An update from SSN
In April the Scottish Government announced that revision of the Climate Change Plan was being postponed due to the COVID-19 emergency, and that the new plan would focus on the Green Recovery agenda. The Cabinet Secretary, Roseanna Cunningham, announced that she had written to the Committee on Climate Change for advice on this. Since then there has been a raft of developments on this theme, many of which lay out a set of initial principles and priorities for consideration as we move forward.
SSN Steering Group discussed the Green Recovery agenda at its meeting on 20th May, and is set to follow this up with a more detailed session on 23rd June. If SSN member would like to feed in views or questions for this meeting, please contact either a staff member in the SSN Secretariat or one of the SSN Steering Group members.
Important recent developments for SSN members and public bodies to be aware of on the Green Recovery include:
- The Committee on Climate Change wrote to the UK Government and the Scottish Government with early-stage advice on a green recovery. The CCC advice lists six key principles and outlines a range of initial policy proposals.
- COP26 Universities Group, on which ECCI Executive Director Professor Dave Reay is a member, issued a briefing paper on a Green Recovery.
- The Oxford Smith School issues a more technical paper alongside the COP26 Universities Group release.
- The UK Government was involved in the 11th Petersberg Climate Dialogue, which focused on the Green Recovery agenda. This included a fascinating press conference involving Prof. Nick Stern and Sharan Burrow, General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation. Stern and Burrow repeatedly focused on a three stage process of economic rescue, recovery and transformation, and the imperative for a Just Transition to Net Zero emissions.
- The C40 Group has set up a COVID Recovery Task Force to bring city mayors together to help rebuild cities and economies in ways that improves public health, reduces inequality and addresses the climate crisis.
- The RSA held two webinars on 7th May on the issue of Green Recovery and the Well Being Economy. RSA UK’s webinar featured the UCL economist Mariana Mazzucato, who is a member of the Scottish Government’s Council of Economic Advisors. The RSA Scotland session featured Katherine Trebeck from the WEAll Alliance, who recently was appointed to the Scottish Government’s Sustainable Renewal Advisory Group.
- As always, Carbon Brief provides a wealth of daily news, much of which currently features coverage of the Green Recovery agenda.