Reusing derelict land is a natural way to address climate change

Scotland has almost 11,000 hectares of vacant and derelict land – roughly twice the size of Dundee - and much of it sits in areas with the greatest poverty and deprivation.

To help address this the Scottish Land Commission, along with SEPA, established the Vacant and Derelict Land Taskforce to transform Scotland’s approach to bringing such land back into use.

Reusing Scotland’s legacy of derelict land could make a huge contribution to Scotland’s efforts to tackle climate change. Enhancing already naturalising derelict land rich in biodiversity or developing a temporary or permanent green-end use could deliver natural climate solutions such as reducing pollution, allowing natural flood risk management and reducing the effects of urban heating. In addition, they could support local habitat and green networks and improve the quality of life in urban areas.

Bringing sites back into a positive use has transformational potential for many communities across Scotland where dereliction is having a detrimental impact on their lives and local environment.

The Taskforce believes that bringing these unloved urban spaces back into a productive end-use can deliver wider benefits for the local environment, community and economy.

For example, the sites could be used to:

•Build new homes to limit urban sprawl and reduce commuting

•Provide new allotments and city farms for fresh food grown locally

•Create new parks, green space and net works to enhance existing biodiversity value and improve wellbeing

•Attract new investment, creating jobs and wealth in parts of the country that need it most

•Generate renewable energy, potentially helping to tackle fuel poverty in poorer communities.

The legacy of Scotland’s industrial past means that almost a third of the Scottish population currently lives within 500 metres of a derelict site.

In deprived communities (which also have the worst health outcomes) that figure increases to 58%. Decisions about what to do with a vacant site, including if and when to dispose of it, are most often made on the basis of fairly narrow cost-benefit analysis.

Anticipated financial returns to the owner are usually the most important consideration and when these numbers don’t stack up, nothing happens. Sites in areas with inherent problems are an even weaker prospect for generating reuse. A longer-term, broader and more collaborative community led approach to land reuse is required – and one which emphasises and values the benefits that reuse can bring.

The Commission has published a framework that places wellbeing as a central consideration when assessing the business case for reusing vacant or derelict land.

Head of Policy at the Scottish Land Commission, Shona Glenn, explains: “We think the time has come to update and develop the traditional approaches to assessing the benefits of reusing land to reflect the broader perspective on economic wellbeing and properly reflect the way our environment affects every aspect of our lives.

“These changes could help to significantly reduce land dereliction in urban Scotland, which could make a major contribution to efforts to address climate change, but it could also address another challenge of our time, one which has been heightened even more by the impact of the pandemic – inequality.”

Making sure we own and use our land in productive ways will be even more important in building a fair and green recovery in Scotland. We simply cannot afford not to unlock – through land - greater economic, social and environmental wellbeing for people in both urban and rural Scotland. www.landcommission.gov.scot #notsoprettyvacant

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If you want to make your money matter, invest in the green economy

Orbital Marine Power are developing floating tidal turbines in Orkney

MORE and more people in the UK are realising that when it comes to responding to the climate emergency and the need to transition to a sustainable green economy, your money really does matter.

As Earth Overshoot day approaches, there are many actions you can take as an individual to be greener but few things are more effective than making sure your money is having a positive impact when it comes to the environment.

In fact, it has been calculated that moving your money to green investments is 27 times as effective at reducing your carbon footprint than eating less meat, using public transport, reducing water use, and flying less combined, according to the new campaign from world renowned film maker Richard Curtis.

Make My Money Matter launched in June with a call for everyone to get their pension to offer sustainable and green investments. With the introduction of workplace pension auto-enrolment, millions of workers now have a pension pot, but relatively few have been offered, or made aware of, a green or sustainable option for their money.

At Abundance Investment, our nearly 7,000 crowdfunding investors have raised more than £105m for projects across the UK, including more than £30m invested into businesses in Scotland. These include Orbital Marine Power (based in Orkney), who are developing innovative floating tidal turbines and Celtic Renewables in Grangemouth transforming whisky waste into biofuel and other useful products.

Each of our investors is using money in their ISA or pension to buy investment bonds in green and socially positive businesses which pay a twice-yearly return on their investment. Investment always involves risk and Abundance is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority to make sure the risks of the investments are clear and understood as well, as the environmental and financial benefits. It is not only about innovations in sustainability or energy generation from renewables, every industry in the UK will need to invest to transition from carbon intensive to carbon neutral or even net positive technologies. Abundance investors are also helping farmers such as Robert Greenow who has set up Agrogen PLC to build new ways to generate energy from the waste produced from growing our food, and there is a growing pipeline of investments for new forms of sustainable farming technologies such as vertical farming.

