assembly, and children in order to allow the important work of the assembly, and Children’s Parliament, to continue.
We believe that the Scottish government can increase their commitments to meet our recommendations and reduce their timeframes. We expect the government to hold them accountable through an annual review.
Scotland’s Climate Assembly was established to collect a wide range of representative samples from the population
