Climate campaigning in a time of crisis: disappointed but not deterred

The last few weeks have been busy for climate campaigning in Scotland. There have been protests and a hand in of a fossil fuel treaty at Holyrood. An interfaith service and vigil for COP29 also took place.

Here, our Campaigns and Advocacy Coordinator, Lucy, shares her thoughts on these events. This comes after a rather unsuccessful United Nations climate conference, COP29.  

The UN climate summit (COP29) brought together civil society and governments from around the world. This year, the conference took place in Baku, Azerbaijan, and it was important for securing climate finance for the global majority.

Unfortunately, the participants at COP29 did not agree on much. There was a weak collective finance deal of £300 billion by 2035. However, there were no rules stating that this money must be grants instead of loans. As our Bangladeshi colleague Ommey Nahida says in this piece, rich nations failed Bangladesh and the global south.

We are very disappointed that Ed Miliband, the UK energy minister said of the finance deal that it was primarily an opportunity for British businesses to get into new markets and that he hadn’t committed the UK to any additional climate finance. You can read more about what Christian Aid had wanted the UK Government to commit to here. 

In terms of Scotland, we were pleased that Gillian Martin, the Acting Net Zero Secretary, attended COP29 and had some good conversations with civil society representatives from the global south about loss and damage and the need for funding to reach communities directly.

We were, however, concerned that she did not meet members of Scottish civil society present at COP29 and that progress on Scotland’s domestic climate priorities continues to be far too slow, you can read more about this in the blog we wrote in October. 

The middle weekend of the UN climate summit is traditionally marked as a Global Day of Action. And this year that also happened to fall within Scottish Interfaith Week.

As members of Scotland’s faith communities concerned for the planet, some of us gathered at Canongate Kirk on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh for an interfaith service to mark COP29, followed by a vigil outside the parliament to remember the victims of the climate crisis.  

We sang a chorus from the Iona community, heard thoughts from different faiths about caring for creation and had moments of reflection. We also learned about a letter from faith communities in Scotland which was delivered to the people of Samoa as a sign of solidarity during the climate crisis.  

About 40 people attended, including representatives from several organisations. These included Eco-Congregations Scotland, Christian Climate Action, Interfaith Scotland, Justice and Peace, SCIAF, and the Quakers.   

Our Campaigns, Advocacy, Youth, and Education Manager, Andrew, did a brilliant job organising this event. He received help from Colette, our Digital Content Officer, who took some great photos and made a fun round-up video.   

One of the things that we wanted to see at COP29 was a commitment to phase out fossil fuels, which was mentioned for the first-time last year at COP28 in Dubai.

We therefore joined lots of other organisations on November 14, before COP29 began, to hand in a petition to John Swinney First Minister asking the Scottish Government to sign up to the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty.

This treaty is a global initiative to try and help the world transition away from fossil fuels. Parliamentarians, individuals, and organisations (including Christian Aid) from all over the world have signed it. Global Justice Now has been leading a campaign in Scotland. 

We were delighted that some members of the Scottish Parliament (from several major political parties) came out to support the hand in. Also, the First Minister John Swinney has said he will look seriously at the treaty. This, therefore, felt like a positive step forward with the Scottish Parliament in terms of Scotland’s just transition away from oil and gas. Unfortunately, there was no progress made at COP29 for international collaboration to phase out fossil fuels.   

On the 12th of November the Court of Session began hearing a challenge, brought by environmental organisations Greenpeace and Uplift, against the UK Government’s decision to grant new oil and gas licences for the Rosebank and Jackdaws oil fields.

The argument against the oil fields includes that the science is clear that that the development of new oil and gas fields is incompatible with the 1.5C goal contained within the Paris Agreement, and for the UK to meet the net-zero emissions target by 2050. Also, the oil from these oil fields would be shipped out of the UK so would not help UK energy security or bring down fuel bills for UK households.  

On the day that the court case started, Christian Aid, alongside wider Scottish civil society, took part in a rally outside the Court of Session to show our support for the legal challenge. The news displayed a lot of coverage about this protest, where Christian Aid appeared quite clearly!

The protest was fun and there were lots of chanting and singing, with a choir called Protest in Harmony attending. The court will announce the outcome of the case in early 2025.

Since 2007, we have been told by our partner organisations across the world that climate change is making poverty permanent. Increasingly erratic weather is affecting us all, but it is having a disproportionate impact on some of the world’s poorest communities, who have done little to cause the climate crisis.

Therefore, one of the most significant things that the UK and Scotland can do to help our global neighbours, is to have a just transition to a low carbon economy. 

Here at Christian Aid Scotland, we will continue to fight for climate justice, asking our politicians to take the climate crisis seriously and to take the action that is needed both for the people of Scotland and others around the world.

We would like to thank the many of you who as individuals and churches have joined us in this campaign in 2024. Please do tell us if you engage with an MP or MSP and keep an eye out in the new year for our new campaign linking climate and debt justice.