General Election 2024 / Conor Savage

Conor Savage

Conor Savage

Conor is a sustainable finance expert and early career polar and marine scientist from Edinburgh. Although Edinburgh-based, Conor will be delighted to come and live in the constituency if elected.

He has valuable experience in environmental, social and governance (ESG) activity within the finance sector, covering key topics such as climate change, the biodiversity crisis, and human rights.

He is an ESG programme manager with Sainsbury’s, where he is responsible for the development and delivery of Sainsbury’s Bank’s ESG strategy. Before this, Conor was a climate reporting manager with NatWest Group, where he provided advice and technical expertise on climate, nature, and other sustainability-related policy.

Conor has an academic background in marine biology, completing both a BSc and MSc at Bangor University, specialising in the impacts of climate change on the Arctic, and how it adversely affects the sea ice-reliant and sea ice-associated species that inhabit it.

Whilst Conor now works in the finance sector, he continues to volunteer with many organisations involved in the polar and marine fields. This includes but is not limited to the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists, the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology, the UK Polar Network, and the United Nations Ocean Decade for Sustainable Development via the Early Career Ocean Professionals Programme.

These volunteer roles have taken Conor up into the Arctic and to partake in international conferences shaping the future of the world’s polar regions and oceans. He attended an Arctic Sharing Circle where he stayed with indigenous Saami people learning about their history, culture, and language in Inari and Sevettijärvi in far northern Finland last year.

Additionally, he spoke at the 2024 Ocean Decade conference in Barcelona earlier this year about his extensive experience with capacity development, having a strong track record of delivering training to both academic and industry non-expert audiences.

His priorities for Orkney and Shetland are:

• Tackling the cost of living crisis and offering real help with the cost of food and energy.
• Improving transportation links between and within Orkney, Shetland, and the mainland via ferries, fixed links, and flights. It’s crucial for there to be effective links, as it has a significant impact on ensuring the connectivity of the islands, growing the local economy, and safeguarding the well-being of residents and communities.
• Ensuring affordable housing in Orkney and Shetland so that young people are not forced out of their communities by rising prices.
• Campaigning for greater support to the NHS locally to tackle problems such as GP recruitment for remote communities.
• Balancing the development of offshore wind with safeguarding Orkney and Shetland’s fishing industry. Success will depend upon a collaborative approach with all stakeholders, including local communities, fully involved, and engaged with support, access to advice and scientific evidence and independent scrutiny.
• Securing skilled and sustainable jobs for local people – including incentivising young people to work in agriculture and maximising forward-looking opportunities such as the recently approved SaxaVord Spaceport.

Conor has said: “People here, across Scotland, and all over the UK are demanding change.

“We are being let down by two failing governments. Only a Labour government, with Labour MPs here in Scotland, can deliver the change our country needs.”