 Maes i'r ddaeth ymgyrchu'r gaeliadau cymhif sickwm, ond mae'n ddiddordeb yn mynd. Ac ond mae'n ffordd ar hyn yn gwaith, a'r berthynas yn ddiddordeb yn gweithio cyichtlichol o ddaeth ffosiwn 1-0-4-3-5 yn y syniad John Swinney o gweithio'r ffosiwn am y cwmdeithas o clyweddau. Mae'n ddaeth yn ddiddordeb yn cyflawni roedd pwyllgorol y brifysgwyl yn wirsaloedd, asti'r cwmddoch chi'n gweithio'n ddiddordeb. yn ei wneud i'r defnyddio'r debate yn gynhyrch yn dweud yn 7 munud, mysy swynyd. That is the first members' debate that I have led in nearly 17 years. It's not because I've been twiddling my thumbs for some time, but other obligations have prevented me from doing so. I'm delighted that its topic today is a celebration of an initiative that has emerged from one of the wonderful communities that I've had the privilege of representing for over a quarter of a century Dunkelden Burnham, a'r initiative sy'n spredig ar y glob. The climate cafe movement was started in Dunkelden Burnham in 2015, and, like many great things in Scotland, is anchored in the sharing of tea, coffee and cake. Local residents were involved in action to tackle climate change, but increasingly felt that there was more that had to be done. There was a deep concern, which I suspect is now shared even more by people in Scotland today, that individuals felt dwarfed by the scale of the climate crisis and sought a way to work together to make a greater impact on the issue. Many people have been involved in Dunkelden Burnham to establish the climate cafe, a venture that involves people meeting together to plan local action and initiatives. But the leadership to bring it all together was provided by a local community activist, Jess Pepper. Jess is a formidable record in climate action, making a significant contribution to formulating Scotland's approach to tackling climate change and collaborating with the climate reality project, founded by the former US vice-president Al Gore. Her late father, Simon Pepper, was the founding director of WWF Scotland, a pioneer of climate action, and he would be so proud of the pioneering activity that Jess and her family are contributing to this most important of topics. The climate cafe concept has spread throughout Perthshire, with gatherings now held regularly in Blyrgawr in Ratry, Pitlockery, Aberfeldy, Ketyns, Creef and in Perth. One of the greatest joys about this development has been the involvement of so many young people in this work, marked by the establishment of a climate cafe recently in Bredalbon Academy, an encouraging signal of the commitment of our youngest citizens. The concept has spread beyond our county boundaries to other parts of Scotland, including Dundee, Kenrosha, Govan, Lairg, Kelvin, North Berwick and Aberdeen during COP26. Climate cafes took place virtually involving people in Benin, Alaska, India and Mexico. The concept is now spreading widely across the globe, with inquiries coming in thick and fast to the hub in Burnham about establishing climate cafes from the United States to Australia to Finland. Positive initiatives to deliver climate action have been taken as a result of this community dialogue. For example, the Dundee-Kelden-Burnham community collaborated with Scottish Water to encourage local residents to reduce water consumption. This involved thousands, households being given advice and information about simple measures to reduce water use. The outcome was formidable. The small community of Dundee-Kelden-Burnham reduced its water consumption by 1 million litres. The climate cafe has now spawned a food share initiative locally that involves food being collected from local stores at the end of the day and with the support of a substantially expanded list of volunteers, the surplus food has been made available to local residents. The initiative provides assistance to individuals at a time of huge pressure on household incomes but also avoids the unnecessary disposal of perfectly good food and reduces the contribution to landfill as a result. There is now a repair cafe, perhaps modelled on the much-loaded TV programme, that provides a space for the restoration and repair of items that would previously have been replaced with newer versions. The saving of resource and energy is beneficial. Promotion of the work of the cafe is important and there is no greater symbol of this than the local taxi in Dundee-Kelden-Burnham run by the formidable Marion Wallace. Known as a lady taxi driver, Marion drives visitors from the station to the hotels and venues in the village in an electric taxi emblazoned with the branding Dundee-Kelden-Burnham home of the climate cafe. There is just enough time, I am told, on the journey from the station to the village for visitors to hear an explanation from Marion of the importance of climate action and the steps that have been taken locally to put this into effect. The work of the climate cafe in Blair Gowery and Ratry has led to the creation of the HEAT project, which is now an established organisation that has delivered direct energy saving advice to over 700 households in northeastern and Highland Persia, helping to achieve significant savings in energy bills. It is a regular source of free advice for communities across the local area. The thinking behind the climate cafe is to create a space where people of shared interest and common purpose can come together to make community, regional and global connections and to create the political space where this action can be emphatic. I suppose that last component is critical at this moment in time. The political environment in which we are all living just now is so highly charged and intensely contested. Today I want to avoid getting bogged down in why we find ourselves where we do. What I want to do is to make an appeal for us to find the space to have the essential conversations that we must have to deliver the long-term societal