Tag: green recovery

Community Climate Asset funding for Edinburgh organisations

Delivering Scotland’s green recovery

Communities across the country are to benefit from fast-tracked funding to help tackle climate change and deliver Scotland’s green recovery from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

A total of 279 projects will be funded through the Community Climate Asset Fund, helping to deliver electric bikes, food growing equipment and glazing to improve energy efficiency.

Successful recipients of the Fund based in the capital include Freh Start, Stockbridge Parish Church, ELREC and Granton Parish Church.

Climate Change Secretary Roseanna Cunningham said: “Communities across the country are playing a vital role in responding to the pandemic crisis and in maintaining our resilience, our sense of spirit and our local support network.

“In what remains an exceptionally difficult time for us all, this funding is providing fast, tangible support to deliver long-lasting benefits to community based organisations while also helping them tackle climate change as we accelerate our just transition to a net zero society.

“I am particularly pleased that the successful recipients of the Community Climate Asset Fund come from right across the country, meaning many thousands of people will benefit from the projects and help play their part in ending Scotland’s contribution to climate change.”

Chief Executive Officer of Keep Scotland Beautiful Barry Fisher said: “We congratulate all the community-based organisations across Scotland awarded Community Climate Asset Fund grants.

“Keep Scotland Beautiful are committed to making Scotland clean, green and sustainable, and through the Community Climate Asset Fund, we are delighted to support communities to tackle climate change and contribute to a green and just recovery from COVID-19.”

A total of 279 organisations are being funded through the Community Climate Asset Fund. Edinburgh projects to receive funding are:

Action Porty. For community building energy efficiency improvements. £3,777.60.

Blood Bikes Scotland. For an electric motorcycle and charging station to help to reduce carbon emissions within the Lothian region by transporting urgent items for the NHS more sustainably. £24,896.70

Craigmillar Now. For community building energy efficiency improvements. £9,770.00.

Edinburgh and Lothians Regional Equality Council. For an electric vehicle to help the BAME communities of Edinburgh to reduce local carbon emissions by empowering their club users to drive more sustainably. £12,150.00

Edinburgh Community Food. For an electric van and charging point to help reduce carbon emissions in Edinburgh by delivering food parcels to families and local community organisations more sustainably. £28,607.16

Edinburgh Hindu Mandir and Cultural Centre. For insulation and low-energy lighting to help the Hindu community of Edinburgh to reduce local carbon emissions by making the community hall more energy efficient. £24,660.00

Edinburgh Napier Students’ Association. For food growing equipment. £2,660.00.

Fresh Start. For an electric van to help reduce carbon emissions in Edinburgh by distributing donations and running their PAT testing service more sustainably. £13,986.00

Friends of Seaview. For food growing and food waste equipment. £2,036.32.

Inverleith Allotments Association. For garden waste reduction equipment. £3,474.00.

Stockbridge Parish Church. For community building energy efficiency improvements. £3,790.80.

Swap and Re-use Hub Co-operative (Edinburgh) Ltd. For an electric cargo bike, fridge and freezer to help the Food Sharing Edinburgh Network to reduce local carbon emissions by reducing emissions for collections and deliveries and diverting more surplus food from landfill. £7,703.00.

The Broomhouse Centre. For an electric van to help communities in South West Edinburgh to reduce carbon emissions by distributing food donations, other deliveries, and activities more sustainably. £18,601.92

The Edinburgh Remakery Ltd. For textile repair equipment as part of the Covid-19 response. £1,000.00.

The Friends of Duddingston Charitable Trust. For food growing equipment. £2,956.83.

The Welcoming Association. For food growing and food waste equipment. £3,100.00.

Water of Leith Conservation Trust. For an electric cargo bike and community building energy efficiency improvements. £4,496.78.

A comprehensive route-map on Green Recovery is essential for Scotland, says Holyrood’s Environment Committee

The creation of a comprehensive route-map to a green recovery from Covid-19, with policy and budgetary coherence at its heart, must be a key priority for the Scottish Government, according to Holyrood’s Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee.

In its Green Recovery report published today, alongside its pre-Budget Scrutiny 2021/22 report, the Committee states that we need an integrated, bold approach to recovery that is based on community cohesion, wellbeing and equality and transcends sectoral boundaries.

The Committee recommends a green recovery route-map is needed to signpost the way: with clear timelines, clear responsibilities for delivery across all parts of the public sector and clear delivery plans for each sector.

Budgetary alignment with the responsibilities is vital, as is regular reporting (to the Parliament, and to the people) and the route-map should enable a shared understanding of where we want to be – the vision.

Importantly, the reports also call for an increased commitment and front-loaded financial resourcing of efforts aimed at the recovery from Covid-19.

The Committee goes further to recommend that new policies, proposals and public spend must meet certain tests to ensure that they are aligned to the delivery of strategic goals. It says that to date there has been a lack of policy coherence, which has undermined objectives and the delivery of outcomes.

To this end, the reports lay out substantive recommendations for action which are “often interlinked and overlapping – and to maximise their benefits, need to be delivered together, and with urgency”.

