Today marks the start of the UK’s new relationship with the European Union, and while this personally makes me extremely sad and disappointed, it also marks the start of a different way of doing things. 2020 marks the start of the United Nation’s Decade for Ecological Restoration and in the build up to that, we want Scotland to be on the right trajectory.
2019 was a tumultuous year, with its ups and downs. The challenges we faced included Brexit and the many implications of the changes that is bringing, notwithstanding political confusion and uncertainty at UK, Scotland and European levels. This will be brought into sharp focus from today I’ve no doubt. Here in Scotland, we continued see the unhelpful focus on GDP as a measure of our success as a nation and the State of Nature 2019 report for Scotland, reflected ongoing declines in biodiversity. In contrast, the opportunities we faced included massive public support for action on climate change, ocean plastic and biodiversity loss through the school strikes, extinction rebellion and the Planet Earth effect. This focused government minds with the declaration in Scotland of the climate and nature emergencies. In Europe, with the new administration of Ursula van der Leyen, we saw the opportunities of an EU Green Deal.
As environmental NGOs in Scotland, LINK and its members continued our work to influence government and policy making through consistently high quality and coherent policy proposals and ongoing informative and positive engagement with policy makers. We have persistently presented the argument for a better way of doing things that respects planetary boundaries and puts true sustainability at the centre. For this persistence and the successes that have resulted, our network and members should take both credit and encouragement.
However, there is no room for complacency. We need to step up – not back. We still need to devise and deliver strategies to limit climate change to 1.5°C, halt and reverse biodiversity loss, increase resource efficiency and circular economy and build well being on the top of those.
In a global context, we remain in a highly volatile situation with the European Union still being the best hope for environmental sustainability and leadership to make transformational changes needed. We know we won’t now be part of that but it is important to keep pace and show leadership from within UK, to prevent descent to lowest common denominator. Scotland is looking to provide that leadership although real progress in environmental terms, beyond declarations, is yet to be seen. Across the UK and Europe, LINK and our sister organisations need to be working with EU to prevent UK’s apparent determination to push for a divergent, deregulated model that could pose a threat to future environmental ambition not just in the UK but also in the EU.
In Europe, we see key milestones in the European Green Deal ahead. These include an EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 (March) in the lead-up to the crucial Convention on Biological Diversity meeting in Kunming in the autumn; a new Circular Economy Action Plan (March); a ‘Farm to Fork’ strategy (spring); measures to increase EU climate ambition (starting with a proposal for an EU Climate Law in March); a chemicals strategy for sustainability (summer); and a new legislative proposal to improve access to justice through revising the Aarhus Regulation.
In Scotland, we are arguing to keep pace, and not regress on European progress. Areas of activity will include Scotland’s own Circular Economy Bill, consultation on an environment strategy, updated biodiversity plans to 2030, a revised Climate Change Plan, regional land use planning, an Agriculture Bill and hopefully progress on whatever succeeds land management subsidies. There is a long way to go on all of these if delivery and action is to meet the ambitions of the declared emergencies in April and June last year.
As for LINK, we have Fight for Scotland’s Nature gearing up to continue pushing for non-regression and an independent watchdog as well as legislatively underpinned nature recovery targets in an Environment Bill.Save Scottish Seas continues to work for ocean recovery through robust implementation of the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010, including completing and properly protecting the Marine Protected Area network, and pushing for ecosystem-based fisheries management and marine planning. The newly launched Environmental Rights Centre Scotland will focus on accessing environmental justice and implementing the Aarhus convention. This is underpinned by our new Strategic Plan, which provides LINK with a strong position for moving forward with focus on partnerships. All this is possible thanks to our member reps, the LINK staff and Board, all of whom are extremely hardworking and often overstretched. This is the essence of LINK as a membership organisation. The engagement and commitment of our members is what makes LINK so effective and so much more than just another lobby group.
