The meetings comes after recommendations were sent to ministers last year.

Scotland’s Climate Assembly will scrutinise the Scottish Government’s response to their environmental recommendations as the group meets for the final time. 

Last year, the assembly set out 16 goals and 81 recommendations for how Scotland should tackle the climate emergency in a fair and effective way. 

The Scottish Government published its response in December, including a foreword by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and a range of actions it now intends to take in response to the Climate Assembly’s work.

Members voted to meet for an eighth time in order to assess the response from the government in detail.

Scotland’s Climate Assembly contains over 100 members broadly representative of the country in terms of age, gender, household income, ethnicity, geography, rurality, disability, and attitude towards climate change.

The assembly heard from over 100 speakers and spent more than 60 hours learning and deliberating the evidence, to find common ground on how Scotland can tackle the climate emergency in a fair and effective way.

The report, published in June 2021, sets out 81 recommendations agreed by an overwhelming consensus of members for tackling the climate emergency in a fair and effective way. 

These recommendations cover a broad range of issues including domestic heating, emissions, environmental impact in public procurement, land use and agriculture, taxation, transport and the economy.

Co-convenor Ruth Harvey said: “The Assembly’s recommendations offer a programme of cutting edge policies that come from Scotland’s people, are centred around fairness, and are on a scale and ambition demanded by the climate crisis.

“We believe it is important for members to have an opportunity to shape the legacy of their hard work so that it has the greatest impact, not just on this government response, but on Scotland’s path to net zero for years to come.”

The Assembly’s recommendations for action found broad support across the country, with charities and campaigners among them.  

Scotland’s Civic Charter on Climate showed backing from the likes of the University of Aberdeen, City of Edinburgh Council, Oxfam Scotland, Iona Community, John Muir Trust, Rock Rose Gin, National Express, Scotland’s national makar Kathleen Jamie, and bestselling crime writer Val McDermid. 

As in previous sessions, members will be supported in assessing the government response by members of the Children’s Parliament.

Co-convenor Josh Littlejohn said: “A lot has happened since members voted to return for an eighth weekend, and it’s a great credit to them that despite everything else that’s going on, there’s still a real enthusiasm to commit time to advocate for their work.

“We’re excited to get everyone back together – the members, the evidence group, the children – for what we feel is an important step in democratising climate action, and bringing added accountability and transparency to the assembly process.”