Climate change, marginalised communities and considered debate within Scotland’s climate emergency

ABSTRACT

The announcement by the Scottish Government of a global ‘climate emergency’ in May 2019, and the selection of Glasgow as the host city for the main COP26 talks to be held in late 2021 has helped focus attention to the impact of climate change in Scotland. The COVID-19 pandemic has also brought into sharp focus the disproportionate effect that shocks and stresses have on already vulnerable people and places. This short communication aims to contribute to these debates by clarifying existing strengths and open issues for an evidence-driven response to climate change in Scotland’s marginalised communities. Growing support for rapid and radical climate action, both in Scotland and overseas, brings into question the role of learned societies and reasoned debate within a climate emergency. To this end, we synthesise recent Scotland-based research into issues relating to climate justice and, drawing on the outcomes of a workshop held in summer 2019, identify aspects where good progress has been made and areas where further work is required for an evidence-driven and just response to climate change in Scotland and beyond.

KEYWORDS:

• Climate emergency
• inequality
• climate justice

Acknowledgements

The workshop on which this communication is based was convened by the Royal Society of Edinburgh’s Young Academy of Scotland, in conjunction with the Royal Society of Edinburgh – Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan (RSE-MOST) Joint Research Project ‘Spatial relationship of heat hazard and socio-economic characteristics in urban neighbourhoods – the role of green infrastructure’ (MOST 106 -2911-I-130-502). This communication was collated and edited by Leslie Mabon (Scottish Association for Marine Science) and Neil Crawford (Centre for Climate Justice, Glasgow Caledonian University). The communication is a joint output of all those who participated in the workshop: Leslie Mabon (SAMS); Wan-Yu Shih (Ming-Chuan University, Taiwan); Yu-Cheng Chen (National Taiwan University of Science and Technology); Yi-Chen Huang (Robert Gordon University); Sohail Ahmad (Centre for Sustainable, Healthy and Learning Cities and Neighbourhoods, University of Glasgow); Alice Butler-Warke (Robert Gordon University); Chia-Min Chang (Representative Office of Taiwan in Edinburgh); Neil Crawford (Centre for Climate Justice, Glasgow Caledonian University); Kit England (Climate Ready Clyde); Sarah Govan (ClimateXChange); Louise Horsfall (University of Edinburgh); Sarah Lindley (University of Manchester); Melinda Morris (Sniffer); Ali Watson (University of St Andrews); Ruth Wolstenholme (Sniffer). The collating authors (Mabon and Crawford) however accept all responsibility for the content and opinions expressed within, and the contents of the communication are not attributable to any individual or organisation participating in the workshop on which this text is based.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The workshop was convened by the Royal Society of Edinburgh’s Young Academy of Scotland, in conjunction with the Royal Society of Edinburgh – Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan (RSE-MOST) Joint Research Project ‘Spatial relationship of heat hazard and socio-economic characteristics in urban neighbourhoods – the role of green infrastructure’ (MOST 106 -2911-I-130-502).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Royal Society of Edinburgh - Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan. Under the Joint Research Project ‘Spatial relationship of heat hazard and socio-economic characteristics in urban neighbourhoods - the role of green infrastructure' (Co-PIs Wan-Yu Shih and Leslie Mabon).