Speaking as the reports were launched, Committee Convener, Gillian Martin MSP, said: “The cross-cutting nature of the challenges presented by Covid-19 and the climate and ecological crisis represents a whole system challenge never witnessed before.

“Yet through Covid, Scotland has seen first-hand how a coherent route-map approach, combined with strong leadership, can affect the necessary change in our policies and behaviour and with the urgency needed.

“Scotland must use this impetus, and the opportunities presented in both the Budget 2021-22 and the Climate Change Plan update, to create a net-zero emissions economy.

“So much needs to be done and done now. We need to capture and lock in positive behaviours, front-load investment in low-carbon solutions and build resilience through valuing nature more.

“We need to tackle the implementation gap, where solutions have already been identified but not applied, and deal with policy incoherence, where parts of Government, and the wider public sector, are not working collaboratively.

“Underpinning this, we must focus on people, innovation, skills and jobs. Financial support for a green recovery must also be significantly increased, front loaded and be conditional on delivering national outcomes around the climate and biodiversity emergencies.

“Our Committee took onboard extensive evidence during the inquiry and our recommendations should provide a solid springboard for the swift action needed to deliver a truly green recovery for Scotland – a recovery where no-one is left behind.”

Amongst its key recommendations, the Committee has called on the Scottish Government to:

  • Repurpose the Inter-Ministerial Group on Policy Coherence for Sustainable Development and the Cabinet Sub-Committee on Climate Change, as a green recovery group to drive the Green Recovery across the public and private sector – to be chaired by the First Minister.
  • Implement a communication and reporting plan to include regular addresses on roles, expectations, progress and next steps (to Parliament and the Nation) by the First Minister, Cabinet colleagues and those providing the evidence and advice.
  • Review the founding legislation for all public bodies to ensure that responding to the climate and ecological crises is at the centre of statutory requirements placed on all those receiving public sector funding.
  • Carry out a skills audit and produce a skills action plan which offers upskilling and reskilling to those who need it, so people transition into low carbon, green jobs with no gap in employment.
  • Work with the UK Government to co-ordinate and finance a sufficiently large investment stimulus.
  • Ensure low carbon capital investments are delivered through green jobs to support recovery – by front-loading spend in the Budget 2021-22 and through multi-year spending plans such as the Infrastructure Investment Plan and Capital Spending Review.
  • Bring forward a Natural Capital Plan for Scotland, establish a natural capital baseline with monitoring reports to check progress and align plans for job creation with the need for nature-based solutions/natural capital enhancement.
  • Set out a green investment strategy and increase the level of assets available to the Scottish National Investment Bank for lending.
  • Establish an enterprise fund to provide financial support including grants and low-cost loans, to support business models that have emerged as a result of innovation during lock-down.
  • Support capacity building in communities and prioritise and fund the creation of community work hubs attached to childcare facilities and community spaces.

The Scottish Parliament has released a podcast which provides detail about the Green Recovery & Pre-Budget Scrutiny 2021/22 inquiry process along with commentary from Committee Convener, Gillian Martin MSP on the specific recommendations being made in the reports (15m/55 secs into podcast) –  https://scottishparliament.podbean.com/

Help Holyrood committee plan a green recovery

Holyrood’s Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee has launched an inquiry into how Scotland can ensure that a green, just and resilient recovery is central in our response to the social and economic challenges of the COVID-19 health crisis.

The inquiry will focus on identifying the principles, opportunities, key actions for change, immediate priorities, leadership and governance needed to underpin an effective green recovery, as well as the potential barriers to implementation. 

The Committee has issued a call for views to help inform its inquiry over the coming weeks. 

Gillian Martin MSP (above), Convener of the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee, said: “The global pandemic has been responsible for creating immediate challenges across almost every aspect of modern day living.

“But pre-COVID-19, we already faced the biggest and most immediate challenge of all – Climate Change. We have proven that, as a nation, we can adapt our behaviours and thinking for the greater good, so it makes complete sense that within this mindset, we grab the opportunity to change our habits and thinking to bring us out of this crisis in a green and sustainable way.

“A reframed pathway will help us meet our climate change targets for 2030, 2040 and 2045 at the same time as creating a stronger, cleaner and more resilient economy.” 

“If you have views on how we should progress from here, our Committee would love to hear from you. You may be an environmental expert; belong to a third sector organisation or campaign group; local authority or non-departmental public body or be a member of the public. All of your views are important and help us reach the conclusions we take to the Scottish Parliament.”

The Committee would particularly welcome views on the following questions –

  • Do the principles of sustainable development* (Webpage Annex A) and those proposed by the UK Committee on Climate Change**, provide a comprehensive framework for guiding an effective green recovery in Scotland?
  • What are the key barriers to delivering a green recovery (within your sector and / or community)?
  • What key policies, actions and immediate priorities are needed to deliver a green recovery (within your sector and / or community)?
  • How should the 2021/22 Budget support a green and sustainable recovery and avoid locking in carbon?
  • What funding is needed to deliver a green and sustainable recovery?

The closing date for responses is Friday 7 August 2020.

To respond to this inquiry, please find the committee’s call for evidence here:  https://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/CurrentCommittees/115472.aspx