Chamber
Meeting of the Parliament 14 January 2014
14 Jan 2014 · S4 · Meeting of the Parliament
Item of business
Draft Climate Change Adaptation Programme
I am not a great fan of the phrase “adopting a holistic approach”, but one thing is for sure: if climate change adaptation is to be successfully mainstreamed across not just Government departments but also organisations, businesses, the public sector, communities and individuals, a holistic approach is exactly what must be adopted.
During the past year, each and every one of us has experienced the stark impact of our changing climate, whether it be through the damaging snows of last spring, the delights of a searingly hot summer, or the sodden aftermath of the excessive rainfall of the past few weeks. If ever there was a year that highlighted the fact that climate change impacts on us all individually and collectively, surely 2013 was it.
We therefore very much welcome the Government’s preparation of a climate change adaptation programme, and its recognition that a much wider approach is necessary if it is to be successful. To that end, it is difficult not to sympathise with those stakeholders who drew the committee’s attention to their disappointment that the programme looks at only a five-year timescale when most believe that a much longer-term approach is necessary. I fully understand and sympathise with the point that this is not an easy thing to achieve, but I whole-heartedly endorse the committee’s recommendation that the final programme should take a longer-term view and, when possible, assist stakeholders to develop longer-term approaches.
I also endorse the committee’s recommendation, as agreed by stakeholders, that the final programme should include a stronger focus on targets and set out a robust monitoring and evaluation system. That has already been referred to several times. Such a system is important if the programme is to be successful. Again, I understand the difficulties of setting targets in this policy area, but without them, evaluation and effective monitoring will be all but impossible. We would all agree that effective monitoring and evaluation are essential if the programme is to have a meaningful outcome, and I look forward to hearing what the minister will say about that in his closing comments.
I was pleased that the committee heard specifically from the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service on how it is already adapting to climate change. Such change was evidenced vividly during new year in my own constituency, where there was extensive flooding in the river valleys and an intense battering of the coastal defences from the sea, all of which required the emergency services to step up to the mark. They were certainly not found wanting in that regard.
It is also right that the importance of partnership working with local voluntary services, often individuals, is duly recognised. For example, farmers are increasingly playing a major part in post-snowstorm relief activities, and those partnerships are to be greatly welcomed and encouraged.
As the committee heard, extreme weather is everyone’s problem, and a collective approach is required if, as we all suspect, today’s challenges are to continue, possibly to an even greater degree in future. I for one would like to see the final programme be somewhat more explicit on the support that will be available to help to develop partnerships between emergency and voluntary services.
Time does not allow me to cover every aspect of the committee’s response to the consultation, so I will conclude with a brief comment on the impact of climate change on agriculture and forestry. As Rob Gibson mentioned during his opening comments, the committee heard that farmers, who I think are among the most adaptable individuals on earth, are struggling to keep pace with the need to adapt to climate change. In itself, that should be a pretty stark warning to us all. The fact is that agriculture has a major and positive role to play in tackling climate change, but it will need financial and practical support if it is to carry out that role effectively.
Similarly, we are all aware of the role that forestry has to play in combating climate change. Although I welcome the research that is being done on agroforestry, the fact is that the Government’s target of planting 100,000 hectares of new forest by 2020 is looking to be increasingly in question. Although this is not a recommendation from the committee, if it does not sound too high-handed, I recommend that the minister takes a long, hard look at the Government’s forestry policy to ensure that the sector does play its full part in combating climate change, while maintaining the critical mass of commercial timber production that the milling industry needs if it is to continue investing in the sector.
I welcome the debate and look forward to hearing further contributions. If I may, I will comment on the Government’s response when I wind up.
16:03
During the past year, each and every one of us has experienced the stark impact of our changing climate, whether it be through the damaging snows of last spring, the delights of a searingly hot summer, or the sodden aftermath of the excessive rainfall of the past few weeks. If ever there was a year that highlighted the fact that climate change impacts on us all individually and collectively, surely 2013 was it.
We therefore very much welcome the Government’s preparation of a climate change adaptation programme, and its recognition that a much wider approach is necessary if it is to be successful. To that end, it is difficult not to sympathise with those stakeholders who drew the committee’s attention to their disappointment that the programme looks at only a five-year timescale when most believe that a much longer-term approach is necessary. I fully understand and sympathise with the point that this is not an easy thing to achieve, but I whole-heartedly endorse the committee’s recommendation that the final programme should take a longer-term view and, when possible, assist stakeholders to develop longer-term approaches.
I also endorse the committee’s recommendation, as agreed by stakeholders, that the final programme should include a stronger focus on targets and set out a robust monitoring and evaluation system. That has already been referred to several times. Such a system is important if the programme is to be successful. Again, I understand the difficulties of setting targets in this policy area, but without them, evaluation and effective monitoring will be all but impossible. We would all agree that effective monitoring and evaluation are essential if the programme is to have a meaningful outcome, and I look forward to hearing what the minister will say about that in his closing comments.
I was pleased that the committee heard specifically from the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service on how it is already adapting to climate change. Such change was evidenced vividly during new year in my own constituency, where there was extensive flooding in the river valleys and an intense battering of the coastal defences from the sea, all of which required the emergency services to step up to the mark. They were certainly not found wanting in that regard.
It is also right that the importance of partnership working with local voluntary services, often individuals, is duly recognised. For example, farmers are increasingly playing a major part in post-snowstorm relief activities, and those partnerships are to be greatly welcomed and encouraged.
As the committee heard, extreme weather is everyone’s problem, and a collective approach is required if, as we all suspect, today’s challenges are to continue, possibly to an even greater degree in future. I for one would like to see the final programme be somewhat more explicit on the support that will be available to help to develop partnerships between emergency and voluntary services.