By working together, LINK as a network will be assessing all possible implications for the environment of the ongoing political shifts, whether that be independence for Scotland, rejoining the EU, remaining in the UK with close or distant alignment to the EU. Whatever the outcomes, the environment needs a strong voice, now more than ever, a voice that calls for real and effective delivery to meet the climate and nature emergencies, cross border co-operation, wherever those borders are, and political commitment to make a difference.
Brexit trade deals could put iconic Scottish wildlife at risk at a time when 1 in 9 species in Scotland is at risk of extinction, say Scotland’s leading environmental charities. Otters, bottlenose dolphins, puffins, bats, Golden eagle and osprey are among a host of species that will face increased threats after 31 January.
Many of Scotland’s most important wildlife species and habitats benefit from high levels of protection originating from the EU.
The charities, members of Scottish Environment LINK and behind the Fight for Scotland’s Nature campaign, fear that a rush to rapidly agree bilateral trade deals with other countries after 31 January could lead to the slashing of environmental standards, including crucial protections for Scotland’s wildlife. Swiftly agreed trade deals with countries such as the United States and China could lead to weaker regulations on animal welfare standards, food quality and environmental protections.
The US has banned mention of climate change from trade talks with the UK. It also wants the UK to move to a US system where things are assumed safe until harm or damage is proved.
The EU exit deal itself also poses a risk to Scotland’s nature and landscapes, say campaigners. Safeguards contained in Theresa May’s deal, aimed at preventing environmental standards being lowered, have been removed from Boris Johnson’s deal.
The Scottish Government has repeatedly said it will not water down environmental protections after Brexit. But campaigners fear that if standards are slashed in the rest of the UK, there could be huge pressure on Scotland to follow suit.
The charities also warn that without the option for people to raise complaints to the European Commission, existing protections may not be enforced, leaving wildlife vulnerable to further declines and destruction of habitats. Under the banner of Fight for Scotland’s Nature campaign, they are calling for the Scottish Government to create a new, independent environment watchdog for Scotland, and to embed crucial environmental principles, previously applied through European law, into Scots law.
Charles Dundas, Chair of Scottish Environment LINK, said:
Brexit will leave the Scottish wildlife we all love open to a host of new threats if environmental standards are lowered, just when we most need to stop nature’s decline and help it recover. The Brexit deal and the pressure of new bilateral trade deals make it more urgent than ever that the Scottish Government acts to ensure our environmental protections remain intact.”
In celebration of Scotland’s precious wetlands, ahead of World Wetlands Day 2020 a members’ business debate led by John Finnie MSP, took place in the Scottish Parliament on the 15th January to discuss the importance of Scotland’s wetlands as sites of important biodiversity. The climate emergency poses an existential threat to the future of Scotland’s wetlands which not only provide us with a host of essential systems we cannot live without, such as vital flood control and water filtration, but also a unique home for a wide variety of mammals, birds, fish and invertebrates.
World Wetlands Day is celebrated every year on 2nd February in order to mark the date of the adoption of the Convention of Wetlands, known as the Ramsar Convention, which was signed in 1971. The Convention’s mission is to conserve wetlands through local and national actions as a contribution towards achieving sustainable development and protecting biodiverse habitats.
This debate offered MSP Species Champions the opportunity to discuss the importance of wetlands in relation to their species’ habitat, in the Scottish Parliament chamber.
Gillian Martin MSP spoke of the coastal wetland region the Ythan estuary, where the dune ecosystem is under threat. The Ythan estuary is also home to the grey seal, for which she is the Species Champion. Gillian Martin explained how the number of grey seals has now increased to over 1,000 due to protected seal haul-out zones which protect the seals from any reckless or intentional harassment, especially during pupping season. Out and about, Gillian Martin has involved herself in raising debate about the seals, in beach cleans, and with meeting constituents who are concerned about the estuary.
The MSP Species Champion for the natterjack toad, Emma Harper MSP, talked about the importance of Mersehead Nature Reserve and Caerlaverock National Nature Reserve as extensive wetland and salt marsh areas. Both of these nature reserves are part of just a few locations in Scotland where the natterjack toad can be found. Wetlands are vital to the dune system and to the continued survival of the natterjack toad which depends on the dune pool habitats to survive. Emma Harper underlined the importance of protecting wetlands both to support biodiversity and to provide a habitat for endangered species such as the natterjack toad to avoid extinction.
