Climate Emergency

Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis. Full Report

Stephen Richard — Sun, 26 Sep 2021 06:30:19 +0000

Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis. Full Report

Primary Author or Creator

IPCC

Stephen Richard Sun, 09/26/2021 - 07:30

Additional Author(s) / Creators

Add additional Authors and/or Publisher

Alternative Published Date

2021

Category

Climate change

Type of Resource

Scientific report

Length (Pages, words, minutes etc...)

3949pp

Fast Facts

This report gives the current state of climate change at 2012, the possible climate futures, risk assessments for regions of the world, and the actions required to limit future climate change.

Resource Address (URL)

https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_WGI_Full_Report.pdf

Keywords

Climate Emergency

Climate change

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

Language English

IPCC Special; with 21 Actions for Scotland to do Right Now

Stephen Richard — Tue, 21 Sep 2021 14:00:35 +0000

IPCC Special; with 21 Actions for Scotland to do Right Now

Primary Author or Creator

Craig Dalzell

Stephen Richard Tue, 09/21/2021 - 15:00

Additional Author(s) / Creators

Keith Baker, Douglas Chapman Ali Anderson, Common Weal

Date Published

Wed, 08/11/2021 - 12:00

Category

Climate change

Type of Resource

Podcast

Length (Pages, words, minutes etc...)

41:52 minutes

Fast Facts

Implications for Scotland and the world if we fail to act on the climate emergency and why this report represents the last change to make those changes. They then discuss Common Weal’s latest policy paper 21 For 21 which offers 21 actions that the Scottish Government should take immediately in light of the IPCC report.

Common Weal podcast #96

Resource Address (URL)

https://commonweal.scot/podcast/the-common-weal-policy-podcast-episode-96/

Keywords

Climate Emergency

Climate change

Environment

Language English

Watershed: the Turning Point for North Sea Oil and the Just Transition

Stephen Richard — Thu, 16 Sep 2021 13:48:47 +0000

Watershed: the Turning Point for North Sea Oil and the Just Transition

Primary Author or Creator

Rachel Tansey

Stephen Richard Thu, 09/16/2021 - 14:48

Additional Author(s) / Creators

Friends of the Earth, Oil Change International

Alternative Published Date

September 2021

Category

Energy

Climate change

Type of Resource

Assessment report

Fast Facts

No new oil and gas fields can be approved for development. Given the right policies, a just transition can generate more than three jobs in clean industries for every North Sea oil job at risk

More details

The First Minister claims that early closure of North Sea production would lead to increased imports of more carbon intensive fossil fuels, but this ‘carbon leakage’ argument does not hold water. To begin with, justice and equity require that wealthier countries with higher capacity to support the transition and lower dependence on fossil fuel production – like the UK – phase it out more rapidly.

Additionally, support for the fossil fuel industry – including for CCS – comes at the expense of renewable energy, effectively slowing down the shift to meeting Scotland’s demand with renewable sources. This argument also ignores efforts to reduce demand and increase energy efficiency, and forgets the abysmal record of UK North Sea oil companies at tackling preventable emissions.

Finally, investment in fossil fuel infrastructure now locks us into oil and gas for decades, pushing the UK closer to a ‘deferred collapse’, whereby delayed action and worsening climate impacts forces a sudden and chaotic shutdown, pushing many workers out of work in a short space of time.

To keep within 1.5ºC, in line with equity and climate justice, Scotland needs a just phase-out policy for oil and gas extraction, based on a managed winding down of production in this decade, shaped by affected workers and communities to ensure a just transition, and leaving some of the 6.55 billion barrels in the ground. Given the right policies, a just transition can generate more than three jobs in clean industries for every North Sea oil job at risk. The barriers are not technical, they’re political.

A rational, precautionary and cost-effective approach requires the Scottish Government to end its support for MER, and urge the UK Government to do the same, while redirecting financial support from fossil fuels and CCS to a just transition to a fully renewable Scotland.

