International action on Global Warming
In 1992, members of the United Nations (UN) signed a treaty to “prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system” at the Rio Earth Summit. Almost every year since then, the 197 countries that signed the treaty have met at a Conference of the Parties (COP) to discuss ways to tackle the worsening impacts of climate change.
At the 2015 Paris meeting, every country agreed to work to keep the average global temperature rise to well below 2oC and as close to 1.5oC as possible above pre-industrial levels, to adapt to the impacts of a changing climate, and to make money available to deliver these pledges. Countries also committed to develop national plans setting out how much they would reduce their emissions and agreed to come back every 5 years with an updated plan to outline their ambitions.
In October 2018, the United Nations Special Report on Global Warming provided a global wake-up call when it advised that the amount of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere needed to drop significantly by 2030 to prevent catastrophic climate change. This prompted an increase in demands from young people, environmental groups, and wider civil society to declare a global climate emergency and to take urgent action to respond to the challenge.
Since then, both the UK and the Scottish Government and many local authorities have declared a climate emergency and there is strong agreement across political parties, generations and sectors that a step change is needed in activity to tackle this threat to our existence. Scotland’s 2019 Climate Change Act has set challenging national targets to reduce emissions by 75% by 2030 and to become carbon neutral by 2045. Despite these commitments, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 6th Assessment Report, published in August 2021 has been described by the UN Secretary-General as a “code red for humanity” that needs urgent action.
Glasgow COP26
COP26 was the 26th UN summit on Climate Change, hosted by the UK in Glasgow between 31st October and 12th November 2021. The summit was the first major get-together for countries to update their Paris Agreement plans to reduce emissions. Unfortunately, the commitments laid out in Paris do not come close to limiting global warming to 1.5oC, and the window for achieving this target is closing.
The Glasgow Climate Pact is the main outcome of the summit and has been welcomed by many for its commitment to double adaptation finance, calls for a “phasedown” in use of coal, and requests countries revisit and strengthen their climate pledges by COP27 in Egypt at the end of 2022.
How Stirling Council is responding to the Emergency
Stirling Council accepted the key role of local government to address climate change and recognised the climate and ecological emergency at its 3rd October 2019 meeting.
Since that meeting, Council staff have developed a Climate and Nature Emergency Plan, while continuing to deliver existing projects that will help reduce global warming emissions, reduce resource use, conserve and enhance nature, and prepare for the impacts of a changing climate.
A draft Plan was made available for comment between 9 March and 4 May 2021 on the Council’s public engagement platform, Engage Stirling. Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) of the draft Plan was also carried out and an Environmental Report produced. All feedback comments received during the consultation have been collated, alongside Council responses, to produce a SEA post-adoption Statement.
The Climate and Nature Emergency Plan was adopted by Council at its meeting on 24 June 2021. Delivering a sufficiently robust and radical response to the climate emergency will be extremely challenging, requiring action across all Council services and significant collaboration with the wider public sector, our voluntary and business communities, and citizens. In addition to the undoubted challenges, the changes required will also provide significant opportunities for Stirling to modernise and transform the local area while reaping the economic benefits from a just transition away from fossil fuels, development of a more circular economy, and enhancement of the natural environment on which we all depend.
The Council’s annual Sustainable Stirling reports provide details of the Council’s progress in tackling the Climate and Nature Emergency and are published at the end of November.
Last updated: Wednesday, January 19, 2022 3:41 PM