By Colin Cardwell and Karen Peattie

The air was one of anticipation verging on impatience. After all, COP26 – perhaps the most significant global gathering so far in the century, attracting 20,000 delegates including more than 100 world leaders – had been delayed for a year owing to the constraints caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Yesterday a collaboration of over 20 organisations from across Scotland teamed up with The Herald for a special, one-day, online conference on Scotland’s transition to net zero titled ‘Scotland’s contribution to COP26: a joined-up Just Transition’.

For more than 900 delegates there was an impressive cast of experts on hand. Martin Valenti, director of net zero, South of Scotland Enterprise who chaired the event emphasised that this was a historic moment for Scotland, one that offers the opportunity to achieve something “seismic and meaningful” toward a just transition.

And, he added, this requires a very coordinated approach, a theme that was revisited several times throughout the day.

Richard Lochhead MSP, Minister for Just Transition at the Scottish Government said: “The example we are setting and actions we are taking really matter but we need to go much, much further.

"Crucially, this includes our responsibility to reduce our emissions on a way that is fair to everyone.”

We have, he added, set tough targets – but targets that must be met. “My job is to consider how we can kickstart economic transformation in a fair way. We are a world leader, and through just transition we can build that fairer, greener Scotland we all want to live in.”

He concluded: “COP26 is a platform to raise that awareness and hopefully everyone – from a household, a community or business anywhere in Scotland – will over the two weeks of COP, think deeply about what their contribution can be to Scotland’s net-zero future and make sure we get there.”

Meanwhile, a lively morning panel session was chaired by James C Curran, Visiting Professor, Centre for Sustainable Development at the University of Strathclyde. The theme running through the discussion was that fair transition’ wasn’t merely a matter of implementing policy but that it is something that will affect every part of our lives.

Richard Hardy, national secretary for Scotland and Ireland, Prospect Trade Union recalled his childhood. “I grew up in a pit village in Yorkshire and now live Fife, surrounded by the ‘archaeology’ of the coal industry.

“In the 1980s, I saw the unjust transition from coal. My home village has still not recovered from that and I'm passionate about getting this transition, right because its scale will dwarf the unjust transition out of coal if we don’t.”

Jim Skea, Professor of Sustainable Energy, Imperial College London and who was appointed chair of the Just Transition Commission in 2018, said he had grown up in Dundee and seen relatives made unemployed when the Caledon shipyard closed.

When living in Pittsburgh in the US, he added, he saw families selling their furniture on the pavement when the industries they worked in shut down. “We have better safety nets than they had in the US at that time, but it shows you how dire transitions can be,” he said.

Lynne McEwan, global marketing manager at Bruichladdich Distillery on Islay explained that the company was a Certified B Corporation (B-Corp) that is legally required to consider the impact of decisions on workers, customers, suppliers, community and the environment.

“We can't just make whisky: we have to take accountability for the entire ecosystem we exist in which means we have to become experts in renewable energy, sustainable packaging and regenerative agriculture, being responsible for the entire impact we make,” she said.

“And to do that we give our teams permission to invest time and money to take actions –even though these don’t improve the bottom line. It’s absolutely the right thing to do and there is no greater show of commitment than the budget that you put against it.”

Poonam Malik, board member, Scottish Enterprise and Head of Investments at the University of Strathclyde, returned to the importance of a co-ordinated response to achieve a just transition. “We want to achieve the net-zero target but we have to ask who is providing that scrutiny and advice, the monitoring and evaluation so that our goal is achieved, but people don't suffer in between.

“We should not leave anyone behind and that involves a high degree of collaboration and engagement, with the public and private sectors both having a major role to play.”

Shaun Macleod, electrical maintenance engineer at BSW Timber Ltd, the UK's major integrated forestry and sawmilling group, pointed to the practicalities of a just transition for the young, especially with the impetus to direct them down the university route. “Potentially this is a problem with the new, renewable technologies,” he said.

“Electric vehicles and heat pumps will need workers to install and maintain them. This, he added, is where apprenticeships kick in. “This is where we should be looking for the transition, the upscaling of green technology and the retraining of individuals.”