change that is necessary to deliver net zero. Without that realistic, urgent discussion and the necessary action that must follow, we run a very high, if not inevitable, risk of failing in the mission to achieve net zero. If we fail in that endeavour, we will have made the sustainability of our planet and the sustainability of our communities very precarious. We must find places where people can be drawn together, barriers broken down and take collective action. We cannot allow ourselves to be dwarfed by the enormity of the challenge. We cannot think that it is the responsibility of somebody else to act. We have all got to be involved. This is the great strength of the climate cafe initiative. It serves as a welcoming forum for all, irrespective of their initial stance or knowledge on climate issues. By cultivating our spirit of unity and building bridges within our communities, it shatters that paralysing belief that, if we cannot do everything, we should do nothing. Instead, it champions the idea that every single step counts and that every individual's action can accumulate into a powerful collective response to the environmental challenges that we face. One of the many thought-provoking projects that were taken forward by the Dunkeld and Burnham climate cafe was to enlist the community in the creation of bunting to be displayed at COP 21 in Paris. Local residents were invited to create images on the theme of love of the planet. One that caught my eye was an oak tree, accompanied by the message for the love of Burnham oak, a reference to the oak tree that was celebrated in Burnham wood in Shakespeare's Macbeth. I think that we are entitled to conclude today that the climate cafe started in Dunkeld and Burnham is a profound example of that old saying from tiny acorns mighty oaks will grow. Thank you, Mr Swinney. For what it's worth, I think you cope admirably with your first member's business debate in 17 years. We now move to the open debate. I call first Graham Simpson to be followed by Alec Riley around four minutes, Mr Simpson. Well, thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. Can I start by congratulating John Swinney for securing his first member's debate in a very long time indeed? I can also thank him for educating me today because I came into this debate not really knowing what a climate cafe was, assuming that it was an actual cafe. Of course, it's not. It is, in fact. What it can be is a series of local projects or forums, as Mr Swinney said, which address environmental concerns. I assume that people who are involved in the movement behind me. Having come into the debate not knowing very much, I have to thank the climate cafe for sending a briefing to us and outlining a number of the really good projects that are around. The one that struck me was the one that was mentioned by Mr Swinney was that heat project in Blegari and Rathrae, which is giving direct energy-saving advice to over 700 households in Perthshire. That seems to me to be a really good example of how the climate cafe movement can work. I accept that it started in Perthshire, but it has expanded. It has gone beyond that. We have had climate cafes COP26 in Glasgow and Aberdeen, but it has gone beyond that. There is one that I see in the briefing that I had in Oregon and elsewhere in the world. Having started off as a bit of a skeptic and thinking that this seems to be a rather vague and woolly idea, I find myself warming to it. If the climate cafe movement wants to get in touch with me and would like to do something in Lanarkshire, I would be very glad to hear from them. Thank you, Mr Simpson. I now call Alex Rowley to be followed by Audrey Nicol around four minutes. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I begin by thanking John Swinney for bringing this member's debate here today. It is interesting that, as politics become increasingly divided—indeed, this Parliament becomes increasingly divided—I find that those member's debates are where you can have more rational discussion about what serious issues are. I had the pleasure this morning to meet Jess Pepper and all the volunteers who are here today, so I learned a lot more about the thinking, engagement and involvement, and a dear old friend I met as well. The school pupils in Aberdeen and the Dunk held a primary school. That age range and involvement in the community is, I think, the right way to go forward, but I think on that point about division. We have seen it even over the past weeks that I never believed that climate would become a dividing issue among political parties, but sadly it is. I often think that it is not about my generation but I have children, I have grandchildren, and it is about their future. How do you tackle that? The more I listened to what was being said, it reminded me when I was a councillor in Fife, and I was quite proud because Fife council got at that point the best in the country for recycling. I actually put that down to the work that had been done in the schools, because the schools had driven that agenda and done a whole load of work about why it was important to recycle, why it was important to have a clean environment, et cetera. I was convinced that they were going home and saying to their parents, so we can recycle, we can do things differently. So I bought them up approach, I think, and eventually if the successes today were to continue at some point you could turf all these politicians out and put people in that will put the issue first rather than party politics or their personal political careers first. As I say, I am delighted to actually be speaking in this. The idea that climate cafes are community led and that local people are able, as Mr Swinney says, have a cup of tea, a biscuit and a chat, then we will be more successful in building a movement to demand climate change. People sometimes will say to me, well, look at China, look