Hansard

It is a pleasure to do so. The discussion today has demonstrated that, even in the face of the magnitude of the global climate emergency, our people and communities can have a substantial impact when they get the opportunity to come together and act.

I thank John Swinney for bringing forward this debate, which is centred on the people, places and issues that he is so passionate about. After 17 years of Mr Swinney’s doing one or two other things, it is great to have the debate today, and I know how thrilled he was to be able to bring the debate and his constituents to the Scottish Parliament. I am grateful to them for all the work that they have been doing to date and I very much look forward to seeing them all when I visit Dunkeld and Birnam Climate Café later this month.

Moving towards becoming a net zero nation will require all aspects of Scottish society to embrace significant change. Imposing a one-size-fits-all approach will never create the desired outcomes and nor will it secure people’s buy-in to the net zero transition. Instead, it is essential that, as we change, we empower people to develop solutions that are appropriate for them and their local circumstances. That is why I warmly welcome the commitment of those who are involved in Climate Cafés to provide that safe space for people from all backgrounds and across generations to come together—we know that great things happen when people get the opportunity to do that.

Climate Cafés in Scotland are led by a network of dedicated volunteers. I am grateful for their hard work and for John Swinney’s continued support of them, which has enabled the network to grow in all the ways that we have heard about today. For my part, I would like the Scottish Government to provide more practical support, and I have asked my officials to explore with the leaders of the Climate Cafés ways in which we can do that, including through providing funding. I will discuss more of that with them when I visit them in the coming weeks.

Last week, during Scotland’s climate week, I got the chance to spend time with the Fountainbridge Canalside Community Trust and I was also fortunate enough to visit the incredible children of St Bernard’s primary school in Glasgow, which is one of the many schools that is supported by our climate action schools programme and which runs its own Climate Café in partnership with the local community. As well as those groups and Dunkeld and Birnam Climate Café, I am privileged to work alongside groups in my constituency, including Climate Action Strathaven, the One Carluke Area Network, WATIF—the Woolfords, Auchengray and Tarbrax Improvement Foundation—and Biggar Area Climate Care.

The passion of the individuals who give up their time and come together to work on these matters is a real inspiration for us all. In Scotland, that demonstrates that our communities are uniquely placed to play that critical role in shaping and driving action, which is why we are putting considerable support behind them.

Mark Ruskell was absolutely right to mention the climate action hubs. The programme is designed to enable that essential collaborative approach to driving the behavioural change that we know needs to come, and which is not always easy. Mark Ruskell mentioned that we are expanding the network. Last week, a further four climate action hubs were commenced, for Forth valley, Dumfries and Galloway, Inverclyde and Dundee. That brings us to 10 hubs across the country, with more proposals currently being assessed. We have committed to delivering a national network of climate hubs in this year’s programme for government. I believe very strongly—this is particularly reinforced by my experience of working with them—that those hubs, which are designed by and for our communities, will be one of the significant drivers of progress on the climate front in the coming years.

Beyond the hub programme, we are supporting action in a number of other ways. Our climate action towns initiative, which is led by Architecture and Design Scotland, is supporting nine small towns, which were selected because they had, historically, been less engaged in climate action and are at particular risk from the impacts of a changing climate.

The communities in those towns are being supported to develop local plans that focus on climate action, give them a voice and help to ensure that the transition, as they make it locally, is most suited to their needs and lived experiences. The initiative, now in its third year, has provided learnings that we in Government—as well as local authorities, as Alex Rowley rightly identified—and other public bodies can draw on in the way that we create our policy pathways.

We are also supporting partners to build capacity for collective action at local level. For example, the Scottish Communities Climate Action Network has been supported to lead conversations about climate change in its local areas. In the past financial year alone, 54 new climate conversations facilitators have been trained, and conversations have been held with 400 people across Scotland. That is backed up in many ways by the Scottish Government’s plans on public engagement for climate change. Our public engagement strategy clearly sets out three core aims that we hope to enable the people of Scotland to achieve. First, we want them to understand how climate change relates to their lives. Secondly, it is important that they actively participate in shaping a fair, just and inclusive approach. Lastly, we want them to take action.

It is in line with those objectives that, as members will be aware, the Government recently launched the climate engagement fund, which is a £0.5 million pot to support trusted messengers to engage directly with their audiences on the climate emergency. The fund has received a huge amount of interest, as I am sure members can imagine, and we will shortly publish details of how we plan to allocate that funding.

The reason why we are here—the reason why the volunteers at our Climate Cafés do this work—is that the recent United Nations stocktake report underlined the urgency of what it called

“a systemic transformation of every aspect of society”,

if we are to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. We must be committed to responding to that need and to ensuring that we support households and communities to embrace the quite rapid change that is now required. On that point, I echo John Swinney’s appeal that we continue, very proactively and determinedly, to find space for those realistic and urgent discussions and the requisite action that will help us to combat climate change.

There can be no greater task than helping to foster a safe, secure and green future for generations to come. The truth is that Government and business must do the heavy lifting in this regard, but no one person is too small to make a difference in and of themselves. Equally, we are far greater when we come together in our communities and in our cafes, and when we work together to make a difference. I will certainly continue to give all my support in this role, which I am fortunate to occupy, to our Climate Café network in Scotland.