Scots Want Action on Climate Change

An overwhelming majority of Scots are joining with SCIAF to call on the Scottish Government and MSPs to ensure Scotland does its ‘fair share’ to tackle climate change, according to a Scottish Opinion poll published by SCIAF today.

The research, commissioned by SCIAF, is highlighted in its new report, SCIAF’s Global Warning!, which calls on the Scottish Government and MSPs to agree a strong Scottish Climate Change Bill.

The key findings of the Scottish Opinion poll include:

• 90% agreed that ‘the Scottish Parliament should agree to do Scotland’s fair share, as advised by the world’s leading climate scientists, in terms of tackling climate change.
• 85% agreed that ‘politicians have to take the lead in terms of setting targets and keeping our greenhouse gas emissions within sustainable limits’.
• 89% agreed that ‘if the Scottish Parliament commits to doing Scotland’s fair share to tackle climate change, as advised by the world’s leading climate scientists, then the UK Parliament should follow suit.
• 94% agreed that ‘companies should take responsibility for their carbon footprints’.

Nara Yanappa, of SCIAF partner organisation Prakruti in Southern India, works with small-scale farmers in drought-prone areas. He has witnessed changing weather patterns—ranging from increased flooding to severe droughts—and the impact that this has had on vulnerable farmers. He says:

‘The climatic situation is changing. There is either heavy rain, or (it is) drastically dry. This is affecting the rural poor, particularly the farming community. Water facilities have been drastically reduced and crops have failed (leaving many people) unable to feed their family throughout the year’.

SCIAF, as part of the Stop Climate Chaos Scotland coalition, is calling for the Scottish Government and Parliament to:

• Commit to limiting the global temperature increase to 2ºC and establish this as a principle in the Scottish Climate Change Bill.
• Commit to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80% by 2050 [i] and at least 3% per annum – with scope to revise.
• Ensure transparency, accountability and legal safeguards; requiring Ministers to report annually to parliament, and to report if they approve action that would increase emissions.
• Establish a ‘Carbon Fund’ to give financial incentives and / or sanctions to public bodies to encourage emission reductions. A proportion of the fund would help pay for adaptation in developing countries to compensate damage caused by Scotland’s emissions.

In 2005, just one of Scotland’s power stations, Longannet on the River Forth, emitted ten times more CO2 than Malawi produces in a year, and more CO2 than ten sub-saharan African countries including Malawi, Rwanda, Burundi, Chad, Comoros, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gambia, Mali and the Central African Republic combined.2

Speaking ahead of the report’s publication, SCIAF’s Advocacy Manager Chris Hegarty said:

“The harsh effects of global warming are already being felt by people in developing countries. Many such countries have poor infrastructure so people can lose everything, their homes, families, and livelihoods, in one climatic event. These same people have done least to cause the problem of climate change. Unless urgent action is taken the situation is likely to get much worse. That is why SCIAF, together with the overwhelming majority of the Scottish public, is calling on the Government and MSPs to commit Scotland to do its fair share to tackle the problem of climate change and put in place a strong Scottish Climate Change Bill. Each and every MSP should remember that the price of not acting on climate change will be paid for by the lives of the poor around the world.”

Raquel Cruz, a SCIAF partner in El Salvador, is quoted in the SCIAF report:

“If there is no global reduction in emissions, this is going to have a profound impact in very vulnerable countries. I would ask Scotland to think about balance; there needs to be balance between what we consume and what we need, because we are affecting other countries each and every single time we consume. Governments have a responsibility to act”.

SCIAF’s Global Warning! report can be downloaded above. The Scottish Opinion poll sampled 1028 Scottish adults age 18+, weighted to be representative of the Scottish population by age, gender and social grade. All Scottish Parliamentary constituencies were covered in the telephone interviews where were conducted between Tuesday 8th January and Sunday 13th January 2008.

.