What are the SNP doing to encourage young people to get involved in environmental discussions?

The SNP Scottish Government have implemented several initiatives to encourage younger generations to participate in the environmental discussion and be active in implementing mitigating measures.

In 2019 First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced a state of ‘Climate Emergency’, inspired by the international movement of school-strikers campaigning against climate change.

Through our junior Climate Challenge Fund, young people have been empowered to lead local projects to tackle climate change.

In Government we have supported education around the twin global climate and ecological crises through the implementation of the Learning for Sustainability Action Plan.

We support the inclusion of the climate emergency and ecological crisis in teacher training and a new professional teaching qualification to help the continued upskilling of educators.

We will also further promote and support outdoor learning as a way of increasing awareness and appreciation of nature. We will trial the first outdoor primary learning facilities in Scotland, building on the success of outdoor early learning and forest kindergartens.

We want COP 26 to leave a legacy of green opportunities for the next generation. As part of our Young Person’s Guarantee, we will enable school leavers to experience nature based employment or education opportunities that contribute to our world leading targets to combat climate change – this includes planting trees, restoring Scotland’s peatlands, developing blue carbon techniques and soil testing among other natural solutions.