at India, how on earth are we in Scotland going to make a difference? My first point will often be, well, it is about leadership. It is about leadership and providing that leadership, and those countries, which are much bigger than ours and have a massive population, China, over a billion and a half, are putting massive investment into renewables. They will come a point where they will turn that corner and they will be making progress. At what point will we still be sitting back and arguing amongst ourselves about the absolutely greatest threat to the future? Discussing with the volunteers this morning, it is also the other things that they can do. Pop-up cafes can take place in schools, churches and pubs, but generating that discussion around climate so that people are less sceptical and more willing to see that they can take action. I also looked at, in Fife, there is Grow West Fife and it is similar to some of the projects that have been described in the briefing that we got, where they have talked about a climate garden and getting people to grow food and the influence that that can have on local authorities, because that allotment movement that is there, local authorities, in my view, can do a lot more. Indeed, the Scottish Government, I believe, could do more. However, I bottom up my approach by getting the resources into communities so that communities can lead. In doing so, this week I highlighted the postcode lottery that there is around Scotland when it comes to electric chargers, and some places have more than others. However, in highlighting that point, I was making the point that we should involve communities in this. Communities will know best where, for example, chargers should be, what can they charge, how to operate them, how to run them and for the benefit of the community. It is this model that leads to that, because they talk about swap shops, where they can reduce food costs and support people. In conclusion, I am very pleased that the debate is here. It needs to be bottomed up. I congratulate everyone who has come along here today and everyone who is involved in the projects, and all the best for the future. I now call Audrey Nicholl to be followed by Mark Ruskell around four minutes. May I also begin today by congratulating John Swinney on bringing forward this debate? It recognises the role of his constituents in establishing the first climate cafe in Scotland, the role that climate cafes play in facilitating conversations and action on climate and how their reach has grown. Having spent much of my childhood living in Perthshire in Stanley with my grandparents, I am very delighted that Dunkeld and Burnham's climate cafe is leading the way. As the motion puts it, climate cafes create a welcoming, inclusive, safe space within a community that is open to everyone to chat and act on climate. I do not need to tell anyone that the north-east is home to a shifting energy industry, therefore the narrative on climate can often be framed within an industrial context, opportunities in green jobs, green industrial development, new infrastructure supporting energy transition. I do not need to tell anyone about the impacts of those changes and how they will often most keenly be felt in communities, employment, businesses and changes to the nature and structure of neighbourhoods. A just transition seeks to ensure that all voices are included in the process of change. Just last week, the Minister for Energy updated the Parliament on the forthcoming energy strategy and just transition plan and stated that, I quote, the views of local communities are of the utmost importance. It is vital that everyone has the opportunity to engage in decisions about future development. Climate cafes are an important and accessible vehicle to make this happen. I want to acknowledge the commitment of Nescan and Aberdeen climate action in bringing people together in the north-east to talk climate and supporting local action groups and projects in the north-east. With some help from Jess Pepper, who has been mentioned already today, I had the pleasure of joining the Aberdeen climate cafe earlier this week, where members heard from the minister for green skills, circular economy and biodiversity, Lorna Slater. They also heard from Skills Development Scotland and from Borders College, and they asked a very wide range of questions covering everything from hydrogen to skills passports to women in STEM careers and what is a circular economy. I cannot talk community participation in the context of climate without acknowledging Professor Tavis Potts, dean for environmental sustainability at Aberdeen University for his work around the social dimensions of climate and energy and his commitment to deepening social participation in the transition in the north-east through climate assemblies and participatory engagement. Of course, the reach of climate cafes goes much further than just local communities. In this regard, I want to thank one of John Swinney's own constituents, a member of the Blair Gowrie climate cafe, who kindly sent me some beautiful photos of St Fittick's Park, a green space in the heart of my constituency and under some threat from industrial development linked to the energy sector. The lovely gesture reflected the wider investment that climate cafe members have in our world beyond their own communities and neighbourhoods. Given the choices that we face about how we live and the legacy that we want to leave our children and grandchildren, climate cafes will continue to play their part in those important community conversations, engagement and action. I look forward to seeing them develop and expand across Scotland. I thank John Swinney for bringing the debate forward today. I now call the final speaker in the open debate, Mark Ruskell, around four minutes. I thank John Swinney for bringing forward the First Members' Debate in 17 