Guest blog: Tackling the climate crisis and poverty together

Becky Kenton-Lake, Coalition Manager at Stop Climate Chaos Scotland (SCCS), shares insights from a recent event jointly hosted by SCCS and the Poverty Alliance, where climate and poverty campaigners came together to discuss the critical links between these two pressing issues, and how we build greater connections. 

It's clear that the conversation around the connections between climate action and poverty reduction has been gaining momentum, and this meeting couldn't have come at a more crucial time, with the 2026 elections on the horizon and the increasing division and misinformation we’re witnessing. To our networks it’s clear that both the causes, the impacts and the actions we need to address them, are inextricably linked, and this session was a very welcome opportunity to bring climate and poverty campaigners together to share experiences, discuss solutions, and build connections. 

The introductions gave a clear overview of the connections between the crises. Poverty is being exacerbated by climate impacts and people are missing out on the warmer homes, secure jobs and better health that climate action should bring. climate change hits the poorest the hardest, both globally and in Scotland. Areas with high deprivation often overlap with areas vulnerable to flood and heat risks, as highlighted through the Climate Ready Clyde project. Meanwhile, climate change is disproportionately caused by the wealthiest. Oxfam research shows that globally, the richest 1% emit as much pollution in minutes as two-thirds of humanity do in a year. In Scotland, Future Economy Scotland have found that the richest 5% of households emit four times more than the poorest 5%.

In the group discussion, several themes emerged about the ways action can be delivered to address both climate and poverty:

• As Satwat Rehman of One Parent Families Scotland reminded us at the start of the day: you can’t retrofit justice. A well-planned and funded Just Transition means that as the economy changes there are opportunities for new employment and training, so that no workers or communities are left behind.  
• It’s not tweaks that we need - these crises require deep structural changes to address them in a meaningful way.
• It’s only fair that those with the most financial resources contribute more to address the climate crisis and build a more equal society. The funds are there; we need to use all the levers available to us to raise these, and make the wealthy and biggest polluters pay their fair share. 
• Action to insulate and decarbonise how we heat our homes is vital for improving our health, reducing energy bills, and meeting climate targets. 
• Reducing our reliance on volatile fossil fuel markets, and de-linking gas and electricity prices, is crucial to prevent energy bills continuing to consume a significant portion of incomes.
• On transport, the single biggest source of emissions, we have a huge opportunity to make greener choices easier and cheaper while also reducing living costs and opening up new social and employment opportunities. 

Critically, many participants felt that the information about these is often not available, or not clear, and that those who want to delay action on climate or poverty take this opportunity to get their messages out and pit them against each other. Just the day before the event, we heard a suggestion from Nigel Farage to scrap the UK’s net zero targets to fund the removal of the two-child benefit cap—a stark example of pitting poverty and climate against each other as if they are mutually exclusive. 

There is also concern about losing political support and lack of action to meet targets. Despite setting rightly ambitious targets for reducing emissions by 2030, which SCCS and others campaigned hard for over many years, a lack of action since then resulted in these being scrapped last year. Poverty campaigners were watching this with concern.

Although the FM still claims climate is one of his top 4 priorities, politicians increasingly think climate action is a vote loser, and there has been a rise of misinformation and anti net zero rhetoric in the media and politics.  

However, it’s important to note that this doesn’t show up in polls about public support. Climate Outreach research shows that two thirds of people in Scotland want to maintain or speed up progress towards net zero and that it will be mostly good or very good for Scotland, this is at risk climate action is fair in practice and perception. To bolster the public mandate, the speed and fairness of climate action must go hand-in-hand; urgency cannot justify injustice, because injustice will undermine the speed of action. If people feel the transition is being done to them rather than with them – and that its costs and benefits are unfairly distributed – public support will erode and the success of the transition will be jeopardised. 

What happens next

SCCS will continue working to highlight the links between climate and poverty and advocating for policies that address both - this is a key priority in our 2025-2027 strategy. We will be supporting the Scotland Demand’s Better march in October - a key opportunity to publicly show the connections between our movements. 

In particular, we will be focusing on how to fairly raise the funds needed for climate action and to reduce poverty, building on the examples of ways to do this in our Financing Climate Justice report and continuing to support the Tax Justice Scotland campaign, which seeks a fairer tax system to contribute to climate action, reduce inequality, and shape behaviours. We will also be highlighting that the longer we wait to invest, the more it’ll cost in the long term, as shown in the Royal Scottish Geographic Society’s latest report.

Scotland’s climate targets being scrapped showed that it’s action that matters - targets and rhetoric are meaningless without a clear plan for delivery, cross party support, and a clear public mandate. SCCS aimed to show the action needed with our Climate Manifesto, containing over 100 policies that would reduce emissions and deliver a JT, and we need to be better at holding politicians to account when they don’t deliver. 

We know that it’s not enough, and doesn’t cut through, to talk about climate, poverty, or other crises on their own. It’s essential to highlight the links between them, and the shared solutions, so we don’t exacerbate one by trying to solve the other. SCCS will be making these links in our upcoming manifesto for the 2026 elections, ensuring that we are advocating for policies that both reduce emissions and tackle poverty - and we will work with Poverty Alliance and others to ensure our policy asks and campaigns are informed by people with lived experience of poverty and other injustices. 

SCCS is working to build a diverse, and strong movement for change by working with as many diverse organisations as possible. Our diversity is our strength, shows the connections and the overwhelming demand for action. If you’re not a member, please consider joining!

Let’s continue this discussion and work together to create a just and sustainable future.