Scottish Greens: we are only just getting started
Scottish Greens co-leaders Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater have told party conference the party is only just getting started when it comes to tackling the climate emergency from the position of government.
Thanks to a cooperation deal between the Scottish Government and the Scottish Greens, the party co-leaders have been ministers in government for just over a month.
In that time, they have started building a new deal for tenants, published a major strategy for decarbonising buildings and announced a major review of incineration.
This weekend marks the first time a Green party conference has taken place from a position of government in UK history.
Patrick Harvie said: “We are only just getting started. Our shared programme in government is about creating a green recovery from the pandemic, one that tackles the climate emergency.”
In her speech, Lorna Slater said:
“As we meet this weekend we can do so with more than just hope - we can do it with the knowledge that the policies we discuss can change the lives of people across our country. The agreement that we negotiated will deliver real and positive change for our climate and our communities.
“It will build on the vital changes that we have already secured. In the last term alone, Green MSPs secured progressive taxation, a pay rise for public sector workers, hundreds of millions of pounds for local authorities, free school meals for all primary age children and free bus travel for everyone under 22. It is a record we are very proud of and one that we are taking even further.
”We are putting the climate at the heart of government. But it’s not just environmental justice that we need to deliver, it is also social justice.
“These are the changes that can only happen with Greens in government. They are changes that will make a difference to people's lives, and they are changes that we are very proud to be delivering.”