The final item of business is a members’ business debate on motion S4M-12157, in the name of Graeme Dey, on earth hour 2015. The debate will be concluded without any question being put.
Motion debated,
That the Parliament supports WWF’s Earth Hour 2015; celebrates the many individuals, families, communities, organisations and landmarks across Scotland, including the Scottish Parliament, that will be participating by switching their lights off for an hour at 8.30pm on 28 March; congratulates all of the local authorities participating in Earth Hour 2015, particularly Angus Council, which has been awarded one of WWF Scotland’s Super Local Authority badges for its level of participation; considers that Earth Hour has become a moment for people around the world to think about the importance of action to address climate change and protect the planet; notes that Scotland will be one of more than 160 countries, nations and territories around the world that will take part in Earth Hour 2015; understands that this year is an important year for action on climate change, with the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change taking place in Paris in December; welcomes the continued cross-party support for the aims of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 and would welcome other nations sharing Scotland’s ambitions on tackling climate change, and wishes everyone participating in Earth Hour 2015 every success.
17:39
On Saturday 28 March, the ninth annual WWF-inspired earth hour will take place. For 60 minutes, 160-plus countries and territories will come together to create a symbolic and spectacular lights-out display around the globe that is aimed at highlighting the need to address climate change. Landmarks including Times Square in New York and the Sydney harbour bridge will feature, and they will be joined here in Scotland by Edinburgh castle, the Forth rail bridge, the Kelpies for the first time and, of course, the Scottish Parliament.
With the critical international climate change summit due to take place in Paris later this year, the importance of earth hour 2015 cannot be overstated. We collectively and as individual citizens need to ramp up the pressure on world leaders to deliver a legally binding international deal that, in a fair and equitable way, delivers on restricting global temperature increases to less than the catastrophe that would be 2°C. In the same way, we collectively and as individuals require to ensure our own behaviours are those of environmentally responsible inhabitants of this planet.
The need for tangible action becomes increasingly evident right here on our own doorstep. For example, 2014 was the hottest and fourth-wettest year in the United Kingdom since records began in 1910. The average temperature for 2014 was 9.9°C, which is 1°C warmer than the UK’s long-term average. That fits into the wider trend, which shows that eight of the UK’s top 10 warmest years have occurred since 2002. As Bob Ward, policy and communications director at the Grantham research institute on climate change and the environment, put it, 2014 was
“part of a pattern”
and
“clear evidence of the impact of man-made climate change on the UK”.
The truth is that we are not responding, at least not to the extent we in Scotland have acknowledged we must. By 2012, only Finland and Denmark in Europe had bettered Scotland’s emissions reduction performance. However, we all know that we are missing the early targets—although readjustment of the baselines is not helping in that respect—and from here on in the trajectory gets much steeper and far more challenging.
That said, although it is at face value a symbolic gesture, the response to earth hour suggests that the population is increasingly waking up to the situation. WWF found that 85 per cent of the adults who had been involved in last year’s earth hour had felt inspired by the event to do more to protect the planet. It might be a symbolic event, but it appears to be making a difference in terms of raising awareness and inspiring more environmentally friendly behaviour.
Since the UK first became involved with earth hour back in 2008, there has been a steady increase in participation at all levels. Last year, more than 1,000 businesses across these islands took part, ensuring that hundreds of buildings were switched off across the country, and just short of 1,000 schools across Scotland participated, reaching more than 2 million pupils. This year, the task is to create “For the love of...” bunting to highlight the campaign that WWF started as part of the 100-strong climate coalition and which called on people to share why they care about climate change by focusing on the many things about their lives that will be affected unless we tackle this global issue.
It is not just members of the public who are showing enthusiasm for earth hour. When I lodged this motion, I never thought for a moment that it would fail to receive the level of cross-party support required to secure this debate, but it says a lot about the subject matter that multiple members from every single party in the Parliament supported it. There is no doubt that such consensus on earth hour’s importance is also evident at local authority level, so let us give ourselves a pat on the back: Scotland is the first country in the world where every local authority supports the earth hour initiative.
