Rural and Environment

Environmental news round-up

September 19, 2018 by Alan Bannon No Comments | Category Climate Change, Environment, Farming

It’s been a busy past few weeks for Scotland’s environmental and rural agenda. A number of events, visits and strategies have been taking place in a combined effort to address animal welfare, climate change and environmental damage in Scotland. Further efforts to grow Scotland’s venison sector have also been introduced.

Here is our round up of recent happenings.

Minister for Rural Affairs and the Natural Environment Mairi Gougeon launched Scotland’s venison strategy. The new initiative will focus on skills-building initiatives, a fund to support new entrants to vension farming and the need for further research and development. Find out more.

Ms Gougeon visited the Scottish SPCA headquarters to launch the consultation on licensing of domestic animals, with a view to stopping the harmful breeding of dogs, cats and rabbits. We would encourage anyone with an interest to respond to our consultation.

Paul Wheelhouse, Minister for Business, Innovation and Energy, attended the Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco. As one of our Programme for Growth priorities, the Summit provided the perfect platform for us to highlight, on a global stage, the continuous progress Scotland is making to fight climate change. Overall, Scottish emissions are 49% below 1990 levels, and we are on course to outperform the interim emissions reduction target for at least a 56% reduction in actual emissions by 2020

Further details of our progress can be found on the climate pages of our website and in our Fourth Annual Progress Report.

Environment Secretary Roseanna Cunningham announced that Professor Jim Skea OBE is to chair the Just Transition Commission, as she spoke at the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation. She said:

“Scotland has been widely praised internationally for our work to tackle climate change, and I am absolutely determined that there be no let-up in our efforts.

“Our transition to a carbon-neutral economy is already well underway. With Scottish emissions almost halving since 1990, and 49,000 jobs already supported in our low carbon sector, I want to ensure we benefit fully from leading the global transition to low-carbon.

“I am delighted Professor Jim Skea has agreed to Chair the Commission and advise on how we continue the transition in a way that promotes inclusive growth, cohesion and equality, and I look forward to working with him over the next two years.”

Read more in our news release.

Ms Gougeon helped fight the threat of marine pollution on Scotland’s shore, taking part in a beach clean-up at Ferryden. We also announced our investment of £100,000 in an effort to tackle marine litter and help support clean-up operations on Scotland’s littered coastal areas. Read more on our news release.

Next week (24-30 September) is Recycling Week with Zero Waste Scotland. Find out more about how you can get involved on Zero Waste Scotland’s partner guide.

Tags: climate, climatechange, environment, scottishgovernment, snp

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