Inside Holyrood: The COP26 climate conference in Glasgow is crucial and must deliver a commitment for real action from all the governments to keep our global temperature increase below 1.5C because we are 'faced with the twin emergencies of climate change and species extinction'
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Greens MSP Ariane Burgess argues that we can change the planet by taking care of local communities and that it is 'more powerful and effective in taking action as a group'
By now you’ve probably heard about the COP26 climate conference taking place in Glasgow in November. It will see thousands of people from across the world, government delegates, businesses, non-governmental organisations and activists, coming together to try to shape and influence the talks.
These talks are crucial, and must deliver a commitment for real action from all the governments to ensure we have the policies and funding in place to keep our global temperature increase below 1.5C.
We are now at a critical point in the state of the planet where we all must make changes.
Too often I see the finger being pointed at each of us to make a change. Radio hosts or journalists will ask “what are you doing to do your bit for the climate? Send us your texts and let us know.”
Many of us are doing our bit and must do our bit. But when faced with the twin emergencies of climate change and species extinction that isn’t enough. We need far-reaching action from our governments, both UK and Scottish Governments, local government and businesses, that then support us to do our bit.
But there is another aspect which is often overlooked.
For 20 years before being elected as an MSP I worked in climate and biodiversity education and behaviour change. Over the years, it became clear to me that if we want a future in which we are thriving rather than surviving, we must work to build resilience and take care of our local communities together.
There’s only so much we can do individually or within our household. We will be so much more powerful and effective in taking action as a group. Many of us have had the recent and remarkable experience of community action through the outpouring of support and assistance we gave and received with our neighbours during lockdown. That support and solidarity helped a lot of people get through an otherwise terrible experience.
One place we could make a start is how our food is produced and where it comes from. Scotland is a cornucopia of good food, much of which is exported, while we import what we eat from other countries.
Imports will not stop but we can produce so much more here. All our public kitchens could be serving locally produced food and we can support our farmers by demanding support for them to transition to climate-friendly production methods.
Inspired by what we were able to do in and with our communities when the pandemic arrived on our shores, let’s take action locally to build the fairer, greener and better Scotland that I know is possible.
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