The earth hour 2015 local authority initiative requires councils to do three basic things. The first is to switch off; councils have to turn off the lights in their town halls and headquarters and other landmarks in their control for an hour at 8.30 pm on 28 March 2015. The second is to take part by promoting WWF’s earth hour to staff through emails and intranet, encouraging them to sign up as individuals and take part in the event on a personal basis. The third is to engage by making use of the council’s website, newsletters, Twitter and Facebook to encourage members of the public to sign up, demonstrating the support for action on climate change that exists in the local area.
If a local authority does an additional three activities from a top-up list, it becomes a WWF Scotland super local authority badge recipient. Those activities include getting community planning partnership partners to sign up to earth hour, holding a major public countdown to the switch-off event and talking to local businesses and organisations to get the lights switched off on iconic or important buildings or structures in the area.
I want to use the platform that is provided by tonight’s debate to urge councils to pay particular heed to that last point, especially in relation to businesses that occupy major retail parks. I find it absolutely galling to think about the amount of electricity that is wasted on lighting up shop fronts and vacant car parks in these places between the hours of dusk and dawn when no one, but no one, is window shopping. Switching off for earth hour would be a start down a road that might result in those parks reducing energy consumption—and if security is a concern, they could direct the savings to job opportunities for people to guard the premises.
Last year, 14 councils were awarded the status of super local authority, and my local council, Angus Council, is one of them. Angus Council will be switching off the lights at the council headquarters, Angus house at Orchardbank, County buildings and the Balmashanner war memorial, and it will be joined in taking that action by Historic Scotland at Arbroath abbey.
Most schools in Angus will be involved in various projects, such as switching off appliances and signing up to switch off at home. Last year, participating schools received feedback on their energy consumption during earth hour. Figures returned by the Angus carbon and energy team showed that one primary school had an overall saving of 62KWh, which would equate to £2,467 if continued over the year. That is equal to the energy used by six houses in a day and the CO2 emissions of a car travelling 145 miles.
The council is using earth hour as an opportunity to raise awareness about energy use and is giving staff details of how to reduce their energy use. The council is also encouraging community planning partners, such as Dundee and Angus College, Tayside NHS Board, Police Scotland, Scottish Enterprise and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service to get involved as well.
At local level, right across Scotland, we are taking that moment to think about and highlight the need for action on climate change. I hope that we are sending the message that, as citizens of this planet, we understand the need to change behaviour, and if our political leaders take the appropriate lead, they will also have our support.
I will draw my contribution to a close, because I know that a number of colleagues want to participate in the debate. As with tackling climate change, the more who can contribute, the better.
17:46
I congratulate Graeme Dey on lodging his important motion, and I apologise to him and to the minister because I was due to chair a meeting starting at 5.30, but that is what happens when debates start later than scheduled. It is clearly an important debate, and that is why I wanted to speak in it.
As we know, earth hour has been getting bigger and bigger every year since it started in Sydney in 2007. As Graeme Dey has reminded us, Scotland should be proud of the fact that every single local authority has pledged to take part in it. This year, more than 100 iconic buildings and landmarks will go dark on 28 March, including Edinburgh castle, Stirling castle, Glasgow’s George Square and the Kelpies. However, earth hour was not started by WWF just to switch off the lights. It is a day that is aimed at raising awareness about climate change and it is also a great opportunity to take concrete action with a global impact.
With climate change, we are now facing one of the biggest threats that humanity has ever had to face, and 2015 is a significant year for global action. For example, Paris will be hosting the 21st session of the conference of the parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in December over two weeks, under guidance from the UN. The expectations of that meeting are high and reflect the urgency to contain climate disruption. In that context, Scotland has made bold commitments so far. The Scottish Government has set an ambitious but necessary target of a 42 per cent reduction in emissions of greenhouse gases by 2020.
The fact remains, however, that the reduction target was missed for the third time in 2012 by a substantial margin of 4.5 per cent. According to the Committee on Climate Change,
“the Scottish Government will need to strengthen key policies to meet future targets.”