The Species Champions initiative allows MSPs, such as Gillian Martin and Emma Harper to engage with and visit their species, to keep up to date on relevant conservation work and to stand up for their species in parliament. Over 100 MSPs have signed up to be champions for a range of animal and plant species, with more information available here.
Juliet Caldwell
Species Champion Coordinator at Scottish Environment Link
Many people in Scotland suffer from a polluted environment, particularly those in poorer communities, and, across Scotland, environmental crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, toxic air and plastic pollution are becoming ever more pressing. There is a growing and increasingly complex body of environmental law in Scots law – some of it world-leading – and at the EU and international level that attempts to address aspects of these problems.
However, the Scottish legal system makes it extremely difficult for citizens and NGOs to hold government and private bodies to account over harm to the environment. Scotland has a distinct and separate legal system from the rest of the UK and has lagged behind England and Wales in developing a public law culture that enables people and NGOs to access justice and pursue public interest litigation in general and specifically in relation to the environment. What is more, to date the Scottish Government has taken a half-hearted, piecemeal approach to implementing the UNECE Aarhus Convention’s requirements on access to justice, resulting in repeated rulings of non-compliance from the Convention’s Compliance Committee.
In March 2018, Scottish Environment LINK commissioned a feasibility report , which found evidence that, in Scotland, people and communities struggle to identify their legal rights and how to exercise them. Ten detailed case studies demonstrate a breadth of issues relating to unenforced planning and environmental law, and the barriers people faced in trying to access justice for their communities and the environment. These include communities blighted by opencast mining; landfill sites; incinerators; loss of greenbelt and public amenity; air and water pollution. The playing field is very far from level when it comes to engaging in the planning system – the route by which people generally encounter environmental law – with the resources and experience developers can rely on far outweighing what communities can hope to access.
Significant barriers of cost, uncertainty and technicalities exist for professional environmental NGOs as well as communities and individual citizens in terms of exercising legal rights. Even environmental NGOs in Scotland have very limited legal capacity, with inhouse lawyers almost unheard of in the sector.
This is why Scottish Environment LINK is working to establish an Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland, as a means of tackling these interlinked, systemic problems. In July 2019, LINK was delighted to be awarded funding from the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust to set one up. This is funding to kick start the initiative over the next 3 years, and fundraising is underway to meet the funding gap in future years.
The work is overseen by LINK Legal Strategy Group who worked with LINK staff to appoint two new staff members: Shivali Fifield, ERCS Development Manager and Ian Cowan, ERCS Programme Manager. Both staff start in their new roles on 20 January 2019.
The purpose of this new centre is to: • deliver public legal education enabling individuals, communities and eNGOs to understand better and access their legal rights and responsibilities in relation to the environment; • offer advice and assistance on planning and environmental law to individuals, communities and eNGOs; • advocate for reform for a legal system that is fit for purpose, including compliance with the UNECE Aarhus Convention, as environmental law becomes increasingly complex and environmental problems such as climate change, biodiversity loss and air pollution become increasingly pressing; and • pursue strategic litigation where necessary to secure progress on key environmental issues.
In working to achieve this long term purpose, our short term plan is to establish a stand-alone SCIO (a form of Scottish charity) with its own Board of Trustees to oversee the work of the Centre. When this is up and running, management of the Centre will transfer from LINK to the new body.
At the same time, Shivali and Ian will focus on developing and agreeing a strategy for the Centre’s development, including its phased establishment and growth. It is clear that our purpose will not be achieved on day one! This strategy will also address the recruitment of Trustees and fundraising for the medium and longer-term.
Why do we need an Environmental Rights Centre in Scotland?
Environmental democracy in Scotland There is a gap in access to affordable legal services in public interest environmental law in Scotland and this is one of the issues that leaves Scotland in breach of the Aarhus Convention. The Aarhus Convention aims to protect the human right to a clean and healthy environment. It recognises this right, and a corresponding duty for people “to protect and improve the environment”. Successive Scottish Governments have failed to address this is in a comprehensive or adequate manner.
