Government red tape depletes climate funds and erodes trust in communities, says SNP minister

Governments should cut red-tape when awarding climate funding to ensure communities get value for money, according to the cabinet secretary for net zero and energy in Scotland.

Speaking at Climate Week NYC Gillian Martin, the Scottish Government’s acting net zero minister, said governments need to consider better ways to invest directly in communities tackling climate resilience or natural disaster recovery to make the most of the public funds available.

“We’ve got to look at the areas where getting funding directly to communities has actually worked,” she said. 

“If we put lots of administrative processes in place to administer the funding we are diminishing the value of funding, as there are administrators that have to be paid. The level of funding that makes it down goes down the more administrative layers [there are].

“We need to act in a way that the funding that is there is deployed quickly and […] we need to establish trust with those communities.”

She also said governments needed to show their commitment through action not words to encourage financial investment from the private sector.

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Martin said: “If governments are putting money in […] that shows that there’s a system in place, that money is actually going to be going to communities and we can be […] offering the opportunity to match fund what governments are doing and maximize their development too.”

She said Scotland is uniquely placed within the UK and Europe to attract this private capital for climate investment for several reasons.

“We’re able to sequester a great deal of the UK’s carbon in our peatlands and improve our biodiversity. We actually probably have more potential than any country in the UK to do that,” said Martin

“We also have got the opportunity in carbon capture and storage, because there are empty wells out in the North Sea that can be utilised.”

Earlier in the session, Serena McIlwain, secretary, Maryland Department of the Environment, said it was vital to considered new ways to attract private investment.

She said: “In Maryland we are also looking at green bonds. That’s important, because companies want to invest in climate climate change and climate projects, banks are ready to do that. So that’s another area to look at, how do you can utilise those bonds.”

Green bonds are a type of fixed-income investment used to fund projects with a positive environmental impact. Like traditional bonds, green bonds offer investors a stated return and a promise to use the proceeds to finance or refinance sustainable projects, either in part or whole.