Lead the transformation to a circular, wellbeing centred economy
To achieve our climate targets, protect natural resources, and deliver a just transition we need to shift to a socially just, circular, wellbeing-centred economy.
Economic policy is too often treated as separate from addressing climate change and is designed to serve goals that can work against a just transition. Examples include the pursuit of economic growth at all costs and continued government support for polluting industries. Unless climate and economic policies are aligned, we will fail to meet our climate targets and miss opportunities to benefit our health, create jobs and protect nature.
In Scotland, we use more than twice the sustainable limit for resources, but the environmental and human impact of this consumption is often hidden. Including our demand for goods from overseas, our total consumption emissions only reduced by about 33% between 1998 and 2020 and are about 20% larger than our territorial emissions. This effectively means that consumption in Scotland is unsustainably high and we are offshoring emissions.
The Circular Economy (Scotland) Act was passed in June 2024 with unanimous cross-party support. It must be implemented quickly, focusing on actions at the top of the waste hierarchy, while recognising the urgent and shared need to implement fairer and more sustainable resource use and enable a path for all nations to work together on solutions that benefit everyone.
Shifting to a circular economy through regulation, enforcement and investment to stop resources being wasted would create jobs, improve our health and wellbeing, help to protect precious natural resources and reduce our international consumption footprint. Additionally, this could help tackle Scotland’s litter emergency: nine in ten people consistently view litter as a problem.
It is estimated that preventing 10,000 tonnes of waste destined for incineration would lead to the loss of one incineration job and the creation of 386 jobs in circular businesses. To ensure that these are decent, fair and high-value jobs, investment in training, skills and education is needed. One opportunity is to facilitate better gender balance in the circular economy, as only 1 in 4 circular jobs in the UK are held by women, predominantly in low-paid or voluntary roles. Circular business models and supply chains should be built on inclusive and democratic business models, which can provide high-quality jobs, such as cooperatives, employee-owned businesses and social enterprises. Government support needs to ensure that efforts for community wealth building and the circular economy are joined up and mutually reinforcing.