Central to this is that affordability of advice and representation is the major barrier to access to environmental justice in Scotland. LINK’s Governance Matters report noted how the costs of environmental litigation have meant that most citizens or non-governmental organisations simply could not afford to take cases challenging the Government’s application of the law to the Court of Session – especially where taking such a case was likely to result in the need for an onwards appeal. For example, the John Muir Trust’s unsuccessful judicial review of the Stronelairg windfarm development led to the Trust owing £539,000 to the Scottish Government and developer SSE. This was eventually negotiated to £125,000.
Current problems with the planning system in Scotland also limit environmental democracy in Scotland: evidence collated in LINK’s Rhetoric to reality report show that communities feel excluded; the planning system is seen as biased in favour of developers; planning authorities take decisions contrary to their plan and their planners’ advice. Planning appeal rights in Scotland exist only for those making applications for planning permission. Applicants can appeal refusals of planning permission, whereas communities, who may be directly affected by planning decisions, cannot appeal permissions. The only route for communities to challenge planning decisions is through judicial review, which is unaffordable for all but a wealthy few. What’s more, judicial review is a largely procedural process which focusses on legality and does not address the substance of a decision. LINK member, Planning Democracy, argues for an ‘equal right of appeal’ – whereby communities should also have the right to appeal decisions which affect them.
There is also a looming environmental governance gap as we face Brexit and with it the loss of oversight of EU institutions such as the European Court. Given the unaffordability of and lack of environmental specialism in the Scottish Courts this poses a real risk. An Environmental Rights Centre can help advocate for robust environmental disputes mechanisms, including the option for a new Environmental Court for Scotland.
Promoting environmental protection and sustainability Systemic substantive environmental problems persist in Scotland, particularly in relation to air and water pollution, wildlife crime and biodiversity. The 2019 State of Nature report reflects the scale of the issue in Scotland, to which an urgent response is required. In addition, there are a number of ongoing and impending constitutional developments, which require expertise and advocacy to protect and improve environmental law. These include devolution and the development of ‘Scottish environmental law’, the threats of lower environmental standards and a ‘governance gap’ after Brexit and the need for new fora to hear environmental disputes in Scotland.
While environmental law centres exist in England and Wales, Environmental law in Scotland is different. The unique legal situation in Scotland requires legal specialism – and effective law reform or campaigning work requires an understanding of the Scottish political context.
Economic benefits The UK Law Centre Network has contracted several research projects on the economic benefits of law centres. The 2014 ‘Funding for Law Centres’ report found that law centres in England, Wales and Northern Ireland deliver several positive economic outcomes. Their use of early intervention and advice avoids costs in the justice system by preventing court actions, and their use of negotiated solutions for clients helps to avoid the social costs associated with outcomes such as evictions, bankruptcy and forced deportations. It found that the pure fiscal benefits of law centres amount to at least twice the amount for which they are funded. In addition to this, it found that Law Centres create a number of non-quantifiable wider economic benefits to society.
Our aim in launching the new ERCS in January is to build a sustainable mechanism to address these issues at a time of crucial importance for the environment, not just in Scotland but across the world.
Contributors to this article: Mary Church (Friends of the Earth Scotland), Dr Deborah Long (Scottish Environment LINK), and Lloyd Austin (LINK Honorary Fellow)
We need to take a closer look at the way we use land. Why? Because land use has very real consequences for us all and, at present, our land is managed in a way that does not necessarily deliver all the benefits it could. This is an increasingly pressing issue. The Scottish Government has acknowledged the climate and biodiversity emergencies and respected bodies like the Committee on Climate Change have suggested that we will only meet our new emissions reduction targets if there is significant land use change. Land is, therefore, a critical asset and we need to make sure we are using it effectively in the context of both the climate and biodiversity crises.
