Meeting of the Parliament 23 June 2026 [Draft]
I will be guided by the cabinet secretary, who was here in previous sessions, but the main thing is that we are trying to involve farmers in the move to net zero. We are trying to support farmers to survive and to diversify the way they rear their animals and the way they farm. We are trying to support active farming and more organic farming.
We need organisations such as the James Hutton Institute, just outside Dundee, to develop more climate-resilient plant breeds to contend with increasing unpredictability. We need to work with nature to enable us to withstand the impact of climate change that is already baked into the 1.5°C target.
This is where local authorities come in. I always say that local authorities are the fourth emergency service. Whenever there is an adverse weather event, it is the local authority that steps in to support households that have been experiencing flooding, fires or severe heat. Local authorities are also key to ensuring that communities are supported to identify risks and improve climate resilience. In Dundee, we recently updated our climate risk and vulnerability assessment, assessing the impact of a 2°C or 4°C increase in temperature on nature, infrastructure, buildings and people. It made pretty uncomfortable reading.
We have formed Climate Ready Tayside with Perth and Kinross and Angus Councils, because we understand that adverse weather events do not respect council boundaries. The group is focusing on nature-based solutions and is developing community resilience to future events. It knows that once-in-a-generation storms are now occurring on an annual basis. Storm Babet caused devastating flooding across the region, most noticeably in Brechin, but also in Dundee, where the Dighty burst its banks. Working with nature to re-meander the Dighty is now a regular topic of debate and a work in progress.
Also in Dundee, thanks to 80 per cent funding support from the Scottish Government, we have invested in the Broughty Ferry flood protection scheme. We have combined it with an amazing active travel route, sand dune restoration and wildflower meadows. Just imagine two football pitches full of wildflowers, such as viper’s bugloss, with the bees buzzing so intensely that people walking there stop still in amazement just to listen to the racket. We are protecting all those homes and businesses and getting people out walking, and the bees, bugs and beasties are loving it. That is good work. That is how we tackle climate change.
Scotland has made great progress towards meeting our net zero targets, and I trust that, with the renewed focus and the updated climate change plan, we can finish the job. The Climate Change Committee has said that we can do it, so let us get on and do it.