THE year 2045 condemns us to a bleak future. We may as well not have a target at all. Others are already dying around the world thanks to inaction and far-off target setting.

Days after “declaring” a climate emergency, Nicola Sturgeon has accepted the advice of the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) – which she was always going to do.

Following the CCC’s advice is not going far enough. This report was written in a world before the International Rebellion, before the school strikes. Before David Attenborough’s sobering documentary Our Planet.

Thanks to the hard work and dedication of activists in Extinction Rebellion the climate youth strikers and every organisation that has been sounding the alarm on climate breakdown for years, the climate and ecological emergency is finally beginning to get the attention it requires.

Public understanding of the existential threat of climate change has begun to shift. Climate emergencies are being declared, with Nicola Sturgeon referencing one in her SNP party conference speech.

The committee’s report gives us only a 50% chance of staying within 1.5°C, even if we follow all its recommendations. This is reckless. Because of the colossal shift in public attitudes within the last fortnight, it is now politically realistic to push much harder towards a date far closer to 2025 than to 2045.

We have three key demands as a movement, the first of which is that the Scottish Government tell the truth about the climate and wider ecological emergency. Secondly, acknowledge and reverse any inconsistent policies that help drive the climate crisis, and, thirdly, commit to enabling a rapid and just transition to a sustainable and fair society.

So, whilst the Scottish Government (or at least the party which forms that government) have told the “truth” by saying that there is a climate emergency, they now must act like it. The SNP and the Scottish Government can no longer champion the oil and gas industry and welcome every new oil field find. Fossil fuels must stay in the ground and money must be invested into a just transition. It is time to stop thinking about what is “feasible” – now is the time to do what is necessary. We are at a pivotal moment for human civilisation. We say: “We choose to save our home, the Earth.”

It is dangerous for the First Minister to claim that Scotland is a world leader when it comes to climate breakdown, while supporting policies that continue to embed fossil fuels into our economy. By painting Scotland as “leaders” we lower the bar for other countries and normalise insufficient action.

Business as usual is what got us into this crisis, and it cannot continue. It threatens our very existence on this planet.

Yet, that’s what the current government plans involve – nice-sounding targets for the future, but business as usual in the meantime. The Scottish Government have said they will amend the Climate Bill which is currently going through Parliament to keep it line with the recommendations of the CCC. However, this report also follows a business-as-usual model which passes the burden – and the hardships – of climate breakdown not only to future generations through extensively relying on techno fixes which don’t yet exist, but on to the shoulders of the least developed nations. If Scotland doesn’t take on responsibility for what is needed to reach 1.5°C, how can we can’t expect other countries to? We must do our fair share, and trust that others will follow.

Setting far-off goals is not something you do if you believe there is an emergency. The Scottish Government is giving the impression that things will be OK by 2045 and in the mean time we can continue to allow large corporations to put us all at peril for the sake of profit.