Scottish Government climate bill must go further and faster
The Scottish Government’s climate action must go further and faster if the new Climate Change Bill is to gain Green support, says Scottish Green Co-leader Patrick Harvie following its publication today.
The bill, which will amend 2030 climate targets that the UK Climate Change Committee has said are unachievable, can only be supported if there is real and accelerated climate action now instead of waiting till the end of the parliamentary session as the Government plans.
Mr Harvie said:
“We urgently need to go further and faster and show a scale of ambition that meets the scale of the crisis we face. At present, the Government isn’t doing that, and nothing in this bill will make them speed up.
“The Bill proposes new carbon budgets but does not include a robust timescale by which they would be produced or by which the government’s new climate plan will be published. Without those timescales we can have no certainty of the rapid progress that’s needed.
“At a time when the Scottish Government is belatedly recognising that Scotland is years behind where we should be on climate, we will have come through almost an entire parliamentary term with no credible climate plan – precisely the opposite of the accelerated action we need.“It is action that matters. In the last few weeks alone, the Scottish Government has raided renewable energy funding, cut nature restoration, removed investment in walking, wheeling and cycling and hiked up rail fares. None of this suggests that they grasp the severity of the crisis we are in.
“There must be an immediate acceleration of action, as set out in bold and ambitious proposals that the Scottish Greens have published this week. Only if the Government commits now to those kinds of actions, can we support this Bill.”
This week, the Scottish Greens published The Climate Reset, a policy paper that lays out the party’s proposals, including plans to decarbonise transport by scrapping the reintroduction of peak rail fares and diverting funding from its climate-wrecking plans to dual the whole A96 into public transport.
The paper also calls for a real and urgent transition plan for the energy sector, urging the Scottish Government to maintain its presumption against new oil and gas exploration while rejecting the proposed expansion of the gas-fuelled power station at Peterhead.
With demands for the groundbreaking Heat in Buildings Bill to be introduced in the Autumn to deliver warmer, greener homes and record funding for Scotland’s nature, it is a positive and ambitious plan to cut carbon emissions and put Scotland on track to meet its climate obligations.