Introduction
Popular policies, meaningful action
Scotland’s climate coalition and our 70+ diverse organisations stand for principled, practical action on the breadth of the climate and nature crises Scotland and the world faces. Our members and supporters – and a clear majority of the Scottish public – want to see real climate ambition, delivered through popular, durable policies.
We present these policy proposals at a time when the climate and other crises are biting hard, and meaningful action has never been more urgent. Scotland needs to get on the front foot after years of unsteady progress and recent setbacks.
These proposals show how the next parliament can be one of tangible, transformative climate action. As we set out in our proposals, climate policies must feel to people like a great deal for them: like relief from high energy bills, more economic security and protection from extreme weather events, and a sense that change is being done with, not to them. Crucially, they must also feel that action is being delivered and paid for fairly.
The proposals in this document would speed up the modernisation of Scotland’s economy, making the most of our country’s extraordinary resources and ingenuity. And they take head on the rumble of public backlash by showing how policies can be truly fair, exciting, and an answer to the stresses and indignities that mark too much of daily life. The good news is the cost of climate action keeps on falling, and action now is significantly cheaper than doing nothing and having to pay for the consequential damage.
We must learn the lessons of setting emission reduction targets and then repeatedly failing to meet them: ambition is vital, but delivery is what really matters. Tangible, transformative and specific policies, like those in this paper, are urgently needed.
Time to get real
The climate crisis is here, and it’s hurting people in Scotland and around the world. Scotland’s 10 warmest years on record have all occurred since 1997. Hotter temperatures bring climate chaos, which means drought, floods, and storms – like 2024’s Storm Éowyn which battered Scotland and caused millions of pounds of damage.
Extreme weather like this is the “new normal”, bringing more damage, danger and hardship to people and places across Scotland. This means that action to cut emissions is not enough – we also need to adapt rapidly and fairly to protect lives and livelihoods from the climate impacts we are already experiencing and will continue to see.
The crisis reflects inequality in its causes and impacts. Globally the richest 1% emit as much carbon as the five billion poorest people, and in Scotland the carbon footprint of the richest is 4 times more than the poorest. The impacts fall heaviest on those with the least capacity to adapt, or who are already in the most precarious or vulnerable economic or social state. Right across society there is strong agreement that those who are most responsible for pollution should be expected to do the most about it.
Transitioning to a 100% clean energy based economy is a matter of profound urgency. Preventing every fraction of a degree of warming matters and every country needs to do its bit. The great news is Scotland is perhaps uniquely blessed in its natural resources, and can show the rest of the UK – and the world – what it means to be a global clean energy superpower.
People in Scotland love nature, and our lochs, glens, green spaces and the species that live there are internationally revered – but it needs protecting and enhancing so that it can thrive, and help us be more resilient to climate impacts. Scottish wildlife has decreased by 15% since 1994, with one in nine Scottish species at risk of extinction, in part driven by climate change.
Bringing people with you
A sense that the transition is fair, and that communities are properly protected from extreme weather, is mission critical for maintaining and building public support and avoiding backlash. For all these reasons, our policy proposals have fairness hardwired into them.
Climate and nature action is popular and people in Scotland expect their government to lead. People want to cycle more, to feel safe walking and wheeling, to have public transport they can afford, and to be able to access healthier and more nutritious food. 62% of the Scottish public want the government to maintain or speed up the pace on emissions cuts, and a similar number think that to do so would be good news for the economy.
But that headline support doesn’t automatically translate to support for all the policies to get there, particularly not if they are seen as an imposition, an additional cost, or adding to daily stress.
For too long climate policy-making has thought of public support as an afterthought. But when policies touch on everyday life and societal change – as the tangible elements of the transition now do, from jobs to how we travel, energy bills to the health of our homes – bringing people with you is essential. A people-first approach, explaining the reasons and benefits of what ‘net zero’ really means to individuals must feel vital, current, tangible and an answer to everyday struggles – not technical, elitist, or ‘all targets and no action’.
The ‘just transition’ has to start meaning something. Everyone agrees that communities and workers need proactive support as we transition to a cleaner economy – a transition that’s inevitable as oil and gas supplies and use decline. But the phrase ‘just transition’ sounds empty to many people. Too many opportunities are being missed, like the abrupt and unjust way in which the Grangemouth refinery was closed this year – and this has to end now. It’s clear to everyone that a stronger approach to just transition policy is needed to truly protect workers and communities while speeding up the transition.
It’s clear that emissions must fall much more quickly. But people should feel that this transition is happening with them, not to them. Scotland’s communities are already stepping up on climate, with events, campaigns and action taking place across the country. And they need decision makers to ensure that everyone directly benefits – such as through widespread individual and community ownership of the new generation of renewable energy infrastructure.
The policies we propose will deliver a wide range of benefits: addressing the cost of living, enabling healthier lifestyles, improving the precarious state of many of our homes, giving people some merciful relief from high energy bills, and helping protect our homes and communities from extreme weather.
Change doesn’t need to wait – it can start now. But the Scottish election in May 2026 creates a huge opportunity for all political parties to set out detailed and costed policies to deliver the just transition we all need. In this paper we offer a range of fair proposals for action. The next Scottish Government should then act with speed and consistency to reduce Scotland’s emissions while unlocking real benefits to people’s lives.