Therefore, the Scottish Government must continue and go further to make sustainability a key area of policy devolved to Scotland, including infrastructure and procurement, green housing, active travel and much more.
The recent high-profile climate change petition led by Alan Rusbridger, editor-in-chief of The Guardian, echoes the wake-up call on climate change that we are experiencing from all over the world, from scientists and academics to politicians. I want to highlight that campaign, because The Guardian should be congratulated on its great campaign over the past three or four weeks. Rob Edwards, a journalist who writes for a different paper, said that the launch editorial was the best editorial that he had ever seen on the subject.
Alan Rusbridger, who is retiring soon, started a keep it in the ground campaign, calling for a “civilisational wake-up call”. Moreover, he said that it was time to disinvest in companies that seek to exploit fossils fuels. To quote what he said in that starting editorial:
“Evidence shows that proven fossil fuel reserves are more than three times higher than we can afford to burn in order to stay below the generally agreed threshold for dangerous climate change. Fossil fuel companies are currently banking on extracting these reserves and selling them—and are actively prospecting for more.”
If legislators continue to support those actions through policy, while at the same time purporting to prioritise carbon emissions reduction targets, the situation will become a stalemate between global corporate energy interests and the wellbeing and sustenance of our children and our planet. It is well worth everyone looking at The Guardian over the month of March, particularly on Mondays and Fridays, because it has been a great campaign that carries on.
Climate change is having a hugely detrimental impact on the quality of life for earth’s inhabitants—human and otherwise. Earth hour is just one moment where we can come together and make the case for a cleaner and more sustainable way of living in our own small but significant way. Therefore, on Saturday 28 March, when the skies above our major towns and cities go dark, I hope that as many members as possible—and as many citizens as possible—will show their support and switch off at 8.30 pm.
I support the motion and congratulate Graeme Dey once again on lodging it.
17:50
Like others, I congratulate Graeme Dey and thank him for securing time for the debate.
A lot is happening in the world. Ocean currents are slowing. The gulf stream will be a less significant moderator of the climate in north-west Europe in years to come. That has already started, which is why we are having harsh winters. In one of the past five years, the temperature at our house dropped to -21°C. In another year, it was -19°C. That has been followed by two years of unseasonable warmth that meant that we were sitting having a barbecue at the end of February last winter.
There is greater variability in our climate, which will not be good news for the long-term health of our planet. We have seen shrinking of the Arctic and Antarctic ice caps, and we are seeing increased aridification in Africa in particular. As I have said in many debates before, that is a gender issue because the majority of subsistence farmers in rural Africa are female. They are having to go further for water and will have to go further for the wood that they burn in their stoves.
Climate change causes very significant problems for real people. It will lead to mass migration and deaths. It is not simply an academic argument.
I shall be doing my little bit to promote earth hour. I will be in the Shuna and Staffa suite of the Crowne Plaza hotel next to the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre at 8.30 on Saturday night. I am the quizmaster in a WWF candlelit quiz. It is, of course, associated with the Scottish National Party conference but it is not on the SNP conference campus, so I extend an invitation to all who are listening to come and join us on that excellent occasion. I shall be on sparkling form as I normally am at such occasions.
The motion talks about celebrating the work of individuals, families and communities, and it highlights the work of Angus Council. It is worth mentioning the two councils in my constituency. Most if not all of Aberdeenshire Council’s offices will switch their lights off, which is good news. Moray Council has arranged that the Buckie town clock and the Cullen town clock will be part of earth hour. Indeed, it has been awarded a super local authority badge. It is not a great secret that I have my disagreements with Moray Council but, on this policy area, it is at least taking the right steps.
It is somewhat ironic that earth hour started in Sydney because Australia now has a Prime Minister who has been deconstructing his predecessor’s efforts to address climate change at a time when the states, particularly South Australia, have been doing well. Indeed, the Government here lost its head of environment to South Australia, where he is now carrying on good work at a state level.
The conference of the parties will be in Paris this year. As a minister, I went first to the one in Poznan and then to the one in Copenhagen. The United Kingdom—in particular, Gordon Brown—refused to allow us to be part of the delegation, but I am delighted to say that, since then, the Scottish Government has been part of the delegation and has been an active and effective contributor.
