The Scottish Parliament's think-tank
22 April 2024 Scotland aims to achieve ‘net zero’ by 2045, but the Scottish Government announced, in April, that the interim 2030 target is unreachable highlighting the significant challenges ahead. By bringing together MSPs and…
Read More
How are parliaments changing to respond to the climate and biodiversity emergencies? How are they supporting their elected members to deal with the issues..
Malini Mehra, chief executive of GLOBE International, joins parliamentarians in the COP pavilion to provide an update on how conference negotiations are going.
This event in October 2023 explored how we can use our land to underpin food security, maintain sustainable communities, & meet climate & biodiversity targets
What can be done to tackle the giants of 21st century poverty? This seminar in August 2023 with the David Hume Institute and Professor Danny Dorling explored whether Scotland is providing some answers.
How can Scotland create fair and sustainable communities? This Festival of Politics debate in August 2023 explored the role of and future for our land in Scotland.
With Scotland facing the challenges of a climate emergency and rising inequality, this seminar in June 2023 explored business purpose and making a good living.
With Scotland facing the challenges of a climate and ecological emergency, rising inequality and an ageing population, this seminar in April 2023 explored the idea of a just transition.
With Scotland facing the challenges of a climate and ecological emergency, rising inequality and an ageing population, this seminar in February 2023 explored the idea of a wellbeing economy
This report uses events at COP26 to identify a pathway for Parliaments in tackling the climate and biodiversity emergencies.
This COP26 event asked parliamentarians, advisers, citizens & academics to explore how Parliaments must evolve in the context of a Code Red for humanity.
Online discussion from September 2021: What does a sustainable Scotland look like? How can we build a society that works for all our citizens? What changes do we need to make as individuals?
18 August 2021 – Online seminar with Scotland’s Climate Assembly: How should Scotland change to tackle the climate emergency in an effective and fair way?
Wednesday 5 February 2020, at the Scottish Parliament What jobs will there be in a net zero Scotland? With a climate emergency to respond to while new technology pushes at boundaries and disrupts our lives,…
Scotland’s sparsely-populated areas are predicted to lose a quarter of their population by 2046, with the working age population likely to shrink by 33%. At the same time, the challenge of enabling the development that…
Seminar in April 2019 with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) looking at science, policy and solutions on a global scale. Features a podcast.
This seminar in September 2018 used Nourish Scotland’s vision of a sustainable food system in 2030 to prompt a discussion on food in Scotland. Features video of presentations and report.
Are autonomous vehicles the future? How well developed are they already, what is likely to happen next, and how can Scotland exploit the opportunities they present? Scotland’s Futures Forum was delighted to work with Ivan…
On 4 July 2018, the Futures Forum held a seminar on the opportunities for Glasgow from the development of autonomous vehicles. Hosted by Glasgow City Council and produced in conjunction with Jacobs and Glasgow Chambers…
On 21 June 2018, Scotland’s Futures Forum hosted a seminar on the opportunities and challenges presented by the development of autonomous vehicles. A panel discussion chaired by Gail Ross MSP, Deputy Convener of the Rural…
By Dr Steph Smith, Scotland’s Rural College and @ScienceSeaweed Humans are curious creatures. Not in the sense that we are random assemblages of cells which share about 50% of our DNA with a banana; but curious…
A healthy society and culture depends on a healthy environment. This project explores how Scotland’s environment might change over the coming years and how our relationship with it will and should change at the same…
By Eleanore Widger, University of Dundee and @Nell Widger Earlier this year the Scottish Gamekeepers Association (SGA) and Mountaineering Scotland made an unlikely alliance in opposition to government plans to plant thousands of new trees. According to the…
As part of the Scotland 2030 Programme, and on the basis that a strong society and economy can exist in the long term only if the environment – land, air and water – are functioning…
By Eleanore Widger, University of Dundee and @NellWidger A curious thing happened in Scotland during the Romantic period: vast numbers of tourists from Britain, Europe and elsewhere used new road networks and steam packet routes to access the…
By Eleanore Widger, University of Dundee and @NellWidger 13 April 2017 Something has troubled me as I’ve progressed through my internship thinking about Scotland’s relationship to landscape. My research background in the Environmental Humanities has taught me to be…
By Eleanore Widger, University of Dundee and @NellWidger I began my last post by describing the view from my Futures Forum desk. Looking past my computer towards Arthur’s Seat and Salisbury Crags, I received what Neal Ascherson describes…
In early March 2011, Scotland’s Futures Forum along with Edinburgh Beltane hosted two seminars to consider the findings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh’s report ‘Facing up to climate change: breaking the barriers to a…
A scenario project from 2010 examining what sustainable communities might look like in Scotland in 2030. Features report and scenarios video.
Futures Forum seminar in March 2010 on realising a low carbon economy. Key messages include a lack of systemic policy making and Scotland’s unique opportunities
A futures discussion paper on the National Trust for Scotland produced in 2010 for the Reid Review.