THE climate emergency is real, and it will require significant changes to our society in order to tackle it.

I often get asked if people can be convinced of the changes that are needed for this, but honestly, I don’t think that that is the problem. We know from surveys that the climate crisis is an urgent concern for people. It isn’t so much a matter of politicians persuading the people, but more one of the people persuading the politicians.

Most political parties depend on donations from the very wealthy and from vested interests like big landowners or the oil and gas industries. So they fear not the impact of climate-friendly policies on voters, but on their income streams.

In truth, policies to tackle the climate emergency will improve most people’s lives, not the millionaires hoarding their wealth offshore or those who want to keep large parts of Scotland as ecological deserts so that they can murder grouse for fun.

The Scottish Greens’ Rail for All proposals are an example of exactly the sort of policy that I mean. Reliable, affordable rail services that connect all points of our country would not only reduce emissions and air pollution, but also provide a massive boost to our economy. Building and operating the system would create well-paid sustainable jobs. Connecting our rural areas will allow a flourishing of the countryside.

When the people of Scotland can move about cheaply and safely to work, study, care for and visit friends and relatives, to shop, to enjoy our tourist attractions, we all benefit.

Our £22 billion plan, led by our brilliant Highlands and Islands MSP John Finnie, is designed to improve the entire network and bring it up to the standards of leading European countries. It would create new jobs, make travelling around Scotland easier for all of us, bring our railways into public ownership and drive down Scotland’s dangerously high transport emissions.

The rail network as it is is suffering from decades of under-investment, and the fact is that many journeys take longer in 2021 than they did in Victorian times.

Our plan upgrades our ageing network and increases capacity on lines such as the Highland Line to reduce journey times and allow for freight to be taken off our roads. This is important because rail freight showed itself to be resilient throughout the pandemic, and a continued shift in freight from road to rail will substantially reduce carbon emissions and ease congestion on the road network.

Our plans would also open many new stations in places such as St Andrews, Peterhead and Cumnock. And we need our bus network to work with our rail network, not against it. That’s why we propose a seamlessly integrated bus service linking our remote communities to their nearest stations.

READ MORE: Forth rail tunnel part of Greens’ £22bn rail revolution blueprint

Glasgow would see redoubling of single-track local lines and better links south, including a high-speed bypass from Carstairs, cutting journey times to Kilmarnock and Carlisle.

Yes, this is a bold proposal. We’re not going to make any apologies for that. Scotland continues to miss its climate targets and transport is a major factor in that. We don’t have the time to waste years and billions of taxpayers’ money on adding more and more lanes to our motorways, a measure which has never worked to cut congestion and is proven to increase pollution.

It is urgent that we reverse the increase in transport emissions in a way that makes public transport accessible and affordable for all. We can’t wait for the private sector to deliver that, or for technology that hasn’t been developed yet like electric passenger planes.

Our Rail for All plan is based on existing technologies. We have the solutions to act now.

Only the Scottish Greens have proposed the kind of bold infrastructure investment which would be completely routine in a normal European country.

Countries like the Netherlands have integrated, low-carbon transport networks. Scotland can have this too.

It was particularly satisfying to see railway engineers take to Twitter to praise our plans. One said it was “bold and technically literate”; another said it was “sensible” and “deliverable”.

The other things they have pointed out is that it is eminently affordable. In fact, the whole thing costs a quarter of the High Speed 2 line being built in England and offers far more benefits.

It is important to be clear about the difference between spending and investing. This proposal is an example of a sound investment – for every pound invested, Scotland will gain £1.60 of benefit.

How can we not do this? We don’t need to stay stuck in short-term thinking, we can have an ambitious long-term vision of the kind of Scotland that we want. A project that creates jobs, boosts the economy, makes travel easier and will help us to prevent climate catastrophe, is an obvious one for us to take on.

It’s time to go Green.