I will end with a controversial point on which I am in a single-digit minority. The big thing that we should and could contemplate is reducing the speed limits in Scotland, wherever they are, by 10mph. It would cost almost nothing to do. It would not be popular, but I do not care because I will be 70 next year. It is one of the proposals that we must get on the agenda, and I encourage people to think about it seriously.
17:54
I join Graeme Dey and others in commending WWF for once again organising this year’s earth hour and indeed for the positive work that WWF does more generally to raise awareness of climate change and the challenges facing our biodiversity across the planet.
Like other members, I also encourage constituents in my region to take part in this year’s earth hour by switching off lights at 8.30 pm this Saturday. Earth hour, which was established in 2007, is now a well-known event that raises awareness of climate change issues internationally and helps to put the focus on this policy area. It is an hour when people can contemplate human impact on the planet.
Earth hour always reminds me of the late Michael Jackson’s “Earth Song”—some of the lyrics are apt:
“What have we done to the world
Look what we’ve done”.
Light pollution, quite apart from being a significant energy issue, spoils clear vision of the night sky, which, in darkness, is so breathtakingly beautiful, so it is a type of vandalism.
The motion mentions the involvement of local authorities in earth hour, and I am pleased that all the councils in my region are taking part. In Argyll and Bute, the famous McCaig’s tower in Oban will take its place in a display of darkness alongside iconic buildings and structures across the globe such as the Sydney harbour bridge. In the Highlands—where WWF has awarded the council a super local authority badge in recognition of its enthusiastic support for earth hour 2015—Ruthven barracks, Inverness castle, Inverness cathedral, Urquhart castle and Eilean Donan castle will all have their floodlighting switched off. Highland Council rangers will also offer a range of guided walks and every school in the Highlands has been encouraged to mark earth hour. In the Western Isles, the lights of the Stornoway war memorial will be turned off, and the town hall in Lerwick, in Shetland, will similarly be darkened.
I am aware that many other public agencies in my region are also joining earth hour, including Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Scottish Canals, VisitScotland, NHS Orkney and Scottish Natural Heritage, which is good.
The motion also refers to welcoming other nations sharing Scotland’s ambitions on tackling climate change. We would all agree with that but, as I have argued in this chamber before, Scotland would carry more weight in persuading other countries to adopt tough climate change targets if we could point to meeting our own targets rather than missing them—most notably on greenhouse gas emissions, targets that the Government has now failed to meet three years in a row. That lack of achievement emphasises the difficulty in translating rhetoric into reality.
I again welcome the fact that earth hour 2015 will help to put climate change on the international political agenda, and I agree with Graeme Dey that this December’s Paris conference will be a very important milestone in international efforts towards tackling climate change. We look to the Scottish Government to work with the public and private sectors here to develop further practical policies that help individual consumers make low-carbon, environmentally friendly choices.
17:58
I congratulate Graeme Dey on securing tonight’s debate, and I congratulate WWF on its excellent campaign. On Saturday night, from 8.30 pm, I will be joining millions of people in Scotland and around the world by switching off the lights in my house to mark earth hour 2015—although, having three young children, I do not think that I will be lighting any candles.
I know that many hundreds of my constituents in Dunfermline and in the west Fife villages will be doing the same. I have certainly been doing my bit to urge constituents to sign up. As a Fife MSP, I was pleased to hear that joining the iconic buildings and structures across Scotland that will take part in earth hour are Dunfermline city chambers, the Forth rail bridge, Fife house, the Town house in Kirkcaldy, and Saltire house. NHS Fife is also taking part.
I congratulate Fife Council, which has been so active in promoting earth hour this year to both council staff and the local community that the WWF has awarded it a super local authority badge.
Earth hour gives us the opportunity to show that we are concerned about what is happening to our planet. Climate change is not something that is going to happen in the future and it is not something that is in any doubt. Climate change is happening right now.
Although it can be hard for us in Scotland to believe, our world is hotter right now than it has been in 2,000 years. By the end of the century, if we do not act, global temperatures will climb higher than at any time in the past two million years.