Time does not allow me to cover every aspect of the committee’s response to the consultation, so I will conclude with a brief comment on the impact of climate change on agriculture and forestry. As Rob Gibson mentioned during his opening comments, the committee heard that farmers, who I think are among the most adaptable individuals on earth, are struggling to keep pace with the need to adapt to climate change. In itself, that should be a pretty stark warning to us all. The fact is that agriculture has a major and positive role to play in tackling climate change, but it will need financial and practical support if it is to carry out that role effectively.
Similarly, we are all aware of the role that forestry has to play in combating climate change. Although I welcome the research that is being done on agroforestry, the fact is that the Government’s target of planting 100,000 hectares of new forest by 2020 is looking to be increasingly in question. Although this is not a recommendation from the committee, if it does not sound too high-handed, I recommend that the minister takes a long, hard look at the Government’s forestry policy to ensure that the sector does play its full part in combating climate change, while maintaining the critical mass of commercial timber production that the milling industry needs if it is to continue investing in the sector.
I welcome the debate and look forward to hearing further contributions. If I may, I will comment on the Government’s response when I wind up.
16:03
In the same item of business
The Deputy Presiding Officer (Elaine Smith)
Lab
The next item of business is a debate on motion S4M-08732, in the name of Rob Gibson, on the Scottish Government’s consultation on its draft climate change a...
Rob Gibson (Caithness, Sutherland and Ross) (SNP)
SNP
Presiding Officer, I crave your indulgence as I try to get all the detail in.Change and adaptation are rarely easy. How many psychiatrists does it take to ch...
The Deputy Presiding Officer
Lab
I remind members who wish to speak in the debate that they should press their request-to-speak buttons. I call Paul Wheelhouse. Minister, you have seven minu...
The Minister for Environment and Climate Change (Paul Wheelhouse)
SNP
Thank you, Presiding Officer.I thank the Rural Affairs, Climate Change and Environment Committee for its efforts in scrutinising the draft Scottish climate c...
The Deputy Presiding Officer
Lab
Minister, will you draw to a close, please?
Paul Wheelhouse
SNP
I will, Presiding Officer.I hope to pick up on some additional points in my closing speech. Suffice it to say that Scotland is well placed to respond to clim...
Claudia Beamish (South Scotland) (Lab)
Lab
This committee debate is extremely important and timely as it comes in the immediate aftermath of the recent severe weather and flooding. They focused all ou...
The Deputy Presiding Officer (John Scott)
Con
Can you draw to a close, please?
Claudia Beamish
Lab
That chimes with some of the committee’s recommendations. I ask the minister to take forward those fundamental governance issues in the final adaptation prog...
Alex Fergusson (Galloway and West Dumfries) (Con)
Con
I am not a great fan of the phrase “adopting a holistic approach”, but one thing is for sure: if climate change adaptation is to be successfully mainstreamed...
Angus MacDonald (Falkirk East) (SNP)
SNP
I say at the outset that I am pleased to contribute to the debate. It is an important issue that requires the attention of all parliamentarians and all commi...
Sarah Boyack (Lothian) (Lab)
Lab
I thank the committee and witnesses for their work in getting us to this debate today.I want to focus on the processes and principles of adaptation in relati...
Nigel Don (Angus North and Mearns) (SNP)
SNP
I hardly need to point out in the early part of 2014 that climate change is with us. We have clearly reached the point where it does not matter why it is hap...
Nigel Don
SNP
Yes; that is long overdue. We cannot do things with land without maps, so I am delighted to hear that we have got that far. I must take issue with what has b...
Jim Hume (South Scotland) (LD)
LD
Like many other members, I was proud to put through the Parliament the Climate Change (Scotland) Bill back in 2009. Although at the time there were differenc...
Jamie Hepburn (Cumbernauld and Kilsyth) (SNP)
SNP
I welcome the debate, and I thank the committee for bringing it to the chamber and for the work that it has done in assessing the draft climate change adapta...
Cara Hilton (Dunfermline) (Lab)
Lab
We have robust evidence for global warming, as colleagues have already said, but there are still many unknowns and variables involved in predicting exactly h...
Patrick Harvie (Glasgow) (Green)
Green
It is probably fair to say that climate change adaptation often plays second fiddle to the mitigation agenda and the urgent need to reduce our emissions. Tha...
Alex Fergusson
Con
The debate has seen a fair amount of consensus throughout the chamber, which is very much as it should be in a debate of this nature. Climate change presents...
Claudia Beamish
Lab
I stress that a thread running through the adaptation programme is the value of interconnections and partnerships, showing the need for clear paths of commun...
Paul Wheelhouse
SNP
I thank members. I agree with Alex Fergusson that the debate has been consensual. It has been rightly so, because we are talking about a matter that cuts acr...
Alex Fergusson
Con
Do targets have a role to play in monitoring and evaluation?
Paul Wheelhouse
SNP
I think that they do. Nigel Don made valid points about that. It is important to have a focus that drives effort, and the maxim about what is measured being ...
Graeme Dey (Angus South) (SNP)
SNP
My preparing for the debate prompted me to re-read in detail the evidence on the draft programme that was given during two stakeholder meetings that were hel...
Paul Wheelhouse
SNP
I thank the deputy convener for taking an intervention and I apologise for interrupting. The Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 specified a five-year time ho...
Graeme Dey
SNP
I thank the minister for that input. We are aware that they are five-year programmes, but there is a general point that we must look as far beyond that timef...
Sarah Boyack
Lab
Graeme Dey has made an extremely useful point about the capacity of institutions to provide practical examples of what we can all do. Institutions such as co...
Graeme Dey
SNP
Sarah Boyack has made a very good point. I do not think that there is anything that I can add to that.There is so much more that can be done, as Sarah Boyack...