On 2nd October SEPA launched its 2006 State of Scotland’s Environment report at its ‘Change Tomorrow Today’ seminar. This brought many of those involved in the environment in Scotland together to discuss the issues and debate the priorities for our future.

Inevitably, the single most important subject emerging from both the seminar and the report was climate change and therefore this issue of SEPA View is built around this crucial topic. We are very pleased to have UK climate change expert Professor Mike Hulme, a speaker at the event, introduce it.

“Climate change is one of the great phenomena of our day. Not only is this seen in the transformation of our physical environment – our climate, ice sheets, ecosystems, and the world’s oceans – but climate change can also be seen and described in social, economic and political terms. There are a diminishing number of areas of public policy where climate change considerations are not relevant – its relevance

can be seen in energy, transport, water, health, housing, international relations.

“The State of Scotland’s Environment report, recently released by SEPA, is a good example of the need for accurate and regular monitoring of our changing natural world. But addressing climate change requires more than this. We need to ensure that decisions for the future made at all levels of society – by individuals, local councils, public bodies, national governments, the international organisations – take full recognition of the ‘climate change footprint’ of those decisions. Will this decision help minimise the rate of climate change? Will this decision help maximise our resilience to climate change? We need to be alert to this new way of thinking not just for today and tomorrow – but for generations to come.”

Professor Mike Hulme

Director of the Tyndall Centre