Solarpunk Scotland

“Oysters are incredible underwater engineers: they filter water, store carbon and enhance biodiversity by providing shelter for countless marine species.

“We know we’re a long way off from the millions of oysters that once thrived here, but with promising survival rates we are showing the value of restoration work.”

People will be able to benefit from warmer homes, lower bills, greater job opportunities and be less exposed to volatile fossil fuel prices under plans to cut emissions published today.

Scotland’s Climate Change Plan: 2026-2040 sets out over 150 actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions over the next 15 years, bringing over £42.3 billion in financial benefits and cost savings to the economy over the same period.

Scotland is already over halfway to net zero having reduced emissions by 51.3% since 1990 – the largest reduction in the UK and faster than the EU average, using comparable statistics.

The final plan details how Scotland will meet our next three carbon budgets, along with a range of delivery indicators. These include:

• setting a target to decarbonise heat in buildings by 2045
• phasing out the need for new diesel and petrol cars by 2030
• increasing woodland creation so that by 2029-30, 18,000 hectares are planted every year, with 21% woodland cover in Scotland by 2032
• increasing peatland restoration by 10% each year to 2030

Actions in the Climate Change Plan will also contribute to both the Environment Strategy, and the Circular Economy Strategy, also published today.

The new Environment Strategy creates an integrated framework for environment and climate policies, while harnessing the powerful synergies between the health of our environment, the well-being of Scotland’s people and the success of our economy while the Circular Economy Strategy underpins delivery of our climate goals by cutting the amount of waste produced in Scotland, and managing our resources more sustainably, to reduce emissions.

Climate Action Secretary Gillian Martin said: “The Climate Change Plan is Scotland’s pathway to net zero and outlines the action we will take to meet our first three carbon budgets.

“However it is also a routemap to realising economic and social gains for people across Scotland as part of a fair and just transition. It highlights the potential of growth areas ranging from renewables to heat networks to the circular economy, and sets out our commitment to increase investment in areas that will simultaneously decarbonise Scotland and improve our lives.

“Together with the Environment Strategy and Circular Economy Strategy, our Climate Change Plan forms a blueprint for how we will use this once-in-a-generation opportunity for transformation to reduce emissions while ensuring that our economy prospers, our communities are supported to become more resilient to the effects of climate change and to redress the issues of poverty and energy security that affect individual households.”

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/46400676

A specially designed raft has been launched on the east coast of Scotland to create new homes for vulnerable seabirds.

Dubbed the “Maid of Sterna Stuff III”, the raft is moored within the Scottish Wildlife Trust’s Montrose Basin Wildlife Reserve and will provide nesting habitat for over 100 common terns.

Scotland’s seabirds face numerous threats, including from climate change and overfishing, while in recent years they have suffered further declines as a result of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (bird flu). No terns bred on the reserve’s previous raft in 2021 or 2022, however their numbers have climbed steadily since, and in 2025, around 140 chicks fledged as the species continues its recovery from the devastating disease.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/46195536

Animal rights activists dressed as gannets have tucked in to spend the night on top of a Government building in the Highlands following a dramatic protest against Scotland’s controversial guga hunt.

Campaigners from Abolish the Guga Hunt scaled the side of the NatureScot offices in Inverness and chained themselves to the roof at around 4am on Friday. Earlier today the Record shared a video of two men climbing to the highest ridge above the building’s inclined glass roof as they unfurled a banner reading “Abolish the Guga Hunt”.

A model of a battered and bloodied baby gannet – known locally as a “guga” – was also placed beside them on the roof. The activists appeared to have locked themselves in place and said they intended to continue the protest for as long as possible, adding: “We will stay here for days if we have to.”

Rather than building up a robust public-owned oil sector, the UK Government flogged off the rights to exploit the resources to the lowest bidder, even offering generous subsidies rather than taxing their profits. The downstream infrastructure was privatised too, not just sucked vast amounts of wealth into the pockets of billionaires like Jim Ratcliffe, but also granting them vast political power and the ability to make hypocritical statements about immigration while living the high life in their own offshore tax haven.

Scotland needs to start building up its domestic wind and solar manufacturing base. We need to use our excellent universities to develop the materials to ensure that those generators are built to Circular Economy standards (current generation fibreglass wind turbine blades are disposable and are sent to landfill after use). We also need to start aggressively bringing assets into Scottish public ownership.

Every time a renewable energy lease is up for renewal, it should be transferred to a Scottish public energy company (nationally or locally owned). This can also happen when a site is up for “repowering” – when old, smaller turbines are replaced with larger, more powerful ones, but which exceed the previous lease’s maximum capacity terms.

Available in English at: https://www.nature.scot/scots-heart-plan-nature-recovery