Last week the Green Action Trust took part in the National Climate Resilience Summit, an event organised by Scottish Government, Sniffer and Adaptation Scotland.
As part of the event, an Ambition Statement was agreed and endorsed by all participating organisations, including the Trust.
Derek Robertson, CEO of the Green Action Trust said:
‘We are pleased to endorse this very appropriate and timely Ambition Statement. In the lead up to COP26, it is really important that we understand what actions we can take to make Scotland a more resilient and climate ready country. We will work with appropriate partners, stakeholders and local communities to enable them to understand climate risks and develop meaningful responses, which would include substantially increasing the prominence of green infrastructure in our urban settlements as a key mechanism to deliver necessary change.’
The National Climate Resilience Summit Ambition Statement:
Scotland is already experiencing warming, with more extreme weather events and rising sea levels and these changes will continue due to the locked-in effects of global climate change. As a nation we must prepare for these changes in order to protect our places, communities, businesses and nature. This will include understanding climate risk and vulnerabilities, planning and implementing adaptation actions, unlocking finance and supporting transformational change at local, national and international levels. The Climate Change Committee’s recent independent Assessment of UK Climate Risk is clear it will be impossible to achieve a just transition to net zero or tackle inequalities more widely without also addressing climate risks, and that the time for us to build resilience is now.
As delegates to the National Climate Resilience Summit we support collective action to transform Scotland into a climate resilient nation. As part of this journey, we:
- support enhanced understanding and action on climate risk and look forward to collaborating across sectors;
- will further embed climate adaptation in our culture, corporate governance and organisational priorities as an immediate priority and throughout 2022 and beyond; and
- express our support for an ambitious global deal at COP26 which addresses adaptation and resilience needs in a fair and just way.