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Highland Council eyes climate emergency targets as a means to economic recovery from the Covid pandemic


By Scott Maclennan

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Highland Council HQ.
Highland Council HQ.

Members of Highland Council’s recovery board have welcomed a progress report setting out how the local authority is addressing the climate and ecological emergency.

The board has been tasked with responding to the impact of Covid on the council, its finances and the wider economy and has pledged to make the climate emergency central to its plans.

Members of the recovery board have already recognised the importance of green recovery for the Highlands and the report discussed today included details of what is required to have a green recovery in the Highlands.

It called for sufficient public investment and stimulus to realise the economic opportunities of a green recovery and to develop investment programmes targeting projects which combine short-terms benefits like job creation that contribute to climate action.

It also seeks to prioritise place-based solutions built around strong relationships with communities, backed up by investment in community capacity and wealth building as well as recognising the importance of our open and green space and our Highland landscapes to the physical and mental resilience of communities.

Recovery Board chairman Cllr Christie said: “There is unlikely to be a ‘one size fits all’ solution to the economic crisis resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic.

“To deliver a truly green recovery, councils will require a new transformative model of governance which provides the flexibility and accountability needed to respond locally to challenges, now and in the future, around economic change as well as future health and the climate and ecological emergency.

“I believe we have a real opportunity here to move forward and become a leader across the country in delivering results. To do this, we need to have a flexible approach to respond locally to challenges now and in the future.

“Our immediate challenge is to look how we can embed low carbon activity within everything the council does so this is a key focus of the service redesign work currently underway.”

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