Resource Address (URL)

https://bellacaledonia.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Watershed-Report_final…

Keywords

Language English

21 For 21: The Climate Change Actions Scotland Needs Now

Stephen Richard — Sun, 12 Sep 2021 20:50:44 +0000

21 For 21: The Climate Change Actions Scotland Needs Now

Primary Author or Creator

Common Weal

Stephen Richard Sun, 09/12/2021 - 21:50

Additional Author(s) / Creators

Energy Policy Group

Date Published

Mon, 08/09/2021 - 12:00

Category

Climate change

Type of Resource

Policy Paper

Fast Facts

21 Policies that would enable Scotland to meet our responsibilities as laid out by the 2021 IPCC Sixth Assessment Report

More details

The 21 actions we are calling for are as follows:

1. Build a Green New Deal
Scotland needs a comprehensive, coordinated plan which delivers major social benefits while tackling climate change

2. Start our own energy company
A National Energy Company will let us build and control the infrastructure Scotland needs to decarbonise

3. Plan our energy future
Setting up a Scottish Energy Development Agency enables us to plan the infrastructure we need in the public good

4. Build what we need in the right way
By establishing a National Infrastructure Company we can ensure that the infrastructure we need is built to the highest standard and owned by the public

5. Leave no-one without a warm house
A proper, coordinated plan of increasing energy efficiency for all homes without exception will help householders and reduce carbon

6. Capture waste heat and use it
If we introduce a Heat Supply Act it can require large producers of waste heat to capture and recycle that heat for public use

7. Future-proof the electricity grid
We must commit to long-term investment in local electricity grid reinforcement, management and energy storage to prepare for a secure, renewable energy future

8. Fair connection charges for Scotland’s power
Renewable energy production in Scotland pays a very high cost for feeding it into the grid – this is unjust and must be reformed

9. End coal, end nuclear
Scotland has bountiful renewable energy resources and has no need for dangerous and polluting fuels and energy technologies

10. No new oil
Scotland must ban new oil and gas exploration and set out a route map for phasing out all fossil fuels

11. Train a renewables workforce
To transition people from the fossil fuel and nuclear industries and prepare them for a renewable future we should set up a ‘one-stop shop’ for retraining

12. Back a green hydrogen road-map
Scotland needs clear guidance on how we develop and use Green Hydrogen so we can built this new industry as quickly and efficiently as possible

13. Make energy efficiency meaningful
The way we measure the thermal performance of buildings is riddled with problems so we must reform Energy Performance Certificates so they reflect reality

14. Measure the whole-life energy of houses
Include embodied energy (the energy needed to build a house, not just run it) in the next revision of the Building Standards

15. Energy-efficient appliances only
The energy rating of electrical appliances is about to be revised, so choose now to ban the sale of appliances with ratings below the new C level

16. Make localism work
Prioritising localism has enormous energy-saving benefits so make all neighbourhoods ‘20-minute neighbourhoods’

17. Set a legal right to homeworking
Homeworking saves energy and time, so while not everyone can or wants to home work and no-one should be forced, anyone who does should be given the right to do so

18. Fewer cruise ships
Cruise ships are environmentally damaging and don’t help the economy so Scotland should introduce a quota for cruise ships entering Scottish waters and ports

19. Explore a flights quota
There is no green alternative to the way we fly available so we must limit our flights with flight quotas, a moratorium on airport expansion and investment in airships

20. Divest from fossil fuel
Require all public sector bodies to commit to divesting from fossil fuels in the next year

21. Clean politics
End the influence fossil fuel lobbyists have over our politics by signing up to the Fossil Free Politics campaign

Resource Address (URL)

https://commonweal.scot/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/21-For-21.pdf

Keywords

Renewable manufacturing

Hydrogen

Energy efficient buildings

Homeworking

Language English

Our House is on Fire

Stephen Richard — Thu, 02 Sep 2021 21:37:02 +0000

Our House is on Fire

Primary Author or Creator

George Gunn

Stephen Richard Thu, 09/02/2021 - 22:37

Additional Author(s) / Creators

Bella Caledonia

Date Published

Thu, 09/02/2021 - 12:00

Category

Scottish government

Type of Resource

News Item

Fast Facts

The deal passed in the Scottish Parliament is the beginning of a quest to make clear some definitions and to lead the country away from constitutional meaninglessness, cruel political comedy and out of the deliberately constructed tragic dead end of devolution.

