Scotland's Climate Week

As part of our ongoing programme of SFC blogs, we’ve published a number of insightful and thought-provoking articles about the climate emergency. Some of these have been written by SFC staff and others have been contributions from experts outwith SFC.

To celebrate Scotland’s Climate Week 2020 we’ve collected these together in one place for the first time.

Dr Martin Valenti from our partner agency, Scottish Enterprise, confronted any complacency we might still have by telling us that if everyone on earth lived how we like living in Scotland we would need three planets. In his piece, Climate Emergency to Climate Opportunity, Martin argues for strategic alignment and a ‘Team Scotland’ approach to the climate emergency.

To mark Earth Hour earlier this year, Siôn Pickering, writing about the need to reduce travel, asked - with uncanny foresight - whether virtual attendance at academic events should be made easier.

On a topic once again at the top of the political agenda, SFC’s Jenny Jamieson wonders in Developing an Environmental Strategy for Scotland how we will fare when Scotland loses the 80% of its domestic environmental law which is derived from EU legislation and policy. Taking a global view, Edinburgh Napier’s Dr Céline Garnier’s fascinating blog describes how her university is using SFC’s Global Challenge Research Fund to help build climate-resilient food systems.

Finally, staying with a planet-wide perspective, SFC’s David Beards’ blog on the circular economy looks to Taiwan for inspiration on how to accelerate progress towards re-use, re-cycle, and re-manufacture.

If you would like to contribute your experiences, thoughts and ambitions about climate change in an SFC guest blog please contact the communications team.

Some of SFC’s recent initiatives and investments to tackle the climate emergency include:

• A partnership with Scottish Water to help make Scotland a sustainable Hydro Nation.
• A £500,000 funding package for initiatives that prove the value of a collaborative approach in Scotland’s response to the climate emergency.
• Funding up to 2023 to support EAUC’s work to accelerate action and leadership in colleges and universities in response to the climate emergency.
• Funding to support the UK’s largest research, industry and government partnership in carbon capture, use and storage.
• A £19m programme aimed at boosting investment in energy efficiency across Scotland’s higher education institutions.