Other parties ignoring evidence on climate change
Greens have slammed other parties for ignoring the evidence on climate change after they blocked calls to speed up renewable energy and oil and gas decommissioning in a Scottish Parliament debate today (15 Jan 19).
SNP, Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat MSPs voted against Mark Ruskell’s amendment which urged an accelerated energy transition in response to the most recent warnings of catastrophic climate change.
Ruskell, the Scottish Greens environment spokesperson, said that the other parties’ support for maximum extraction of oil and gas is incompatible with the need to cut emissions faster.
Mark Ruskell MSP, said:
“The science is really clear that we can’t achieve the Paris climate commitments unless we leave most of our remaining fossil fuels in the ground. Sadly, the SNP and other parties ignore that evidence when they continue to back multi-billion pound tax breaks for the oil and gas sector.
“That does a huge disservice to the communities whose livelihoods depend on these dying industries. They deserve to hear the truth, no matter how uncomfortable that may be. We need both an urgent and credible response to global climate emergency, which learns from the past and leaves no one behind. It’s a real shame that Scotland’s other parties either can’t see this yet, or are too afraid to speak it.”
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