Seeking Common Ground: On the Future of Environmental Justice in Scotland

Scotland’s climate is witnessing a significant shift. The projections on climate in the country paints a damning picture which without hesitation must be addressed. In 2023, a study by the James Hutton Institute warned that the trend of increased warming and reduced rainfall poses unprecedented challenge which could exacerbate environmental challenges faced by species and habitats. More worryingly, the changes in climate that we are already experiencing are projected to continue and intensify going forward. These extreme whether events cannot in its entirety be disconnected from global trend which has seen current global warming emissions trajectory remain closer to the medium-high emissions thus undermining the Scotland’s emissions and adaptation policies.

Across many fronts, climate leaders, policymakers, and activists have echoed a unified message regarding the future of climate action in both the United Kingdom and Scotland. There is broad consensus on the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, curb biodiversity loss, improve marine and freshwater environments, and develop a circular economy.

With a significant number of people in Scotland showing huge concern about climate change, the commonality found in the position of many on what should be done to tackle it. The percentage of Scottish that are aware, understand, or even with the experience of climate change related issues increased to over 70 percent, thus showing a high level of public awareness.

Worth to note that awareness alone does not guarantee confidence in solution especially with the rise in scepticism and disillusionment. Despite this increasing awareness, many people in Scotland are still disillusioned about the present and fearful for the future, with many yet to be convinced that net zero offers way forward. Therefore, we must find a common denominator among those that are mostly affected and remobilize along this line.

Climate leaders and policy makers must understand that there is a brewing threat to climate action, with the rise of ideological battles playing out across the world, including Scotland. In huge numbers, opponents of climate action are pivoting from ‘simply denying that human activity is changing the climate’ towards an emerging narrative that climate solutions don’t work or ‘are too expensive’. Quite worrying is the difficulty that comes with engaging particular audiences across Scotland, Wales and England on climate change, and the soaring scepticism about the concept of ‘net zero’.

The Need for Plurality of Social Actors

To overcome the ideological divides, we must therefore broaden the conversation by including diverse social actors in climate action. As argued by neo-Marxist thinkers Laclau and Mouffe, creating social change depends on how people are mobilized in an increasingly complex environment. They contend that such complexity means we can no longer view the climate struggle as a binary conflict. Instead, we must initiate inclusive discourses capable of uniting diverse social groups under a common cause.

A study by ClimateXChange examining the impact of climate change on population groups in Scotland found that ethnic minorities (EM) and socially vulnerable individuals (across all ethnicities) are disproportionately affected. It is also important to note that those living in remote and very remote small towns, accessible rural areas, and other urban areas face significantly higher risks than average. Further research has shown that many individuals that are on low income and EM also have reduced adaptive capacity to high temperatures and poor air quality due to the fewer choices they have in terms of goods and services.

Already, with the recent trends and projections, the risks that are faced by black, Asian, and other minority groups is set to increase more rapidly than others. Many people that are socially vulnerable – older adults, young children, people in long-term ill-health – are also susceptible to harms from range of environmental hazards if not mitigated, now. This shows the importance of mobilizing a wide range of people, not only ethnic minority, if we are to nib this in the bud.

Recognizing these vulnerabilities underscore the need for a holistic approach that connects environmental goal with social and economic realities. Therefore, coalescing to build a long-term consensus on climate action in Scotland must transcend its long held environmental focus, it must also consider a whole approach that connects with everyone’s challenges. Future efforts must make mainstream cross-cutting issues across socio-economic and ethnic divide. It is entirely possible for climate action to address social injustice, economic issue while also safeguarding human health, thus making society fairer, affordable and healthier for everyone in Scotland while focusing on climate change at the same time.

Moreso, this inclusive vision must also address structural inequalities, such as the triple injustice faced by disadvantaged households. In the face of skepticism and new denialism, I argued that efforts towards environmental and climate justice must reconcile low income households, disadvantaged groups who are subject to triple injustice – a situation where a household makes relatively small contribution to carbon emissions, but disproportionately pays for the policies to reduce emissions – as well as ethnic minorities across Scotland and the UK.

A durable coalition must be sustained as the call for adaptation intensify across different quarters. The integration of the social, cultural and environmental dimensions must be deliberate as we seek inclusive climate action. The quest for social justice must undoubtedly consider those groups that rely on the natural environments but may be more or less able to adapt to the potential changes. It must also create antagonism that challenge a system that perpetuate an unequal distribution of responsibility for emissions, making them to suffer at the detriment of few.

Forging a united front

In sum, these efforts must and should converge on a single imperative which is, forging a united front for climate justice. The future of environmental and climate action requires government attention to the many worries of the marginalized across Scotland. These issues are cross-cutting and are similar everywhere in the country. Crucial among these concerns are, social injustice and economic uncertainty.

It is highly important that we carefully reflect and deeply soul-search about the monstrous possible future and what role everyone has to play. As such, our future requires the formation of collectives, those with distinct issues but share identical struggle against inequality and subordination.

In the coming years, Scotland will experience warmer, wetter winters, with more intense rainfall events, thus climate action must be tackled through fair transition at both local and global levels through self-reliance and self-interest. With the possibilities of Scotland nearly surpassing 2⁰C of temperature in the next three decades if ghg emissions continue to soar, it will be highly inappropriate and totally unforgivable if we fail to limit warming from reaching that level, given the impact it is going to have on low-income groups as well as ethnic minorities in general, especially with the result synergy could achieve.

Looking ahead, the projected climate impacts make this united front not just desirable but indispensable. Therefore, what is important is a united approach that is grounded in the belief that climate action can benefit us all, as it particularly addresses everyone’s pressing needs. Furthermore, we must build such approach through an unflinching understanding of the impacts of climate-related crisis and the need to protect marginalized from the inevitable climate perils. Lastly, we must forge a new way forward, one that embraces the plurality of all but does not reject the uniformity of struggles, and one that perseveres even when faced with deeply troubling sectarian agenda.