First film screening for Scotland's Climate Festival
25 January 2022
On 24 January we hosted the first film screening of the ongoing National Series for Scotland's Climate Festival. Audience members joined from across Scotland, and as far away as Chicago and Canada, to watch the new documentary ‘Scotland: Our Climate Journey’ and hear from the filmmakers and featured characters.
The film documents Scotland’s journey to becoming one of the leading nations in climate change policy, showcasing stories from restoring precious peat bog in the Highlands, to developing geopolymer concrete from waste material. One of the most powerful stories was that of community climate action in Scotland, which was particularly fitting as Scotland's Climate Festival continues to grow thanks to the amazing efforts of communities around the country.
After attendees watched the film, they reconvened for a discussion and Q&A session with the speakers, chaired by our CEO Barry Fisher. The speakers discussed their perspectives on Scotland’s climate journey so far, the positive momentum that has grown and the significant challenges that remain. It was great to see so many questions and comments coming in from the audience. Some highlights from the discussion included:
“One of the things I ask more than anything else in this debate is for permission to change from people. There is a natural reticence about change, and we've got to take the fear out of change and everybody's got to play a part in that, everyone's got to help out. Because we know what we need to do in the large part but, there's certain areas where we're clearly not doing it, and we need more people to stand up and speak up for the right things in order to make that change come about”. – Mike Robinson, CEO, Royal Scottish Geographical Society
“Communities are so critical because they create spaces where people can come and share concerns and thoughts in a comfortable environment with people that they know. When you have communities, trusted people and trusted voices, in those communities having those conversations, it’s much more authentic, and I think authenticity and sincerity is essential to mobilise the number of people we need”. – Fraser Stewart, Researcher, University of Strathclyde
“It was so encouraging going around Scotland and realising how many people are committed to change and how many people are committed to doing something, anything whether it's at a community level or the top of industry. – Finbar O’Sullivan, Producer of ‘Scotland: Our Climate Journey’
“I'm in the construction industry; we consume 40% of raw materials, we generate 40% of CO2 emissions, and we generate 40% of waste. So, the spotlight should be on us, this is critical. We have to focus on industries like fossil fuel, they are definitely number one, but construction is number two”. – Roisin Hyde, Doctoral Researcher at Queen’s University Belfast
“I think we came away with a feeling of momentum that to be honest, I was potentially not expecting to find. That was probably one of the most encouraging things, it gave us a lot of energy to make the film and felt like an important message to share”. – Ted Simpson, Director of ‘Scotland: Our Climate Journey’.
