Ken Collins, Chairman of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, today opened a major environmental conference in Edinburgh. Over 300 delegates are attending the conference, to hear the views of eminent scientists and environmentalists from Scotland, the rest of the UK and Europe about the state of Scotland’s environment and natural heritage.

“It is important to see Scotland’s concerns in the context of a global approach to the state of the planet & its people.” Collins said. “Our future security & present well-being are bound up in questions of resource use and the health of our environment. Yet our lifestyle depends on energy which drives global climate change, and we require and manufacture tens of thousands of exotic chemicals which can find ways to “leak” into the environment with largely unknown consequences. The social and economic influences are profound.

“We need to set up a framework within which prosperity & social inclusion can be fostered. We have to protect the environment, but we also need to be educators, negotiators, information providers & persuaders - advocates for a society in which sustainability is not an optional extra but the basis of all our public policy & private endeavour.

“The environment has become highly politicised. You will recognise this throughout the conference. The issues we are debating are complex, and we find it difficult to translate them into simple messages. If a ‘soundbite’ is needed, I suggest it should be that we need to start acting now. At least then the headlines could read that we haven’t turned a corner - but at least we’re braking ahead of it.”

ENDS

Notes

The State of Scotland’s Environment and Natural Heritage conference, jointly organised by SEPA and Scottish Natural Heritage, is being held at the Edinburgh Conference Centre, Heriot Watt University campus, on 11 - 12 September. Details from the SEPA PR team (details below).