Leading public, private partners and environmental groups across the city have come together to bolster local efforts to tackle climate change and help achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions for the city in the next 25 years
The Dundee Climate Leadership Group will provide active leadership on Dundee’s net-zero challenge, leveraging expertise from across the city to engage and inspire collective ownership and a shared commitment to tackling climate change.
The Group will be chaired by Professor Iain Gillespie, Principal of the University of Dundee and Council Leader John Alexander will be Vice-chair.
In 2019, Dundee declared a climate emergency, recognising the serious and accelerating environmental, social and economic challenges faced by climate change.
The pace and scale of transformational change required to meet this challenge will also require collective leadership to support cross-sector collaboration in low carbon innovation, investment, behaviour change and ensuring a green recovery.
The group will also support key actors and collaborations to deliver innovative solutions and projects that support a just transition to a net-zero future for the city.
Professor Iain Gillespie, Principal of Dundee University said: “This group is coming together to drive the city forward and ensure we reduce our carbon footprint.
“The group will support and encourage citizens to change their behaviour, whether improving recycling, hopping on that bike or using the bus instead of the car or getting solar panels, we can all start somewhere.”
“We recently meet for the first-time and I will be ensuring that as a city we move forward together and tackle climate change.”
Vice-chair of the group, Council Leader John Alexander added: “Climate Change is one of the biggest challenges to life as we know it.
“The time to act is now, we must all change and help stop the damage we are doing to our planet.
“As a city we are already making real progress in reducing our carbon footprint, we are leading the electric car revolution and are working with partners to deliver more sustainable transport options in the city.
“Nearly £60 million pounds has been spent by the council to tackle climate change and we will continue to spend on this issue.”
Making Dundee a sustainable city is a key priority for the group and the city will pass through a period of transition from a carbon-based economy to one that plays a leading role on Scotland’s goal to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045 or sooner.
Dundee City Council, DC Thomson, Scottish Gas Networks, Dundee Climate Action Network, University of Abertay, University of Dundee, Michelin Scotland Innovation Parc, Dundee Heritage Trust, Creative Dundee, Scottish Water, Hillcrest Homes and Robertson Group make up this group.
Michelin Scotland Innovation Parc Ltd. (MSIP)
Creating a new future for people, place and planet MSIP is an ambitious joint venture between Dundee City Council, Michelin, and Scottish Enterprise, created to drive growth and diversity in the Scottish economy while addressing the global climate emergency.
University of Dundee
Nobel Prize winning poet and honorary graduate Seamus Heaney has described the University of Dundee as ‘having its head in the clouds and its feet firmly on the ground.’ The ability to be both aspirational and down-to earth and to blend ground-breaking intellectual achievement with practical applications, has given the University its distinctive character.
Abertay University
A modern university with a long history and a clear sense of our distinctive mission, highly regarded for our academic performance in areas with genuine relevance and impact on society and the economy, and with a community of talented students and academics who make us the success we are.
Robertson Construction Tayside
Robertson is a privately owned portfolio of individual companies working in investment, support services and construction throughout the UK.
Hillcrest Homes
Hillcrest Housing Association was established in 1967 and is one of Scotland’s largest Housing Associations. They provide housing and support in Dundee, Edinburgh, Angus, Perthshire and Fife, with over 5500 good quality, well maintained homes at affordable rents. In each area of operation there are local offices with housing advice teams who can provide an immediate response to the customers.
Dundee City Council
Dundee draws skilled workers from a 60-minute catchment population of 640,000 and has a local population of over 140,000. The availability of a large pool of highly skilled labour is a key feature in the Dundee economy. Flexibility in the labour force is currently more prevalent in Dundee than in Scotland as a whole. All forms of labour market flexibility - part-time, temporary employment, self-employment and shift work - are widely operational within the city. Labour force stability in the city is excellent, enabling companies to plan with confidence. Labour turnover levels are less than 5% and absenteeism averages 2%.
D.C. Thomson & Co. Ltd.
DC Thomson & Co Ltd is a private company and is one of the leading media organisations in the United Kingdom. The company publishes newspapers, magazines, comics and books. More recently, DC Thomson has expanded into the internet and digital developments including a major focus on genealogy.