We are already seeing the impact, from floods here in the UK to extreme conditions in the US and droughts, poverty and rising sea levels affecting many developing countries. Climate change is already affecting our lives, damaging our ecosystems and endangering the livelihoods of millions of people around the world.
Climate change affects the whole planet: it touches, and will touch, every one of us in every country on every continent around the world. Yet it is not an unstoppable tide, and there is nothing inevitable about it. We all have the power to act and to make a difference, and right now that is simply not happening enough.
If everyone in the world consumed natural resources at the rate that we do in Scotland, we would need three planets, not just one, to support us. However, from the food we eat to the air we breathe, and from the fuel we consume to the water we drink, we rely on a healthy planet to enable us to lead our lives.
In the choices that we all make every single day—in our homes, on our journeys to work and in the food that we eat—we can take small simple steps that can add up to big energy savings. We can all live our lives in a more climate-friendly way.
Earth hour is not, therefore, just a one-off event. It is not about switching the lights off once a year and doing nothing else. Earth hour is an opportunity for each and every one of us to think about the everyday changes that we can make to save the planet that we love. It is also an opportunity to demand concerted action to ensure that, in Scotland, we meet our climate change targets in future, and that we play a role on the world stage in promoting climate change action here, in Europe and around the world.
Each and every one of us has the power to shape and change the future of our planet and to make the day-to-day choices that will secure a better and brighter future for the generations to come. I hope that this year’s earth hour is another huge success, but switching off the lights can only be the start of a journey. Together, we can make change happen, taking action not just for one hour but every single day. We owe it to our children, and to all that we love and value, to act now and put a halt to climate change.
18:02
I join other members in thanking Graeme Dey for bringing the debate to the chamber to highlight the importance of WWF’s earth hour and of demonstrating support for people and wildlife that are threatened by climate change. I am delighted to be supporting earth hour on 28 March, and I urge my constituents and the local businesses and organisations in my Falkirk East constituency to join me in supporting the initiative.
This year in Falkirk East, we will see the lights going out on the Falkirk wheel and the Kelpies—as Graeme Dey mentioned—among many other landmarks. It is great to see those landmarks being used to highlight that important issue. A lone piper and a blues band at the Kelpies will announce the switch-off at 8.30pm on 28 March, so I am in a bit of a quandary about whether to attend that event or Stewart Stevenson’s quiz night at the SNP conference.
Around the world, nations face a range of challenges from climate change and energy and water security to tackling extreme poverty. However, the biggest challenge is surely climate change. In 2009, as we all know, the Scottish Parliament passed world-leading legislation on climate change. We in Scotland have shown that, when we have the powers, we are prepared to lead. No other country in the world has set itself the demanding emissions reduction targets that Scotland has set.
In addition, Scotland’s climate justice fund is already making a difference to the lives of climate-change affected communities in Tanzania, Rwanda, Malawi and Zambia. The devastation that is caused by extreme weather events and the link to climate change will surely feature high on the agenda of the next session of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change conference of parties. It must be a wake-up call to world Governments. I am sure that the minister, if she is attending the Paris conference, will call on those Governments to share Scotland’s ambition on tackling climate change.
In international development, in human rights, in action on climate change and in climate justice, Scotland already has a well-established international reputation. In 2014, thousands of people across Scotland joined hundreds of millions of people in other countries around the world in switching off all non-essential lighting on and within buildings. The Scottish Government, the Scottish Parliament and my local authority—Falkirk Council—will play their part again this year, and we anticipate a great response from the rest of the public sector.
WWF’s earth hour is an extraordinary annual event that focuses the world’s attention on the steps that we need to take to protect it. As a supporter, I am committed to taking more action to address climate change and other environmental threats. However, I consider myself to be not an environmentalist but a pragmatist. I enjoy the benefits of a technologically advanced and industrialised nation and I would not agree with any action that takes a regressive stance on that. However, my pragmatism extends to the acknowledgement that, with the benefits of technology and industrialisation, comes the down side of climate change.
