Climate Change Bill Approved

The Climate Change Bill received its third stage reading today. It was approved unaminously and will become law when it receives the Royal assent. It will be followed by a delivery plan. Eco-congregation Scotland have asked the government for public engagement to be part of this and they have agreed – see amendment and extract from plan. This is an opportunity for eco –congregations. We now have to think about how we respond to get the best out of this – a big task for the coming year.

The text of the amendment and extract from the plan is as follows:

Scottish Parliament Bill Amendment
Name of Proposer: Brian Adam

Before section 61A, insert—
Public engagement
(1) The Scottish Ministers must prepare and publish a strategy (a “public engagement strategy”) setting out the steps they intend to take to—
(a) inform persons in Scotland about the targets specified by virtue of this Act;
(b) encourage them to contribute to the achievement of those targets.
(2) The public engagement strategy must, in particular, identify actions which persons in Scotland may take to contribute to the achievement of the targets referred to in subsection (1)(a).
(3) The public engagement strategy must be published no later than 31 December 2010.
(4) The Scottish Ministers—
(a) may, from time to time; and
(b) must, before the end of the period mentioned in subsection (5),
review the strategy.
(5) The period referred to in subsection (4)(b) is the period of 5 years beginning with the date on which—
(a) the strategy is first published; or
(b) the strategy was last reviewed under subsection (4).
(6) Where, following a review under subsection (4), the Scottish Ministers vary the public engagement strategy, they must, as soon as reasonably practicable after so doing, publish the strategy as so varied.
(7) A strategy published under subsection (6) must contain an assessment of the progress made towards implementing the steps set out in earlier strategies.
(8) The public engagement strategy may be published in such manner as the Scottish Ministers consider appropriate.
(9) The Scottish Ministers must lay the public engagement strategy before the Scottish Parliament as soon as reasonably practicable after it is published.>

Extract from

SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT
CLIMATE CHANGE DELIVERY PLAN
MEETING SCOTLAND’S STATUTORY CLIMATE CHANGE TARGETS
June 2009


Wider engagement and behaviour change

8.12
Delivering the scale of emissions reductions in the Delivery
Plan will require real changes from all in Scottish society:
government and the public sector, business, voluntary and
community groups and individuals. An engagement strategy is
being prepared to ensure we approach this in an effective and
co-ordinated way.

8.13
The Scottish Environmental Attitudes and Behaviours Survey
(SEABS) has offered an important insight into how people in
Scotland think and behave on green issues. However, there is
a need to deepen this understanding in order to influence
attitudes and enable change. The next steps to this will involve:
Commissioning in-depth qualitative follow up research into
key aspects of SEABS that require further investigation; this
is likely to consist of a suite of studies focusing on
understanding behaviour change.
Developing further work on enabling behaviour change,
ensuring that policy development is taken forward with a
clear understanding of attitudes and behaviours.
Making SEABS findings more widely accessible to
academic/analytical study.

8.14
Finally, it must be remembered that one of the key aims of the
Scottish Government – in bringing forward the Climate
Change (Scotland) Bill to set ambitious and challenging
targets, and in producing this Delivery Plan to show how these
targets can be delivered – is to demonstrate strong leadership
to others and to use this to influence the international
community. The engagement strategy will need to consider
how the Scottish Government will galvanise support and
action from others in the global effort to tackle climate
change.

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