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COSLA
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Your Views
1. What is your assessment of the progress to date in cutting emissions within the sector/sectors of interest and the implementation of the proposals and policies set out in previous Climate Change Plans (RPP1-3)?
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Pls note the letter from Cllr Steven Heddle
COSLA Environment and Economy Spokesperson of 12 Jan 2021 to the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee
and the Local Government and Communities Committee.
12 January 2021
Gillian Martin MSP, Convener, Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee
James Dornan MSP, Convener, Local Government and Communities Committee
Dear Gillian Martin MSP and dear James Dornan MSP
Climate Change Plan update
We very much welcome the Scottish Parliament taking detailed evidence, across relevant committees, on the Climate Change Plan update.
COSLA has been following the development of Scottish Government plans here with great interest, and I myself have attended the Sustainable Renewal Advisory Group chaired by the Cabinet Secretary, and recently addressed Scotland’s Climate Assembly.
My Board, the COSLA Environment and Economy Board, took a clear and early decision to set a strategic goal for “a just transition to net-zero by no later than 2045” and for all our work to be guided by this principle.
While we will provide more detailed comment on the CCPu, I thought it worthwhile to highlight local government’s commitment here, collectively through COSLA, and through the commitments made by individual councils on net-zero.
COSLA is clear that climate change is one of the biggest challenges we face and we have from very early on integrated the protection of our natural environment into our climate change work. The linkage between the environment, human health and wellbeing, and the economy has rarely been clearer.
From a local government perspective, we meet these global challenges on our own home ground, by integrating carbon reduction into every aspect of what local authorities do, by coming out of Covid in a so-called ‘green recovery’ and by undertaking this transition in a socially fair and equitable way.
Local Authorities have three levels of influence here. Firstly, we want to become net zero public bodies. We want to ensure that our own estate, buildings and vehicle fleets become carbon neutral. Secondly, we want to develop net zero supply chains, looking at the services and products we purchase or commission. Thirdly, we want to create net zero places. We want to drive and facilitate change in our local areas, working with local partnerships and the business community and giving local communities a voice in how high level climate change goals are translated into concrete action on the ground, and how this can be done in a socially just and fair way.
This third level, referring to ‘political leadership’, is where I think local government can make the greatest impact. Local Government is not just about the delivery of vital services, but it is about the places we live and the lives we lead.
Local government is a key partner in the climate change dialogue, as a provider of a wide range of key services, and as a political body with a democratic mandate derived from local communities. And to fulfil these roles effectively, local government needs to be resourced adequately and have flexibility to meet local needs, in line with the Paris Agreement which calls for national governments to properly resource and empower local and regional government to meet their climate change ambitions.
I hope that the Scottish Parliament will lend its full support to the ambitious journey that our Councils face, and look forward to providing more detailed evidence to the Local Government and Communities Committee later in January.
Yours sincerely
Cllr Steven Heddle
COSLA Environment and Economy Spokesperson
COSLA Environment and Economy Spokesperson of 12 Jan 2021 to the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee
and the Local Government and Communities Committee.
12 January 2021
Gillian Martin MSP, Convener, Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee
James Dornan MSP, Convener, Local Government and Communities Committee
Dear Gillian Martin MSP and dear James Dornan MSP
Climate Change Plan update
We very much welcome the Scottish Parliament taking detailed evidence, across relevant committees, on the Climate Change Plan update.
COSLA has been following the development of Scottish Government plans here with great interest, and I myself have attended the Sustainable Renewal Advisory Group chaired by the Cabinet Secretary, and recently addressed Scotland’s Climate Assembly.
My Board, the COSLA Environment and Economy Board, took a clear and early decision to set a strategic goal for “a just transition to net-zero by no later than 2045” and for all our work to be guided by this principle.
While we will provide more detailed comment on the CCPu, I thought it worthwhile to highlight local government’s commitment here, collectively through COSLA, and through the commitments made by individual councils on net-zero.
COSLA is clear that climate change is one of the biggest challenges we face and we have from very early on integrated the protection of our natural environment into our climate change work. The linkage between the environment, human health and wellbeing, and the economy has rarely been clearer.
From a local government perspective, we meet these global challenges on our own home ground, by integrating carbon reduction into every aspect of what local authorities do, by coming out of Covid in a so-called ‘green recovery’ and by undertaking this transition in a socially fair and equitable way.
Local Authorities have three levels of influence here. Firstly, we want to become net zero public bodies. We want to ensure that our own estate, buildings and vehicle fleets become carbon neutral. Secondly, we want to develop net zero supply chains, looking at the services and products we purchase or commission. Thirdly, we want to create net zero places. We want to drive and facilitate change in our local areas, working with local partnerships and the business community and giving local communities a voice in how high level climate change goals are translated into concrete action on the ground, and how this can be done in a socially just and fair way.
This third level, referring to ‘political leadership’, is where I think local government can make the greatest impact. Local Government is not just about the delivery of vital services, but it is about the places we live and the lives we lead.
Local government is a key partner in the climate change dialogue, as a provider of a wide range of key services, and as a political body with a democratic mandate derived from local communities. And to fulfil these roles effectively, local government needs to be resourced adequately and have flexibility to meet local needs, in line with the Paris Agreement which calls for national governments to properly resource and empower local and regional government to meet their climate change ambitions.
I hope that the Scottish Parliament will lend its full support to the ambitious journey that our Councils face, and look forward to providing more detailed evidence to the Local Government and Communities Committee later in January.
Yours sincerely
Cllr Steven Heddle
COSLA Environment and Economy Spokesperson