Last year the Committee on Climate Change published a report on climate and land use in the UK and concluded that the current approach to land use is not sustainable. Land can deliver a wide range of things: it can be used to produce food or to grow timber; it can sequester and store carbon; it can be managed to help reduce flooding; it can provide a home for nature; and it can provide sites for producing renewable energy. It also provides beautiful landscapes for everyone to enjoy. The list goes on. But today, land is often used with only a few of these benefits in mind. The focus on food, timber and game management sometimes means that many of the wider benefits land can deliver are overlooked or are second order concerns. As a result, Scotland’s land is not always being managed in a way that optimises the benefits it could deliver to society as a whole.
At the same time, the Committee has also identified that Scotland has the ability to meet emissions reduction targets earlier than the UK as a whole because of the potential we have to use our land resources differently. The Committee suggests that some agricultural land could be put to another use and it advocates a substantial increase in the area of woodland.
We stand at a point in time when we recognise that current land use policies are far from sustainable and when we need land to deliver more. This is why we need to look again at land use. Some fresh-thinking is required. We need to think strategically about what we want land to deliver and we need to design better policies to shape the way we use our limited land resources.
Fortunately, the Scottish Government has recognised these issues. It announced a more regional approach to land use decision-making recently in its Programme for Government, committing to the creation of new regional partnerships which will produce Regional Land Use Frameworks by 2023. This approach should lead to better and more informed choices about land use and is welcome news. It represents a step towards more critical thinking about how we can optimise land use and towards a policy and financial support regime for rural land managers that is much more focused on delivering public goods.
Developing a regional approach to land use won’t be without its challenges. Land use can be contentious—with many different parties looking out for their own interests—but regional partnerships can hopefully be the focus for some positive conversations about current land use and future aspirations. We should proceed carefully because whilst change is necessary it is important to remember that people’s livelihoods and communities may be affected. Nonetheless, the fact it could be difficult should not put us off; the prize is too great.
What should these regional partnerships do? Details are still to be worked out, but Scottish Environment LINK believes the partnerships should undertake a comprehensive analysis of land use and management in their region and identify the key opportunities to enhance the delivery of services from the land. The partnerships would then produce Regional Land Use Frameworks that would include a set of recommendations to the Scottish Government about regional priorities for land use and indicative funding needs. The Scottish Government would then make decisions about the allocation of funding and targeting.
This is in contrast to the current situation where large amounts of public money are spent, often in ways that perpetuate the unsustainable use of land. The goal is a more rational approach that uses public money in a way that optimises land use and maximises the public benefits from that spend.
We can do better. We can achieve more sustainable land use. We must work together to grasp this opportunity and identify land use plans and policies that benefit society as a whole.
Dr Andrew Midgley, Senior Policy Officer at RSPB Scotland and member of LINK’s Land Use subgroup
A version of this blog was published in The Scotsman on 3 January 2020.
Seven months ago, Scotland’s First Minister announced a climate emergency and the need for ‘transformative change’ if we are to limit global temperature rise to 1.5oC and halt the loss of nature. This announcement came in the wake of two in-depth scientific reports from the United Nations highlighting the worsening twin global climate and nature crises. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s October 2018 report estimated that the world has roughly 10 years to bring down carbon emissions and prevent damaging climate impacts. The Intergovernmental Science Policy Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) report, published in May 2019, outlined the ongoing and worsening declines in biodiversity across the globe. More recently the State of Nature Scotland 2019 report 1, published in October 2019, found that Scotland is mirroring these global trends, with no overall let up in the loss of biodiversity. This is the context in which we need an immediate response to limit greenhouse gas emissions and halt and reverse declines in nature.
Transformative change requires commitment from governments at all levels to act to reverse declines in nature, underpinned by targeted and sufficient funding. However, the Scottish Government has been in receipt of falling funding from the UK Government as a result of austerity measures and local authorities providing public services are under pressure from tightening budgets. Environmental NGOs and others have noted declines in funding for the environment agencies across the four countries 2.
Figures from the Scottish Government’s proposed annual budgets (see notes below) reflect the steep declines in funding for Scotland’s public environment agencies and environmental research over the last decade.
