CLIMATE CHALLENGE: Highland Council aims to be trailblazer Good Food Council as part of COP26 Glasgow Food and Climate Declaration
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Highland Council has made a range of commitments by becoming one of the first local authorities in Scotland to join the Glasgow Food and Climate Declaration.
The declaration is a pledge and a call to action by governments, at various levels, from all over the world to accelerate the development of integrated food policies as a key tool in the fight against climate change.
Its co-benefits include biodiversity, ecosystem regeneration, access to sustainable and healthy diets for all, and the creation of resilient livelihoods for farm and food workers.
By signing the declaration, the council has committed to the following:
- Developing and implementing integrated food policies and strategies
- Reducing green house gas emissions from urban and regional food systems
- Calling on national governments to establish supportive and enabling policy frameworks and multi-level and multi-actor governance mechanisms
It is now proposed that a council officer-led working group should be established to map out the work and resources required to deliver against these commitments, in collaboration with the Highland Good Food Partnership.
Council leader Margaret Davidson said: “The declaration presents an opportunity for the Council to renew its commitment to tackling climate change and to develop a ‘Good Food Council’.
“The pledge which has now been made directly aligns with the principles of the carbon management plan, the climate change and energy team’s strategic control plan, the Highland adapts initiative as well as the council’s draft food growing strategy, growing our future.
“Furthermore, this is an opportunity for the council to support the work of the Highland Good Food Partnership and demonstrate its commitment to working together across the region.”
The declaration brings together all types and sizes of local authorities to speak with a unified voice in renewing their commitments to develop sustainable food policies, promote mechanisms for joined-up action and to call on national governments to put food and farming at the heart of the global response to the climate emergency.
The council’s climate change working group chairwoman Trish Robertson said: “To achieve sustainable food system transformation, actions must be aligned horizontally across policy areas and vertically between different levels of government.
“Food necessarily touches many different policy areas, and a holistic food system approach facilitates the development of coherent policies.”
