In December 2009 a Group initiated by Ian Marchant, Chief Executive of SSE, with support from the Scottish Government was set up to ensure that all sectors of Scotland’s economy and civic society contribute fully to achieving Scotland’s ambitious climate change targets.
Almost three years later, the 2020 Climate Group has membership of around 127 individuals from 90 different organisations across Scotland. This membership is comprised of some of the largest businesses in Scotland, the Government, local authorities, universities, charities and SMEs.
This membership is working together across eight subgroups; waste, business engagement, public engagement, built environment, opportunities & challenges, land use & forestry, transportation and finance. The group also works in partnership with the Ministerial led Public Sector Climate Action Group to ensure close alignment of actions and activities to tackle climate change.
Working together to deliver a low carbon future for Scotland through smarter collaborations and better conversations.
The 2020 Climate Group’s long term aim is to contribute to the transformational change1 required for Scotland to progress to a low carbon economy by bringing together business, voluntary and public sectors to work together.
1. To help ensure that all sectors of Scotland’s economy and civic society contribute fully to achieving Scotland’s world-leading target of a 42% reduction in greenhouse gasemissions by 2020.
2. To be a critical friend to the Scottish Government to ensure that the public and private sector support each other in their work towards a low carbon Scotland.
How we plan to achieve this
The Group will retain a strong focus on ensuring that the stated objectives are achieved. This will be done by:
- Delivery- of the given project or idea, either directly reducing CO2 emissions or by the project enabling CO2 emissions elsewhere.
- Mobilising resource- to support CO2 emission reductions.
- Information dissemination- to wider member networks, e.g. to share best practice, learning and prevent repetition of work.
- Leading by example- exemplifying and promoting examples of best practice.
- Creative discussions- allowing difficult conversations not being had elsewhere to happen in a safe space where people and organisations are free to talk out with conventional fora.
1. Transformational change is a term used by the Scottish Government in regards to Scotland’s transition to a low carbon economy. The Scottish Government sets out four transformational outcomes in its ‘Climate Change Delivery Plan’. The outcomes are built upon in ‘Low Carbon Scotland: Meeting the Emission Reduction Targets 2010-2022’. The four outcomes are:
- A largely de-carbonised electricity generation sector by 2030;
- A largely de-carbonised heat sector by 2050 with significant progress by 2030;
- Almost complete decarbonisation of road transport by 2050 with significant progress by 2030;
- A comprehensive approach to ensure that carbon (including the cost of carbon) is fully factored into strategic and local decisions about rural land use.