In my Falkirk East constituency there is the largest container terminal in Scotland, Scotland’s only crude-oil refinery and a number of proposals for fracking, which are currently suspended by the moratorium on that. There are also the hills and farmland of the Braes area as well as multiple wildlife reserves, woodland and parks. We as legislators must get right the balance between environment and industrialisation, for the benefit of us all and for the benefit of future generations.
It is clear that climate change is an issue that will give us many challenges in years to come. Scotland can lead the way with legislation that will ultimately help to mitigate the effects of climate change and provide a sustainable supply of energy and a technologically advanced economy. Earth hour provides a moment in time for us all to think about what more we can do to address climate change. I believe that a moment in time is not enough, so I call on all colleagues in the Scottish Parliament to continue to provide cross-party support for the aims of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 and any other legislation that helps to prevent climate change.
18:06
I, too, congratulate Graeme Dey on securing the debate. We have heard some excellent speeches so far. I am very proud that every local authority is taking part in earth hour this year, because that is hugely symbolic and is definitely worth highlighting. My local authority, the City of Edinburgh Council, is one of the super local authorities, because of the work that it has done and the initiative that it has taken. As part of its darker skies policy, it has already reduced the number of city monuments that are illuminated at night. That is a good example of earth hour creating a year-round impact.
The iconic buildings that are involved in Edinburgh this weekend and the leading organisations that are taking action should be put on the record. It is not just the castle or the Parliament, important though those are; there is the royal yacht Britannia, the Forth rail bridge, the national gallery of Scotland, the Royal Scottish Academy building and the Palace of Holyroodhouse. Public sector organisations are taking part, including Scottish Enterprise, whose Apex house is involved, and the Scottish Further and Higher Education Funding Council.
Hotels including the Balmoral and the Caledonian are taking part, along with the camera obscura, St Giles’ cathedral, St Cuthbert’s church, Heart of Midlothian Football Club and the University of Edinburgh. A range of key buildings in the city will have their lights off for an hour on Saturday. That is an act of symbolism, but it is also an act of solidarity with the people who, as Cara Hilton said, are already being affected by climate change.
There is a lot that we can celebrate. As Graeme Dey said, this year’s earth hour is important, because it comes in the run-up to the Paris talks. There is a huge amount that we can be proud of in Scotland but, as Jamie McGrigor said, we need to focus on what more we need to do to meet our climate change targets, which we have missed for three years in a row. The Committee on Climate Change’s fourth annual progress report, which was published yesterday, sets out some of the challenges that we face and some of the policy areas in which we can really make a difference, if we act now.
WWF has rightly called for significantly greater policy effort. It comments that it
“remains difficult to pinpoint a policy ‘fingerprint’ on the emissions reductions we have seen since the introduction of the Climate Change Act.”
Let us focus on energy efficiency in Scotland. In Edinburgh, tackling our tenements is a huge challenge. We struggle to keep our tenements wind tight and water tight, but we have to raise our game in making them more energy efficient. We need more low-carbon heat networks across the country so that people have energy-efficient and low-carbon heating for the future. We need more low-emissions transport, more electric cars and more active travel and walking. I say to Stewart Stevenson that Edinburgh is considering lower speed limits on selected streets. Other parts of the country will be able to learn from that.
Across the public sector, we have targets to reduce our CO2 emissions. I note that Glasgow City Council has signed up to a deal with the Green Investment Bank that will result in 10,000 street lights with lower energy use, which will halve the amount of energy that is used to light the city.
There is a huge amount being done across Scotland, and there is much to be proud of. We need to have more land-use action, particularly for forestry, farming and peatlands. Part of that is about good advice and guidance, part of it is about leadership from the Scottish Government and part of it is about using financial resources to create the win-wins, with carbon emission reductions and green jobs.
That has to be the prize for us in Scotland as we play our part across the world with the symbolism and also the solidarity of earth hour, focusing on what we can do so that all of us, in switching off our lights for an hour on Saturday night, are taking part in a global movement, saying that climate change needs action and that Scotland can lead the way and play a full part in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
18:10
I welcome this opportunity to speak on the subject of world earth hour 2015. Like other members, I congratulate Graeme Dey on securing the debate and I congratulate and applaud the work of WWF. I wish Stewart Stevenson all the best on Saturday in his chairmanship of the quiz.
