The climate emergency in Scotland – what can we do about it?

Pete Smith, Director of Scotland’s Climate Change Centre of Expertise

Climate change is an existential threat and time to tackle it is rapidly running out. In light of this, the UK and Scottish Governments have both declared a climate emergency. We are now into a make-or-break decade of climate action. While governments have a role to play in creating the right policy conditions to allow businesses, local authorities and individuals to cut greenhouse gas emissions, we as individuals can make changes to cut emissions – after all, it is the consumption of the 7.9 billion people on the planet that leads to these emissions. In tonight’s talk I will show evidence of how the climate change is changing, outline the adverse impacts of climate change, and set out the urgency required in our response. I then outline where cuts in greenhouse gas emissions can be made, and the changes we can make to our everyday lives to reduce our climate impact.

BIOGRAPHY

Pete is Chair in Plant & Soil Science at the University of Aberdeen, he is co-leader with Prof Jo Smith of the Environmental Modelling Group and is also Science Director of Scotland’s Climate Change Centre of Expertise.

He was a Royal Society-Wolfson Research Merit Award holder (2008-2013), Royal Society Research Fellow (2008-2013), and is a Fellow of the Society of Biology (FSB; elected 2008), a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE; elected 2009), a Foreign Fellow of the Indian National Science Acedemy (FNA; elected 2017); a Fellow of the European Academy of Sciences (EurASc; elected 2018) and a Fellow of the Royal Society (London; elected 2017).

 

LINKS
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  • July 28, 2021
  • 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm