The Climate Policy Engagement Network is an important project seeking to bring together a range of stakeholders, organisations and experts who wish to input on key climate change policy milestones delivered by the Scottish Government.
Throughout 2023, the network will focus on the upcoming Just Transition Plans and Climate Change Plan. Eco-Congregation Scotland is actively supporting this for engagement activities, providing opportunities to feedback either on policy engagement plans or directly on policy development. The network has a first ask for us to respond to over the coming week and we are keen to read views from across Scotland's Eco-congregations and our volunteers.
Place-based engagement – places and communities of special interest
Background information During June and July 2023, the Scottish Government will be undertaking climate change place-based engagement across Scotland. To support the planning for this round of engagement, they want your views on which communities and places around Scotland they should engage with. Where would have a particular interest or experience in any of these four topics and that you feel are important to include in their place-based engagement?
1. Transport
2. Land use and agriculture
3. Buildings and construction
4. Adaptation to climate change
The Scottish Government are planning to do approximately 10 in-person events across the mainland and want to make sure they reach a range of places. They will also hold 3 events across the islands, and we are considering whether these would be best held virtually to allow as broad a range of people to engage as possible.
If you have any suggestions please answer the questions below.
Timescale Eco-Congregation Scotland needs to pass on your views by Friday 28th April so please submit any answers as soon as you can.
Church buildings come in lots of different shapes and sizes, historic and modern. How will you know which kind of heating is right for your building? What are the practical issues that need to be thought through in changing a heating systems? What kind of heating system should you install in a new building?
What do you need to change to achieve net zero emissions?
Responding to the Climate Emergency, the October 2020 General Assembly of the Church of Scotland agreed to develop a strategy for the entire organisation to transition both locally and nationally to net zero carbon emissions over the coming decade.
In December 2020, General Synod members of the Scottish Episcopal Church also backed a motion paving the way for a commitment to achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2030.
Register now
Join us and hear from Andrew MacOwan – Chartered Energy Engineer and the Church of Scotland General Trustees Heating Consultant – as he shares his experience and talks about some of the practical considerations in looking to achieve net zero carbon emissions from church heating systems. There will be time for questions and discussion. Please register at the following link:
Christian Aid Scotland is a key partner of Eco-Congregation Scotland and we are delighted to encourage you to join the Supporter Gathering next week. Christian Aid Ethiopia will be sharing the impact of climate change, locusts and conflict on vulnerable communities.
There will also be a look forward to the COP26 climate talks and how we can all be involved in the fight against climate change. Email to register and receive the joining instructions: edinburgh@christian-aid.org
Scottish Catholic Laity Network What is the hope of COP26? – Professor Jim Skea Thursday 18th February 2021 7.00pm–8.30pm Further information Email to register
Eco-Congregation Scotland is pleased to support the Scottish Catholic Laity Network and invite you to join its Lenten Journey of discernment “to help us imagine the way in which we are being called to prepare a future that gives hope to all the children of our world, and their children’s’ children, and to Mother Earth.”
Opening the series on the hope of COP26, Eco-Congregation volunteer Margret MacPhail will introduce speaker Professor Jim Skea, currently chair of Scotland’s Just Transition Commission and co-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group III on mitigation of climate change. Margret leads the Eco-Group at St Ninian’s Parish in Professor Skea’s home city Dundee. Please email slaitynetwork@gmail.com to register.
Eco-Chaplaincy open for invitations: however and wherever you are this year!
Rev David Coleman continues his work through coronavirus restrictions, engaging imaginatively with local churches as a visiting digital preacher. Please email the Eco-Chaplain to connect and work with your own church on dates throughout this year.
This coming Sunday 14th February at 7pm we encourage our volunteers and supporters to continue joining Christians in prayer across Scotland.
Read our new monthly briefing on COP26 and how you can get involved.
Register for free and begin your church’s journey as an eco-congregation. Please consider church membership to become more active in the charity and support our Local Network activities – join online.