2 For example, see: https://community.rspb.org.uk/ourwork/b/biodiversity/posts/the-latest-uk-wild-bird-indicators. And: https://www.ifs.org.uk/uploads/publications/bns/BN243.pdf
It is important to note that a proposed budget is not exactly what may end up as an agreed budget. However, the declines are significant enough to indicate that the publicly-funded organisations that seek to investigate, understand, advise and provide evidence on ways of protecting and enhancing Scotland’s environment are now provided with significantly less direct funding from central government than they were at the start of the decade. Compared to nine years ago, the annual aggregate SNH, RESAS and SEPA budgets have been cut by almost £100m, measured in 2019 prices, a staggering 40% reduction in real terms 3. Now that the urgent need to address the climate emergency and biodiversity crisis has been widely acknowledged, funding for the environment agencies and environmental research must surely not only be reinstated, but substantially increased.
3 This was calculated using the GDP deflators, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/gdp-deflators-at-market-prices-and-money-gdp
The huge and vital challenge of tackling the joint nature and climate emergencies means our natural world needs allies like never before. Today, we’re celebrating the commitment made by Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) to Stand Up for Nature.
Fifty-two MSPs from across the political parties, many of whom are also species champions, have signed the pledge launched by Scottish Environment LINK to work for the protection, recovery and enhancement of Scotland’s natural environment.
The Stand Up for Nature pledge
The joint emergencies of rapid biodiversity loss and climate breakdown require transformative action. As a member of the Scottish Parliament, I pledge to stand up for nature.
I will do everything in my power to ensure Scotland’s natural environment has strong and effective protection, alongside ambitious targets for its recovery and enhancement. When 1 in 11 species in Scotland is at risk of extinction, these measures are vital, whatever our future relationship with the European Union.”
This year has seen a massive surge in popular pressure on governments around the world to act to prevent climate catastrophe, and a growing awareness that halting and reversing biodiversity loss is a priority of a similar order. This is true in Scotland as elsewhere: the latest State of Nature report, released in October, shows that Scotland’s wildlife is in alarming decline, with 11 per cent of species found in Scotland threatened with extinction from Great Britain.
2020 will be a critical year for tackling the nature emergency, and the need for politicians to stand up for our environment will be greater than ever. Brexit looks set to continue dominating the UK’s political agenda, and safeguarding Scotland’s environmental protections in the face of a possible exit from the European Union is essential. Scotland’s leading environmental charities are calling through the Fight for Scotland’s Nature campaign for legislation to embed key EU environmental principles in Scots law and to set up an independent watchdog to enforce environmental protections. The campaign also calls for clear and binding targets for nature recovery.
Next year will see two United Nations summits which could shape our response to the nature and climate emergencies in the crucial decade to come. Scotland has a major role to play in both of these: Edinburgh will host an international conference in the spring ahead of the UN biodiversity summit in China in the autumn, and Glasgow has been chosen as the venue for the UN climate summit towards the end of the year.
With the future of the planet and its human and non-human inhabitants in the balance, now is the time for nature’s allies to live up to their promise.
Scotland’s nature is in crisis, with the 2019 State of Nature report showing that 11 per cent of species are at risk of extinction. We are also facing a global climate crisis, which is causing many species to be driven northwards in Scotland, has increased the frequency of fires in uplands and woodlands (which are crucial to carbon storage), and is putting pressure on our coastlines with rising sea levels. In order to protect and restore our natural environment, we need a step change in ambition.
European Union (EU) protections have played a significant role in protecting our natural environment and stemming the tide of environmental decline in Scotland.
There is a risk that many of these protections will be lost if the UK leaves the EU. Regardless of the Brexit scenario, the joint nature and climate crises mean that the Scottish Government needs to strengthen environmental laws, to enforce environmental protection and reverse the declines of habitats and species. For these reasons, urgent action is needed to safeguard and embed policies into Scots law.