Resource Address (URL)

https://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2021/09/02/our-house-is-on-fire/

Keywords

Devoution

Scottish Parliament

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

Climate Emergency

Language English

Better than This

Stephen Richard — Sat, 31 Jul 2021 07:25:57 +0000

Better than This

Primary Author or Creator

Common Weal

Stephen Richard Sat, 07/31/2021 - 08:25

Alternative Published Date

2021

Category

Type of Resource

Policy Paper

Fast Facts

Resilient Recovery. We must emerge from the Covid pandemic in a way that fixes the problems raised by the crisis, fixes the problems evident before the crisis and makes us resilient; a green new deal; a new democracy; a national care service; Land reform; housing revolution; Controlling our own energy; better banking; and a focus on independence,.to future crisis like the climate emergency.

More details

KEY POINTS

― Resilient Recovery. We must emerge from the Covid pandemic in a way that fixes the problems raised by the crisis, fixes the problems evident before the crisis and makes us resilient to future crisis like the climate emergency. Based on our Resilience series.

― Green New Deal. Averting the climate emergency means more than just hitting a “net zero” target. It is also about making our economies sustainable in so many other ways and doing so in a way that reduces inequality and hardship. Based on Our Common Home Plan.

― A New Democracy. Scotland is the least locally democratic country in Europe and the institutions of our Government are frayed and strained in many places. We should develop a functioning system of local democracy, a Citizens’ Chamber to oversee Parliament and improve transparency at all levels of government.

― A National Care Service. Scotland needs a National Care Service that matches the ambition of the National Health Service, that is fully publicly owned, free at the point of need and can offer full training and proper pay to all staff. See our papers on the impact of Covid on Care Homes, our submission to the Feeley Review, the Manifesto for an NCS and our proposals to reform Social Work.

― Land Reform. Fewer than 500 people own half of Scotland. 700,000 acres are owned by tax haven companies. We can’t build our rural economies or fight climate change if we can’t access the land under our feet. Land Reform must happen now. See our Land Reform Week for more information.

― Housing Revolution. Scotland’s housing sector is badly broken. We don’t build anywhere near enough social housing, which allows private rents to skyrocket. The houses we do build are cold and expensive to heat, we can’t access the land to build them at affordable rates and the way we tax buildings is based on valuations more than a quarter of a century out of date.

― Taking Control of Our Energy. Scotland’s potential for renewable energy generation is world-leading but we aren’t yet making the best of it. Common Weal has produced a wealth of papers on the changes that need to happen to reach that potential.

― Better Banking. Scottish communities were being cut off from banking and basic financial services even before the pandemic. This trend has only accelerated. Without those services, local economies cannot function and the communities are soon left behind. We have a blueprint for a publicly-owned, mutually-controlled bank that could support all communities in Scotland.

And finally, the next Parliament will almost certainly see the topic of independence intensify. Everything we’ve suggested above can be at least started using the powers of devolution but to complete the job – especially the Green New Deal – Scotland will need to become independent and will need to do it right. Should the government in Westminster seek to oppose an independence referendum, then we must have a plan to make one happen regardless.

Resource Address (URL)

https://commonweal.scot/policies/better-than-this/

Keywords

Coronavirus Support

Scottish Independence

Housing

National Care Service

Housing

Green new deal

Climate Emergency

Language English