years. I was trying to remember what that debate was 17 years ago. I may have even spoken in it, but I think that what is clear is that John Swinney has been a very strong advocate for the communities in his constituency and for community action in his constituency over many years. I am delighted that he has chosen the topic of climate cafes for this Members' Debate, because it is a precious success story that has now spread around the world. I notice that many of the people who have been involved in the climate cafes in Scotland are here in the chamber with us today. Wonderful people have met a number of them who are doing fantastic work in their communities. However, I would also like to pay tribute to Jess Pepper, who has been a simply astonishing climate leader over many, many years in Scotland, following on from the work of her father and a fantastic community activist in Dunkeld and Burnham. I would like to mention another individual, a young woman called Ruby Flatley, who was a young activist who came through the Dunkeld and Burnham climate cafe. At the age of 13, she led and spoke at the huge climate march that took place here in Edinburgh, just ahead of the Paris cop. At the time, she was also running a series of youth projects through the Dunkeld and Burnham climate cafe. I am really pleased to say that I understand that she is still involved in that climate cafe movement today. I welcome Ruby to the Parliament 2016 when she was my nominated local hero at the opening of the Parliament. It is wonderful to see this movement nurture and empower young people. It is clear to me that communities need to be at the heart of climate action. Over the last couple of weeks, we have seen climate action undermined and we have seen conspiracy theories being given a platform at the highest level of UK politics. That need for public discussion, for education, for awareness, for empowerment is so important. I do not think that we can ever take for granted that there is some kind of implicit social licence that comes with climate action. The conversation is going to change over the years. I notice that within Dunkeld and Burnham, for example, there is a very different conversation about the A9 dualling project that has changed over the years. Climate cafes are important for education and are important as a laboratory of ideas for action. I do not know whether Mr Swinney remembers, but he might recall the first agreement between the Scottish Greens and the SNP back in 2007. It is quite a thin one. One thing that we did agree was that there needed to be the establishment of a climate challenge fund to effectively fund and to seed action in communities. It was a very successful fund. It ran for over a decade and now, of course, the Government is investing in climate action hubs to take that action up to the next level, to pull together initiatives on the ground. I noticed that Minister Lorna Slater was announcing a whole range of hubs last week in Stirling, but the point here is that the hubs can only build on what is actually already established on the ground. It is the role of the climate cafes to incubate those new ideas and to get the conversation going that can build that innovation. An excellent example of that that Mr Swinney has already mentioned is the HEAP project in Blair-Garry that emerged from a climate cafe conversation. It emerged from a recognition that those of us who live in rural properties and rural Scotland, heart of HEAP properties, need that support and bespoke advice. That is exactly what the HEAP project has been doing. To the Cabinet Secretary, perhaps in her concluding remarks, I would urge the Government to look at how we can make room within that community climate funding to support that kind of initiative, because it is important to scale up initiatives that are already there on the ground. Even mighty Persia ropes have to grow from acorns, and the important role of the climate cafes here is to seed those ideas around Scotland and around the world that can be built on, scaled up and can really deliver the action that we need to tackle the climate emergency. I hope that this Government can find ways to support and to grow this movement and to inspire future generations of people like Ruby. I thank you very much, Mr Ruskell, and I invite Manny McCallant to respond to the debate, Cabinet Secretary, around seven minutes please. Thank you, Presiding Officer, and it is a pleasure to do so. I think that this discussion today has demonstrated that even in the face of something of the magnitude of the global climate emergency, our people and our communities can have a substantial impact when they get the opportunity to come together and to act. I thank John Swinney for bringing this debate centered on the people and the places and the issues that I know he is so passionate about. After 17 years of doing one or two other things, it is great to have this debate today. I know how thrilled he was to be able to bring it and to bring his constituents to the Scottish Parliament. It is them to whom I am grateful for all the work that they have been doing to date, and I very much look forward to my own visit to John Keldon Burnham Climate Café later this month. I look forward to seeing them all there. Moving towards becoming a net zero nation will require all aspects of Scottish society to embrace significant change. Imposing a one-size-fits-all approach will never create the desired outcomes, nor will it secure people's buy-in to the net zero transition. Instead, it is essential that, as we change, we empower people to develop solutions that are appropriate for them and their local circumstances. That is why I warmly welcome the commitment of those who are involved in climate cafes in providing that safe space for people from all backgrounds and across generations to come together. We know that great things happen when people