First Minister John Swinney spoke to a small group at the beautiful Glasgow Botanic Gardens on 19th February. Bobby Pembleton, East Lothian Climate Hub Manager, was one of five regional Climate Action Hubs to be invited to join this discussion.
Some of the highlights of the First Minister’s speech include that ‘this transition will abandon no community’ and ‘in the face of adversity we must collaborate.’ This highlights the potential of the Climate Action Hub Programme. This programme is hyperlocal. It is in service and trusted messengers to individual communities at village and town level. Also, it is nationally and internationally collaborative, with Hub staff across Scotland connected in various communication platforms and rapidly forming regional and national collaborations for change.
The First Minister also spoke of some his favourite initiatives in our Climate Action Networks, from the Climate Café Network started in his own constituency to the confluence of repair cafes, reuse hubs, and other practical initiatives that are moving from the exception to the norm. He spoke of an economic system that must work for both people and the planet. The powerful speech was well received. The Climate Action Hub Programme was mentioned throughout.
Immediately following the speech and Q&A, Bobby gathered the other Climate Hub Managers in attendance and approached the First Minister’s PA, who agreed to a brief discussion with us. He was happy to hear about the successes of the programme and our abilities to initiate, support, and scale transformative change.
We also shared with him a key challenge that our programme faces, and indeed much of the third sector faces: year-on-year funding. This time of year the perversion of the system of year-on-year third sector funding is highlighted in stark relief. Our ability and efforts to plan long-term and strategically, needed to tackle a globally unprecedented and potentially apocalyptic crisis, is hampered by trying to wrap up every piece of work, make sure every penny is spent, potentially lose staff due to this stress… then start afresh in April. Bobby shared this challenge with the First Minister, who assured him that he would look into it. This issue is a key lever that could enable or prevent the success of our community-driven climate action efforts, which we will continue to try to address at every level.
We will continue to work with the First Minister and others on our shared goal of ensuring that no community is abandoned in a just transition to an ecologically positive future on a more wellbeing-focused, liveable planet. We can only do this if we work together.