The crisis caused by the Covid19 pandemic has only heightened the calls for greater efforts to speed the UK’s recovery from the economic impact of the lockdown with investment in green jobs and infrastructure – now at a local level led by local councils. The UK’s first local government green bond was issued this month by West Berkshire, with Warrington and Leeds planning their own green bonds for their residents to invest directly with their council from just £5. West Berkshire are installing £1m of solar generation to support their push to beat the UK’s Net Zero target by 20 years through achieving that goal for their region by 2030.

These ‘Community Municipal Investments’ also offer the opportunity for people to invest in long term projects such as afforestation, wild flower planting and other forms of biodiversity and natural environment improvements.

These will provide investors with a lower risk option for their money and local councils with a lower cost method of financing their investments in their local environment and economies. As the UK government explores the idea of a new green investment bank, Abundance aims to help turn all 350 local authorities into local green investment banks backed by municipal bonds invested in by citizens who want to put their money to work towards a greener, more sustainable recovery.

The challenges of the last few months have shown the power of pulling together and taking collective action. As individuals we have a responsibility to think about how our money is invested and the impact it has on the world’s finite ecological resources.

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Nature needs to be on the finance agenda for recovery

By Chris Tait, Executive Manager, Global Ethical Finance Initiative

IN NOVEMBER 2021, Glasgow will host the UN climate change summit, known as COP26. This is the most important climate summit since the landmark Paris Agreement in 2015 when heads of state committed to restricting global temperature rise this century to ‘well below’ 2°C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5°C. COP26 is first opportunity for nations to come together to review commitments and strengthen ambition.

Scotland is already leading by example with the Climate Change Bill making a commitment to becoming a net-zero society by 2045 – five years before the rest of the UK. The Scottish Government has also responded to the global climate emergency by adopting an ambitious new target to reduce emissions by 75 per cent by 2030. The Scottish National Investment Bank, which will be operational in the second half of 2020, will support the transition to net zero through a range of debt and equity products.

The financial opportunities and risks of transitioning to a low carbon, resilient global economy have catapulted climate change to the top of the agenda for investors, lenders and insurers across the globe. As well as setting ambitious targets to minimise their own greenhouse gas emissions many financial institutions are driving reductions in the climate impact of their financing activity by decarbonising their portfolios and increasing investments in solutions to climate change.

 With Earth Overshoot Day looming later this month it is timely to reflect on the key role nature plays in regulating climate as well as helping us to adapt to and mitigate against climate change. By conserving nature and restoring ecosystems we reduce climate vulnerability and increase resilience.

The sustainable management and use of nature can help tackle wider socio-environmental challenges such as water security, water pollution, food security, human health and disaster risk management. However, with ecosystems declining in size and condition by 47 per cent globally, and species populations facing extinction, the wake-up call on nature loss arrived at this year’s World Economic Forum where, for the first time, the Global Risks Report ranked biodiversity loss as one of the top-five global risks in terms of likelihood and impact in the next 10 years.

Around $44 trillion of economic value generation – over half the world’s total GDP – depends on nature and its services and sustainable use of our environment in Scotland accounts for 11 per cent of our total economic output – worth £17.2 billion a year – and one in seven full-time jobs. The global coffee market had retail sales of $83 billion in 2017 but 60 per cent of coffee varieties are at risk of extinction from a combination of climate change, disease and deforestation.

Nature and biodiversity loss therefore represent a significant financial risk. Insufficient accounting for the risks posed by nature loss have unintended consequences, such as short or long-term risk mispricing, inadequate capital buffers, and in extreme cases the potential for stranded assets.

In boardrooms nature loss continues to be largely a hidden risk. This needs to change, and quickly. The Scottish-based Global Ethical Finance Initiative (GEFI) is working with the United Nations Development Programme and Scottish Government on a 2 year programme of collaboration that aims to raise awareness and position nature at the forefront of the COVID-19 economic recovery and for the long-term well-being of people and the planet.

Within the programme, which forms part of our wider Path to COP26 campaign, we are actively looking to develop a financial instrument that accelerates nature-friendly investments at scale as well as draw upon our extensive global network to support other initiatives such as the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and Scottish Wildlife Trust’s challenge to unlock £1 billion of new investment for nature conservation in Scotland. We are also looking to explore the feasibility of a global framework for financial institutions measure and disclose nature-based risk.

With Covid-19 exposing the fragility of health security and financial systems there is a pressing need to build social, environmental and economic resilience.

At GEFI, as we approach COP26, we are committed to working with our partners ensure nature joins climate at the top of the finance agenda to underpin a green and sustainable recovery. We will also continue to showcase and position Scotland as a leading global centre for ethical finance. www.globalethicalfinance.com