In his speech and in his motion, Graeme Dey referred to the number of countries that will participate in this year’s earth hour and to the importance of this year’s event, particularly ahead of the rather grandly named 21st session of the conference of the parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which takes place in Paris in December.
As a symbolic act, earth hour is not only unique; it is extremely appropriate. Whether at a local level, at home, in the workplace or even at a traditional level, turning out the lights provides a visual opportunity to display support or to draw attention to those who do not.
When landmarks across Scotland, including the Parliament, Edinburgh castle, the Kelpies, the Forth road bridge and—dare I say it—Cupar county buildings fall into temporary darkness this Saturday night, they will be joined by other landmarks in other cities and places across the globe. They might be rather better known than those in Cupar or Angus, but nevertheless the sentiment is the same. I am especially pleased that NHS Fife is taking part in this year’s earth hour. As Cara Hilton mentioned, Fife Council joins Angus Council and others in being awarded a super local authority badge by WWF as a result of its enthusiastic participation in and support for earth hour.
Events such as earth hour help to encourage people to take stock of a global issue. Many people suggest that climate change could overtake all other issues as a matter of importance, as its effects become more apparent and have increasing consequences around the globe.
At the UN climate summit in 2014, Barack Obama said, as we probably all remember:
“We are the first generation to feel the impact of climate change and the last generation that can do something about it.”
How true that is. We in Scotland have found ourselves in some ways in the unfortunate but privileged position of being able to instigate change. Change is unlikely to happen overnight or with a single action, but it can occur if we make many little changes in our everyday lives. How many people regularly leave the lights or television on when they leave the room? Just a few years ago, those things would not even be thought of as an issue. As people become more conscious of the problem, however, they are more willing, I believe, to implement the small changes in their daily routines that, when made by a significant number of people together, will make a significant difference.
There are colossal challenges that cannot be met simply by using energy-efficient light bulbs or not leaving the television on stand-by. Equipping ourselves with a clean, reliable energy source is essential. I am pleased that, while other nations and states have moved without even pausing for breath to using another carbon-based resource through fracking, the Scottish Government is taking more of a considered approach and has instigated a moratorium on granting planning consents.
The Scottish Government’s ambition for renewable sources to generate the equivalent of 100 per cent of electricity by 2020 is well on the way to being achieved, with renewable sources now exceeding 44 per cent of gross electricity consumption. That is particularly good when compared with other areas of the United Kingdom, where the proportion that is provided by renewables is far lower.
However encouraging those figures are, there is no scope for complacency. As Malcolm Chisholm mentioned, we have failed to reach the emissions targets, so there is absolutely no room for complacency. I believe that we can continue to make big steps in the renewable energy market, with our vast potential for wind, wave and tidal power.
Keeping this issue at the front of our minds is important. This one event is a small, symbolic gesture. As Cara Hilton said, it should not be seen as a one-off. I hope that, if they can, people will mark the occasion on 28 March at 8.30 by turning off their lights.
18:15
I congratulate Graeme Dey on bringing this important debate to Parliament and on highlighting the success of WWF’s earth hour in engaging with a mass audience worldwide and encouraging hundreds of millions of people across our planet to stand behind environmental issues.
As the Minister for Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform, I am delighted to add my congratulations to WWF and to all who are taking part in earth hour this Saturday evening. I wish them every success in their efforts. I also look forward to seeing Angus MacDonald and Stewart Stevenson take part in the candlelit quiz that will be hosted by WWF at our party conference.
I am pleased, too, that the motion has commanded support from all sides of the Parliament. We should all continue to take pride in the very fact that the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 was passed unanimously. That demonstrates that the Scottish Parliament is prepared to show international leadership on targets that are aligned with climate science. I agree with Malcolm Chisholm that climate change is one of the biggest challenges that the world faces. I also agree with Rod Campbell’s comment about the importance of consumer behaviour.
