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| Wed, 23rd Jun 2021 23:09:00 |
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Report outlines 80 ways Scotland could tackle climate change |
A Scottish "Oyster card", green taxes and scrapping air miles are among 80 recommendations of a citizens' assembly looking at how Scotland can tackle climate change.
Scotland's Climate Assembly also urges a ban on single-use plastics and a four-day working week.
The assembly brought together more than 100 people from all walks of life to discuss the challenge.
Their report will now be handed over to party leaders at Holyrood.
Described as a "clarion call" for action, it says there should be a ban on single use plastics "unless there is no viable alternative".
To encourage people out of their cars, it calls for public transport to be made "cheaper, or free", with standardised smart ticketing introduced across the whole country in what could be an "Oyster card for Scotland".
The assembly backs tax changes, including the introduction of a new carbon land tax which it said would penalise those whose land is currently responsible for more emissions than it captures.
Schemes such as frequent flyer and air mile bonuses should be scrapped, with a new tax brought in to discourage people from regular air travel.
It also calls for a feasibility study to examine the environmental impact of introducing a universal basic income, and for a four-day working week "as standard".
The assembly was created after people across Scotland were randomly selected to register an interest. More than 100 were eventually chosen, meeting to discuss the climate change challenge over seven weekends between November 2020 and March this year.
Other recommendations in the report include:
- Grants being made available to all homeowners by 2025 to help them to ensure their properties meet zero emissions standards by 2030
- All public service vehicles - such as ambulances and police cars - to have zero tailpipe emissions
- Supermarkets and other stores encouraged to change the way they sell fruit and vegetables, and other perishable products, so people can buy only the amount they need
- Creation of a new National Nature Service so people who are not in education, training or work can "contribute to rewilding, land restoration and adaptation projects"
- Councils to set up a network of "resource libraries" where people can borrow tools and other equipment instead of people having to buy items they may only use occasionally
The assembly is delivering its report to Holyrood just months before thousands of delegates and world leaders are due to gather in Glasgow for the COP26 climate change summit
Prof Dave Reay of Edinburgh University's Climate Change Institute said: "This is a clarion call for climate action right across Scotland.
"For anyone who was still wondering what needs done on climate change, it's writ large here: much more, and much faster.
"These recommendations span every part of our lives, from heating our homes and the daily commute, through to what we buy and what we eat."
The Scottish government's Net Zero Secretary Michael Matheson said Scotland's contribution to tackling climate change would be delivered by 2045 at the latest.
"The responsibility for delivering this transformation, and delivering it in a way that is fair and just for everyone, falls to all of us - it must be a shared, national endeavour, with people at its heart," he said.
Scottish Labour's Net Zero spokeswoman Monica Lennon said the assembly had shown that when given the chance, people would "put forward radical and ambitious proposals for change".
Read original full article
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