It is essential that we act boldly to address the climate emergency.
In collaboration with a project team led by Creative Carbon Scotland, we have developed a comprehensive, evidence-based Climate Emergency and Sustainability Plan, setting out how Creative Scotland intends to address climate challenges, both internally and through our organisation’s role in supporting the culture and creative sectors to achieve their own climate ambitions.
The Plan details an ambitious range of actions that Creative Scotland will take to achieve net zero in its operations by 2030 and to help address the climate emergency that we all face.
22 April 2022 - Creative Scotland announces new Climate Emergency commitments
We are facing a climate emergency. In Scotland, this is leading to warmer summers and winters, increased rainfall, reduced snowfall, sea level rise and more frequent extreme weather events.
Climate change is caused by the greenhouse gases generated in the creation of the things we buy, and the fuels we use to travel, and heat and light our homes and places of work. But it is also an inherently cultural challenge – a product of our social values with broad impacts on our way of life.
Creative Scotland has a statutory duty under the Climate Change Act (Scotland) 2009, to address climate change through mitigation, adaptation and acting sustainably and to report on its progress annually.
In April 2019, the Scottish Government declared a climate emergency; since then, 20 of Scotland’s 32 local authorities have made similar declarations.
In November 2019, the Scottish Government’s commitment to emissions reductions were increased considerably through the Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets) (Scotland) Act 2019, which set targets to reduce Scotland’s emissions to net-zero by 2045 at the latest, with interim targets for reductions of at least 56% by 2020, 75% by 2030, and 90% by 2040.
Achieving net zero and the interim targets will be immensely challenging for the arts, screen and creative industries, especially in Glasgow and Edinburgh, where both cities have committed themselves to achieving net zero by 2030.
We have, until now, demonstrated our commitment to environmental sustainability, through the delivery of our Environment Action Plan and the ‘Environment’ Connecting Theme. Our work does not exist in isolation, and in distributing cultural funding and supporting wide inclusive participation in the arts, screen and creative industries, we recognise that our commitment to addressing climate change must extend to how we work with cultural individuals, projects and organisations.
Our actions to date have included requiring all Regularly Funded Organisations to report their carbon emissions and development carbon management plans and supporting Creative Carbon Scotland’s work in building capacity across the sector on elements of climate action.
This project builds on that work. The development of a Climate Emergency and Sustainability Plan takes a step up in our contribution, and the contribution of Scotland’s arts, screen and creative industries, to addressing the challenge we face.
Kenneth Fowler
Director of Communications and External Relations
Kenneth.fowler@creativescotland.com
Karen Ridgewell
Climate Emergency and Sustainability Lead
Karen.Ridgewell@creativescotland.com
Caro Overy
Carbon Management Planning Officer
caro.overy@creativecarbonscotland.com
Ben Twist
Director
ben.twist@creativecarbonscotland.com