Please donate if you can, to help support our work and encourage growing interest across Scotland’s churches. If you or others in your church would like to receive this newsletter regularly, please subscribe.
Christian environmental and development groups welcome General Assembly decision
Christian environmental and development charities Christian Aid, Eco-Congregation Scotland and Operation Noah joyfully welcome the decision of the Church of Scotland to set a 2030 net zero target.
At the Church of Scotland 2020 General Assembly on Saturday, the Church’s Faith Impact Forum brought a proposal to the General Assembly ‘for the Church to transition both locally and nationally to net zero carbon emissions by 2030’.
General Assembly Commissioners voted to support an amendment from Rev Jenny Adams, Minister of Duffus, Spynie and Hopeman Parish Church.
The amended motion passed by General Assembly reads: ‘Instruct the Faith Impact Forum to work with others to develop a strategy for the Church to transition both locally and nationally to net zero carbon emissions by 2030, reporting an outline strategy to General Assembly 2021.’
We are delighted that one of our key partner Churches has committed to transitioning to net zero in the next 10 years.
Mary Sweetland, Chair of Eco-Congregation Scotland
The decision to set a 2030 net zero target is especially significant as Glasgow prepares to host the UN climate talks, COP26, in November 2021.
In her speech to the General Assembly, Rev Jenny Adams said: ‘This is a climate emergency and the next 10 years are crucial. I hope that by working with others within and beyond the Church, we will be able to get going on this difficult but vital transition, for the sake of all creation.’
Commissioners at the General Assembly also voted in favour of a motion on fossil fuel divestment proposed by Seonaid Knox. This motion called on the Church’s Faith Impact Forum to ‘report to the 2021 General Assembly on the ethical, scientific and theological arguments for and against urgent disinvestment from oil and gas companies’.
The Church of England voted to set a 2030 net zero target earlier this year. Many local authorities have also made this pledge, including the City Councils of Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Christian Aid, Eco-Congregation Scotland and Operation Noah applauded the decision to set a 2030 net zero target. They said that the Church of Scotland now needs to end its investments in fossil fuel companies in order to demonstrate climate leadership ahead of the crucial COP26 climate summit.
Sally Foster-Fulton, Head of Christian Aid Scotland, said: ‘The communities with which Christian Aid works, in many of the poorest parts of the world, are calling for urgent leadership on climate change, and this decision from the Church of Scotland demonstrates that leadership. We welcome it warmly, and look forward to working in partnership with the Church of Scotland to help realise these ambitious new goals. One of the steps that the Church could take in the short-term is to commit to end its investments in fossil fuel companies, and we hope that is part of the plans brought forward in 2021.’
Mary Sweetland, Chair of Eco-Congregation Scotland, said: ‘We are delighted that one of our key partner Churches has committed to transitioning to net zero in the next 10 years.’
James Buchanan, Bright Now Campaign Manager at Operation Noah, said: ‘It is wonderful news that the Church of Scotland has set a target of reaching net zero emissions by 2030. In order to demonstrate leadership on the climate crisis ahead of the UN climate talks in Glasgow next year, it is vital that the Church of Scotland supports a just and green recovery from Covid-19 by divesting from fossil fuel companies and investing in the clean technologies of the future.’
Notes:
1. Operation Noah is a Christian charity working with the Church to inspire action on the climate crisis. It works with all Christian denominations. http://operationnoah.org/
2. Christian Aid holds a vision of a better world, free from poverty and climate change. For over ten years, Christian Aid Scotland has been campaigning for the UK and Scottish Governments to take climate change seriously for the benefit of those who are impacted first and worst by its effects. https://www.christianaid.org.uk/
3. Eco-Congregation Scotland is a movement of Scottish church congregations, of all denominations and none, committed to addressing environmental issues through their life and mission. https://www.ecocongregationscotland.org/