As noted in the motion, 2015 is a particularly crucial year for mobilising the international effort. As many members have highlighted, Governments from around the world will meet in Paris in December and agree a new global treaty on climate change. I will attend in Paris and I will press for the highest global ambition.
One of my earliest ministerial duties was to attend the conference of the parties in Lima in December last year, where I met many international figures who were committed to addressing climate change and challenging the international community to deliver a new global treaty that would match Scotland’s high ambition. With that in mind, I agree with Graeme Dey that we must ramp up the pressure on our world leaders.
Just in the last few weeks, I have met and discussed climate action with the Irish minister for natural resources and with the French ambassador to the UK. Earlier today, I met and discussed climate change with the Quebec agent-general to the UK.
Many members will be aware that yesterday the independent Committee on Climate Change published its report on Scotland’s progress, which I very much welcome. The report shows that Scotland is outperforming the UK as a whole in reducing greenhouse gases, as a result of the innovative and effective action that we are taking to achieve the most ambitious climate change targets in the world. Since 1990, gross Scottish emissions have fallen nearly 30 per cent, compared with 24 per cent for the UK as a whole.
The report recognises the challenges that we face as a result of methodological changes in how estimated emissions are calculated; those changes, which have been made since our targets were set, make achieving the targets more difficult. As we know, Scotland’s targets are not easy. They are challenging, and there is still much for us to do, but we are making good progress against our targets. That was also recognised in the report, particularly with regard to renewable energy; for example, in 2013 Scotland’s generation from renewables was equivalent to 44 per cent of our gross electricity consumption.
We have the ambition to do more. Last year the Scottish Government established the Cabinet sub-committee on climate change, which is chaired by the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Food and Environment in a clear demonstration of our collective commitment to climate change at the very highest level within this Government.
That commitment is evidenced by the range of work that we are undertaking across the Scottish Government, which is making a difference on the ground. There are now around 600 publicly available vehicle charging points in Scotland for electric cars. In 2013, 42.2 per cent of household waste was recycled. In the budget, we increased our investment in energy efficiency by £20 million, which should have a positive impact on how we tackle climate change emissions from housing. Just this morning, my colleague Derek Mackay announced a £10 million boost to active travel, bringing the total budget for active travel in the coming financial year to almost £36 million. The latter is an excellent example of Scottish Government funding that delivers multiple benefits, from emissions reduction to healthier lives.
Of course, Scotland’s actions alone are not enough. Earth hour is important in that regard, because it sends a co-ordinated message in support of action on climate change from grass-root levels around the world. The Government gives an annual grant to WWF Scotland to ensure that that co-ordination happens in Scotland.
A number of members have highlighted some of the public bodies and national organisations that are switching off their non-essential lights. They include Edinburgh castle, the Forth bridge, the Falkirk wheel, Stirling castle, Eilean Donan castle and our very own Kelpies. It is fantastic that every one of our 32 local authorities will also be switching off. Last year, three of them won local authority champion awards, while another 12 that went the extra mile—including Fife Council and, as Graeme Dey noted, Angus Council—were awarded super local authority badges.
Earth hour has demonstrated that, when we act collectively, we have the power to make a difference. I agree with Sarah Boyack that earth hour is a symbol of solidarity with the climate vulnerable around the world.
I want to pick up on Graeme Dey’s comment about the for the love of campaign. The First Minister has received many hundreds of emails and letters, and I have written on her behalf to Stop Climate Chaos Scotland and the Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund to thank them and their supporters for all their many actions on climate change.
I welcome the debate. I again thank Graeme Dey for bringing such an important issue to the chamber for debate, and I thank members for all the excellent contributions that they have made, in which they have highlighted how important earth hour is and how it is being marked in our local communities.
I have two closing points to make. First, I again congratulate all those who will participate in earth hour—everyone involved will make a huge difference. Secondly, I call on everyone not only to participate in earth hour, but to work with us to realise Scotland’s ambitions on climate change here in Scotland and on the international stage.
I thank you all for taking part in the debate.
Meeting closed at 18:21.Previous
Decision Time