SNP close down key environmental watchdog
For immediate release 25 November 2010
Greens slammed the decision by SNP Ministers, announced today in a written Parliamentary answer, that they will scrap the Sustainable Development Commission (SDC) in Scotland, the official environmental watchdog tasked with scrutinising the Scottish Government's environmental credentials. (1) In May this year, for example, the SDC criticised the Scottish Government for "making poor progress on its sustainability targets".
Patrick Harvie MSP said:
"It's depressing but unsurprising to hear that the SNP have axed the Sustainable Development Commission. After all, this is a government which remains hooked on dwindling oil supplies and committed to a gargantuan road-building programme. No other body has had the institutional clout of the SDC, and SNP Ministers were no doubt tired of having their many failings pointed out.
"The SDC served as Scotland's vital environmental watchdog, and the SNP should be ashamed of themselves for unceremoniously putting it down in this way. They cannot close down the debate, though, and everyone in Scotland's environmental movement will now have to redouble their efforts to keep Ministers honest."