Precautionary principle – intervention where there are grounds for concern of risk or harm
Polluter pays principle – those who produce pollution should bear the costs of managing it to prevent damage to human health or environment
The rectification at source principle – damage should be rectified at the source wherever possible e.g. tackle the roots not only the consequences
Preventative action principle – take measures to address today’s issues rather than future consequences
In a Scottish Government consultation, 70 per cent of respondents agreed that the Scottish Government has a duty to integrate regard these EU principles in the formation of new environmental policy.
Professor Gemmell’s report also highlights two major actions which are needed for environmental protection in Scotland:
1) The creation of a specialised environmental court; 2) The need for a regulator which can adjudicate and regulate environmental policy.
The court and watchdog would operate in the space in which the European Commission and Court of Justice currently operates across the EU, holding governments, businesses and individuals to account for breaches in environmental law.
The commissioner and the court would also have the power and resources to make independent checks and investigations and provide scrutiny to check that environmental regulation is implemented, as well as sanction legal breeches.
It is crucial that both are independent from the government, thus able to scrutinise and hold the government, organisations and individuals to account fairly and autonomously.
Within the aforementioned Scottish Government consultation, over half (62 per cent) of respondents thought a new function was required to replace the European Commission in receiving complaints and concerns from individuals and organisations about environmental law compliance. This highlights there is public awareness of the need for this watchdog.
Environmental protections are not only essential to safeguard social and economic factors but are also crucial to our human rights. The creation of a dedicated parliamentary commission has the potential to consider environmental issues as under international human rights law, and to regulate policy in relation to human rights and the environment.
Climate change is of growing concern across the UK, with85 per cent of respondents to a poll conducted this summer saying they are concerned, or very concerned (52 per cent) about climate change. Alongside this increased awareness and apprehension, people are aware that urgent action is required by the Scottish Government to tackle climate change, particularly in the event of a no deal Brexit.
We are pleased to see the Scottish Government’s recent announcement of an environmental advisory panel in the event of a no deal Brexit, and await further detail on the panel’s remit. In addition, regardless of the Brexit situation, environmental legislation needs to be strengthened and embedded in Scotland. We look forward to details of the Scottish Government’s long-term plans for environmental governance.
Scotland is arguably the most nature rich part of the UK. With over 60% of the coastline and marine habitat, all the UKK’s arctic – alpine habitats, all the machair, Caledonian pinewood and most of the temperate rainforest, Scotland is nature rich. But the prospects are not good.
The State of Nature report, launched on 4 October, highlighted negative overall trends, in the last decade in particular and over the last 50 years’ worth of statistically comparable data. This is set against ongoing longer term declines that have been in train for even longer. The UK as a whole is losing species diversity – most marked in Countryside Survey plots, surveyed specifically for a rich species diversity where that diversity is declining. The next Countryside Survey report, now long overdue, is unlikely to show an improving picture.
These trends, the blue flashing lights, are clear signals – sirens if you like – of the crisis in our countryside. Without species and habitat diversity, Scotland’s ecosystems run much higher risks of collapse because their internal resilience is being stripped out. Diversity, in every walk of life, offers resilience to change. Resilience to change is becoming increasingly important as we face climate change and climate extremes. And it is harder to reverse under ongoing political change, where there is every danger that political attention is being distracted away from the life threatening issues facing not just Scotland but the world. This combination of factors means that commitment to urgent, real and effective action is now badly needed.
In Scotland, the First Minister has declared a climate emergency and noted that we need to respond not just to that but also to the biodiversity crisis too. She has made it clear that support for human rights, which includes the right to a healthy environment is a top priority, underlined by the Scottish Government being one of the first nations to sign up to the Sustainable Development Goals. These announcements are important but they are not enough.
If this is an emergency, where is the emergency response? With the blue lights gathering around what could become the car crash of climate change and biodiversity loss, it would be much better to act now. And there are 3 main areas we need to act in: geographically, financially and in a timely manner.
