This year\u2019s Climate Week falls against the backdrop of the global Coronavirus pandemic.\u00a0 This has been a crisis of unprecedented challenges and has massively.\u00a0 It has brought grief and hardship to many and our thoughts remain with those who have lost loved ones to this virus.<\/p>\n
But amid the difficulty, the climate emergency has not gone away \u2013 far from it \u2013 and the Scottish Government remains absolutely committed to ending Scotland\u2019s contribution to climate change.<\/p>\n
Our starting point has most definitely changed, but our ambitions have not.<\/p>\n
Shortly after last year\u2019s Climate Week, the Scottish Parliament passed new legislation setting us on an ambitious course to reduce emissions by 75% by 2030 and to achieve net-zero emissions by 2045.\u00a0 We now have some of the toughest climate legislation of any country in the world.<\/p>\n
Climate Week 2020 is an opportunity to turn the spotlight back onto these ambitions and think more about how, together, we can achieve them.\u00a0 Because, as I have said many times, reaching net-zero must be a shared, national endeavour.\u00a0 We all need to do our bit.<\/p>\n
Given the backdrop of COVID-19, Climate Week will be an opportunity for us to focus on Scotland\u2019s green recovery from this crisis.<\/p>\n
It is fundamentally important that we learn from our experience of lockdown \u2013 how we work, how we travel, how we live \u2013 and apply this to our approach to becoming a net-zero society.<\/p>\n
Early indications from our research show that lots of people have adopted new habits or started doing things differently, whether that\u2019s eating more locally produced food, walking more or cycling for short journeys and trying to reduce their household waste. And we can build on this.<\/p>\n
So over the course of Climate Week, please take the opportunity to find out more about what our transition to net-zero means for you, your business or organisation \u2013 and how you can help, and benefit from, the transformation that needs to take place right across society in order to safeguard our world for future generations.<\/p>\n