get the opportunity to do that. Climate cafes in Scotland are led by a network of dedicated volunteers. I am so grateful for their hard work and for John Swinney's continued support of them, which has enabled the network to grow in all the ways that we have heard about today. For my part, I would like Scottish Government to provide more practical support. I have asked my officials to explore with the leaders of the climate cafes ways in which we can do that, including through providing funding. I will discuss more of that with them when I visit them in the coming weeks. Last week, during Scotland's climate week, I got the chance to spend time with the Fountain Bridge Canalside community trust. I was also fortunate enough to visit the incredible children of St Bernaw's primary school in Glasgow, one of the many schools that are supported by our climate action schools programme, which runs its own climate cafe in partnership with the local community. Those groups have done Keldon Burnham climate cafe, alongside those that I am privileged to work with in my constituency, such as the Climate Action Straving, the one-car-look area network, and the passion of the individuals who give up their time and come together to work on those matters. That is a real inspiration for us all. In Scotland, I think that that demonstrates that our communities are uniquely placed to play that really critical role in shaping and driving action. That is why we are putting considerable support behind them. Mark Ruskell was absolutely right to mention the climate action hubs. The programme is designed to enable that really essential collaborative approach to driving behavioural change that we know needs to come and which is not always easy. Last week, he mentioned that we are expanding the network, while a further four climate action hubs were commenced last week for Forth Valley, for Dumfries and Gallery, for Ember Clyde and for Dundee. That brings us to 10 hubs across the country with more proposals being assessed. We have committed to delivering a national network of climate hubs in this year's programme for government, and I believe very strongly and particularly reinforced by my experience of working with them, that those hubs designed by and for our communities will be one of the significant drivers of progress in the climate front in the coming years. Beyond the hub programme, we are supporting action in a number of other ways. Our climate action towns initiative, which is led by architecture and design Scotland, is supporting nine small towns, selected because they had historically been less engaged in climate action and are at particular risk from the impacts of a changing climate. The communities in those towns are being supported to develop local plans, focused on climate action, which give them a voice and help to ensure that the transition as they make it locally is most suited to their needs and their lived experiences. This initiative, now in its third year, has provided learnings that we in government, as well as local authorities, as Alex Rowley rightly identified, and other public bodies can draw on that in the way that we create our policy pathways. We are also supporting partners to build capacity for collective action at local level. The Scottish Communities Climate Action Network, for example, has been supported to lead conversations about climate change in their local areas. In the last financial year alone, 54 new climate conversations facilitators have been trained and conversations held with 400 people across Scotland. That is backed up in many ways by the Scottish Government's plans on public engagement for climate change. Our public engagement strategy clearly sets out three core aims that we hope to enable the people of Scotland to do. Firstly, to understand how climate change relates to their lives. Secondly, importantly, to actively participate in shaping a fair, just and inclusive approach. And lastly, to take action. It is in line with the objectives that members of this chamber will be aware that the Government recently launched the climate engagement fund, which is a half a million pot to support trusted messengers to engage directly with their audiences on the climate emergency. That fund has received a huge amount of interest, as I am sure you can imagine, and we will very shortly publish details of how we plan to allocate that funding. Of course, the reason that we are here, and the reason that the good volunteers of our climate cafes do this work, is because the recent UN stocktake report underlined the urgency of what they called systematic transformation of every aspect of our society. If we are to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, we must be committed to responding to that need and to ensuring that we support households and communities to embrace the quite rapid change that is now required. On that point, and just in conclusion, I would echo the appeal that John Swinney made, that we continue, very proactively and determinately, to find space for those realistic, urgent discussions and the requisite action that will help us to combat climate change, because there can be no greater task than helping to foster a safe, secure and green future for generations to come. The truth is that the Government or business must do the heavy lifting in this regard, but no one person is too small to make a difference in and of themselves. Equally, we are far greater when we come together in our communities, in our cafes and when we work together to make a difference, and I will certainly continue to give all of my support in this role that I am so fortunate to occupy to our climate cafe network in Scotland. Thank you very much, cabinet secretary. That concludes the debate. I encourage Mr Swinney not to wait a further 17 years before bringing his next one, and I suspend this meeting of Parliament until too 30.