Climate Change Reception @ the Scottish Parliament

The Scottish Churches Parliamentary Office organised a Climate Change reception at the Scottish Parliament on Tuesday 26th of January. Chloe Clemmons, the SCPO Parliamentary Officer mentioned that the purpose of the reception was to celebrate the Climate Change (Scotland) Act in particular the duty on the Scottish Government to publish a public engagement strategy in 2010, to reaffirm the commitment of the Church of Scotland to tackling climate change and supporting the Scottish Government in meeting the targets and finally, to highlight the role that congregations can play in delivering the targets set out in the Act. The Right Reverend William Hewitt, addressed the attendants, highlighting the role of faith-based organisations in the struggle to reduce CO2 emissions and modify life-styles. A copy of his speech is presented below.

I’m delighted to be here this evening to celebrate Scotland’s climate change legislation, and the role you have played in bringing it about. I’m told it is the strongest piece of climate change legislation in the world and if so then it is something we should be very proud of.

Many of you here were involved in the development of the legislation, both in this parliament and as lobbyists outside parliament. Stewart Stevenson was the Scottish Government Minister who piloted the legislation through parliament; MSPs debated it at length and in great detail and lobbyists from Stop Climate Chaos, of which the Church of Scotland is a member, lobbied tirelessly to strengthen the bill. The strength of the Bill is a testament to all your endeavours.

You have set us the challenge of reducing our emission of greenhouse gases by 42% by 2020 and by 80% by 2050.

These are spectacularly challenging figures. To get near these targets we will have to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in almost every aspect of our material lives. This will mean changes in the way we travel, in manufacturing, shopping, in our homes and in how we live our lives.

This will not happen automatically and it won’t happen just because the law says it should. It will require the active support, participation and involvement of people and communities across Scotland.

This is why the climate change engagement strategy that the legislation requires is so important. The Scottish Government will have to win over 5 million Scots to the importance of this task and make them believe that climate change is so serious that we have to make these changes.

We believe that people can change their lives to respond to climate change and we are challenging congregations to do just that.

Churches and congregations can help the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish Government achieve this objective. I say this for a number of reasons.

Those of you who were at The Wave, the march in Glasgow on 5 December organised by Stop Climate Chaos will have seen how many marchers were from church congregations. The Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, Cardinal Keith o Brien and myself had the privilege of leading the march and of demonstrating our commitment.

I say it because over 230 congregations have now joined Eco-Congregation Scotland, the largest movement of community environment groups in Scotland. These are congregations across the country that are concerned about climate change and are asking ‘what can we do to respond to climate change in our lives and in our communities?’

And I say it because of the commitment that all faith groups are making to care for the earth. At a gathering last year in Windsor Castle organised by the Alliance of Religions and Conservation faith groups from around the world met to reaffirm this commitment. This is a universal theme for all faith groups: the earth is not ours to squander ; we have to care for it and sustain its life and in doing so sustain hope for the future.

The Wave and the Windsor gathering were great events and give us hope.

We were disappointed by the Copenhagen conference and its outcome. It did not deliver the international agreement we were all hoping for. But we must not let this distract us from what we have to do here in Scotland and we must now redouble our efforts. In communities and congregations across Scotland we must embrace this message and take action. We do not have to wait for international negotiations; we can lead by example.