© Paul Bradley
Living in Glasgow has been a somewhat surreal experience in recent weeks. The sounds of megaphones, police horses, and helicopters have been prominent in daily life. World leaders have come and gone, having spent an evening at my local museum. Hundreds of police lined our roads as the motorcades made their way through. Glasgow often plays a part in Hollywood films as a cheaper alternative to shooting in New York City; at times, this felt like one on those moments.
Attention will be drawn away from Glasgow as the world’s media depart after two weeks camped by the River Clyde. But what of Scotland, as life returns to normal and the dust of COP26 settles? Scotland’s voluntary environment community will be doing all it can to resist normality. They’ll continue to campaign for policy change and faster action to ensure Scotland becomes a more environmentally sustainable nation. Their demands for climate justice are clear.
The 100,000+ people who marched to call for action on the climate crisis will be inspired – as was I as a volunteer steward on the day – by fellow citizens and communities that took to the streets. The report of Scotland’s citizens’ Climate Assembly has articulated the specific demands of Scotland’s people. But will all of this inspire the political class to take further action to cut emissions faster and boost climate infrastructure and finance? Will it spark leaders to do more to embed sustainable development across all parts of Scottish life, for this generation and for future generations to come?
SDG Network Scotland, on which I represent FDSD, called on the Scottish Government to find a way to make sure we work together in a more joined-up and systematic way, especially in government, and across the whole of society, in our pursuit of becoming a genuine leader in sustainable development. Supported by over 70 leading organisations in Scotland, the network secured the Scottish Government’s commitment to do just that.
Scotland’s first and only national review on the country’s progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was published in 2020, a year later than planned. As with the SDGs, the review was imperfect. However, it was co-developed in a partnership with Scottish civil society through open drafting and joint sign-off with the network that initially secured Scotland’s own independent review. The review is now outdated, but it provides a valuable baseline to inform action and future reporting.
The complexity of the coordination, research, and engagement behind the review revealed a significant truth: sustainable development needs to be considered across the full spectrum of decision-making, whether here in Scotland, or elsewhere. Despite possessing a ‘world-renowned’ National Performance Framework – partially aligned with the SDGs in 2019 – policies and actions in Scotland are not interconnected to support an economy in service of social justice and sustainability.
Alongside the priorities of individual NGOs, our coalition collectively asked the Scottish Government to bring forward a Wellbeing and Sustainable Development (Scotland) Bill during this Parliament. The Bill would put duties on public bodies and local government to take account of the impact of their decisions on sustainable development in Scotland and internationally and legislate for an independent commission. The call was listened to and included in manifestos for the 2021 Holyrood election. It then made it into the Scottish Government’s Programme for Government for 2021 to 2022.
Work is underway within government to begin scoping this new legislation. Civil society organisations are also undertaking their own research to inform the development of a crucial bill. Unfortunately, we know that world-leading legislation doesn’t always mean world-leading change. We know that initial commitments are often watered down to the end of almost being pointless. There are also always different and competing ideas at play. Promises of the Bill and a Future Generations Commission found their way into the Programme for Government yet feature as distinct and unconnected agendas. Hopefully, all this means is that the conversation around what is included in the Bill is yet to get started.
I’ve been on the board of FDSD for just over a year, having joined in April 2020. As the previous coordinator and now steering group member of SDG Network Scotland, I hope that my involvement in FDSD will assist our learning and can link others into the conversation. Our Scottish coalition of sustainability champions wants to learn from similar legislation and policy that address the long-term impact of decisions for this generation and for future generations to come. We need to forge connections to help us draw on the successes, failures, and experiences of others playing similar roles across the UK and beyond. It will also allow us to share lessons from our journey here in Scotland.