Geographically, we need to put in place a mechanism that supports all means to halt biodiversity loss and reverse its decline, enabling habitats and species to build resilience. The most effective, and quickest, way to do this is to identify a national ecological network that connects habitats together and enables them to expand so that species can move from one location to another. This means ensuring the landscape is nature friendly so species can pass though farmland, across mountain valleys to find new habitats. It doesn’t necessarily mean landscaped habitat corridors. It means making the landscape permeable to nature and allowing it to thrive wherever it can. Enabling this to happen at the scale required means having a land use subsidy scheme and other funding support for nature friendly farming and the provision of land that supports rejuvenated peat bogs, wetlands and rivers, woodland that spreads from the limited ravines in which it is pinned on our west coast and mountain tops where alpine species can move from one top to another without being burnt.
We need action at home too: although land managers have a huge role to play in addressing these crises, there is plenty we can all do at home. Limiting our own carbon footprint will obviously help bring down emissions that contribute to climate change. Using green space to grow a diversity of plants, in window boxes, gardens and parks and most importantly letting politicians know we care and we want them to act. The blue flashing lights that politicians are seeing right now are an engaged electorate making their wishes known through marches and support for action on climate change and on biodiversity loss.
None of this is going to arrive by magic or for free though. We need to see determination from government to deliver on the issues people are raising and we need to see appropriate levels of funding put in place to ensure some progress is made quickly. How much are we willing to pay for our future? For our children to be able to see red squirrels and otters? For our clean air and water and homes that are safe from flooding? For carbon to be locked away in healthy and productive soils? Public surveys have shown that people want to see farmers paid to deliver clean water, flood defences, healthy populations of wild flowers and insects. And for those things that can’t be delivered by farmers, we need to see other funders step in with the vision, determination and resources to build healthy natural habitats and thriving native species.
We, and our nature and landscapes, need this to happen today. The international panel reports on climate and biodiversity give the world about a decade to turn these trends around. The earlier we tackle both the climate and nature crisis, the more effective and cheaper it is. If we act now, we may need to spend 1 -2 % of GDP on action against climate change alone. If we leave it until the lights become sirens, we will need to spend more than an estimated 20% of GDP. The blue lights are gathering. Let’s not watch and wait for them to become sirens. Find out more about the State of Scotland’s nature here: https://www.scotlink.org/publication/state-of-nature/
Leading environmental charities have welcomed a plan announced this week by Scotland’s Environment Secretary Roseanna Cunningham to set up an interim advisory panel to safeguard Scotland’s environmental standards in the event of a No Deal Brexit. Although the EU has this week granted an extension to Article 50, avoiding a No Deal exit on 31 October, this does not take No Deal entirely off the table.
The charities, members of Scottish Environment LINK, have been calling through their Fight for Scotland’s Nature campaign for urgent measures to protect Scotland’s environment from severe threats posed by Brexit. Their demands include a new, independent watchdog to enforce environmental protections.
The advisory panel announced this week would be a temporary arrangement, to be set up if the UK leaves the UK without a deal, but the charities say in the short term it could help fill the gap left by loss of access to the European Commission. They are awaiting further details on how the interim panel will operate, including how it will receive and address complaints from members of the public regarding environmental compliance, and whether it will include members with environmental expertise.
Members of Scottish Environment LINK are calling on the Scottish Government to detail what longer term arrangements it will put in place to ensure that Scotland’s environmental protections are upheld after Brexit. The results of the Scottish Government’s own consultation showed strong support for the creation of a new body in Scotland to carry out scrutiny, oversight and enforcement of environmental protections if we leave the EU. Scottish Environment LINK is recommending that there be a Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, based on research recently carried out by Professor Campbell Gemmell and commissioned by LINK.
Charles Dundas, chair of Scottish Environment LINK, said:
“Scotland’s natural environment is central to our society, our economy, and our wellbeing. This announcement shows that the Scottish Government is taking seriously the question of how we will look after our nature if the UK leaves the EU.
“A No Deal Brexit would leave Scotland’s environment extremely vulnerable, and we’re delighted that the Scottish Government has made plans to prevent standards slipping.
“We believe that in the longer term it is essential that Scotland has an independent, well-resourced environmental watchdog to uphold environmental protections and hold future governments to account.”
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