Scotland’s Parliament has played a key role in addressing climate justice. In March 2012, the Scottish Parliament through a unanimous motion became the first legislative body in the world to explicitly recognize and support the concept of climate justice:
“The Scottish Parliament strongly endorses the opportunity for Scotland to champion climate justice, which places human rights at the heart of global development, ensuring a fair distribution of responsibilities and welcomes the Scottish Government’s commitment to ensuring respect for human rights and action to eradicate poverty and inequality, which are at the heart of Scotland’s action to combat climate change both at home and internationally and strengthening Scotland’s support for developing countries on climate change as part of Scotland’s international profile.”
In 2012, the Scottish Government launched a £3 million Climate Justice Fund to support the development of water adaptation projects in four African countries: Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania and Zambia. At the end of 2013, the Government launched a second £3 million Climate Justice Fund. According to the Government, the second round of funding should “address specific climate justice principles through a human-rights based approach: approaches which empower vulnerable groups in decision-making and access to resources and realising their rights – through inclusion, equality, transparency, participation, and information – and so delivering climate resilience, strengthening civic society, alleviating poverty, and benefiting the wider environment.” The Scottish Government’s website lists successful projects financed by the Fund. For example, one project in Zambia helped poor farmers, especially women, adapt to the effects of climate change by building their resilience to more frequent and extreme droughts and floods, securing their rights to water, sanitation and hygiene services, and improving their food production.
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx?SearchType=Advance&ReferenceNumbers=S4M-02156.2&ResultsPerPage=10; http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Environment/climatechange; http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Environment/climatechange/climatejusticefund/ProjectMonitoring/SuccessfulProjects.