Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting a just transition to net zero and to meaningful involvement of the people of Scotland in decisions that affect them. We recognise the importance of individuals and communities being able to engage in shaping the society wide response needed to achieve a net zero future. We are exploring the most effective ways to do this at all levels across society. I’ve set out below a number of ways in which the Scottish Government is enabling this engagement:

Open Government Partnership (OGP)

As part of the Scottish Government’s commitment to OGP values of transparency, accountability and participation, a working group was convened in summer 2021. Its remit is to develop options for embedding the use of a broad range of participation and democratic innovations, and using this system as a basis for routine Citizens’ Assemblies in Scotland.

The working group’s report is due to be published in early 2022. It will include recommendations on how to encourage the routine use of deliberative methods across all areas of public services working on complex issues, such as Climate Action. We are also in the process of developing a climate stakeholders network as part of our latest OGP Action Plan, which as a first step will create opportunities for deliberative engagement.

Green Participatory Budgeting (PB)

We committed, in our response to the Just Transition Commission’s recommendations, to exploring the use of Green Participatory Budgeting (PB). We have now dedicated resource within the Scottish Communities Development Centre to aid the development and adoption of Green PB activities and processes across Scotland in 2022, which will include working with local authorities to embed net zero commitments into wider participatory budgeting initiatives.

Place Standard tool

The Place Standard tool is a simple and effective tool to support communities’ and organisations’ engagement in holistic conversations around a place to inform positive action. A supplementary Climate Lens toolkit for the Place Standard tool is currently being developed and piloted in partnership with climate change organisations to further enhance the potential of the tool to contribute to net zero and climate action.

Local Place Plans

Local Place Plans provide communities with an opportunity to influence local planning policies through a community led, collaborative process, setting out a community’s proposals for the development and use of land. It is for the Community Body preparing the Local Place Plan to consider what is the most appropriate method of engaging with its wider community.

Community-led Climate Action

The Scottish Government is committed to empowering people to take action in their own communities and in their own lives. We are building a new model to support community climate action via a developing network of regional climate action hubs and climate action towns. In September 2021 we launched two pathfinder regional Community Climate Action hubs – one in the North Highlands and one in the Northeast of Scotland. These initiatives will provide a vehicle for communities to come together and engage in collective climate action.

The Climate Action Towns initiative is a place-based programme focussing on small towns with little historical engagement on climate action. Architecture and Design Scotland have been commissioned to work collaboratively with local people and organisations in seven towns to support communities to develop local plans focused on tackling the crisis. This will provide opportunities to deliver real change in a collaborative and coordinated approach, learnings from which can be applied in places across Scotland.