THE SNP have dismissed claims by a Tory MSP that Scotland is the "ashtray of Europe" as "just hot air".

Maurice Golden MSP made the claim at an International Question Time event run by Scotland's International Development Alliance.

He was part of a panel that also included the SNP's Jenny Gilruth MSP, Labour's Katy Clark and LibDem MSP Liam McArthur.

The panel was answering a question from Maurice Kwizera, the director of Water Aid in Rwanda.

Kwizera asked the panel Scottish Government funding that had helped projects in his country and whether the panel would continue to provide funding.

The SNP's Gilruth described a decision by the UK to cut foreign aid by hundreds of millions of pounds during the pandemic as "deplorable". She added that the same week the Scottish Government announced more funding for partner countries in the fight against Covid-19.

She also mentioned that the COP26 climate conference in November will be a great opportunity for Scotland to showcase some of Scotland's world-leading approaches to climate change.

Golden began by talking about UK Government aid pledges and comparing the current Tory government's pledged foreign aid to that of the previous Labour administration.

He went onto talk about COP26.

He said: "I want Scotland to be a showcase for expertise - a place that global communities look to to see how to implement climate change policies. But unfortunately what we've seen is a litany of failures on climate change from recycling targets in 2013 still not met today - in fact our recycling rate is lower now than it was in 2016.

"We ship out three tonnes of waste every minute out of Scotland, and incineration has gone up 400%, making Scotland the ashtray of Europe. Add onto that biodiversity targets not being met and you really have an embarrassing situation and, I think, the next Scottish Government must step up to match ambitious targets with ability to meet those."

The Scottish Government has set ambitious environmental targets across the board such as one in 2011 to meet 100% of energy demands from renewable sources.

At the time, renewable technologies generated just 37% of national demand.

It was revealed last week that this target was missed by just 2.6% as the equivalent of 97.4% of Scotland’s gross electricity consumption came from renewable sources in 2020.

The SNP has described Golden's claims as "hot air" due to Scotland outperforming the UK on major environmental targets.

An SNP spokesperson said: "This is just hot air from the Tories. Scotland has consistently outperformed the rest of the UK when it comes to cutting our carbon emissions - and the SNP Government has set world-leading targets, meaning Scotland is an international example as we look to welcome the world to Glasgow for COP26.

"Scotland is also leading the way in achieving net-zero by 2045, more ambitious than the Westminster target of 2050. Just this week it was confirmed that 97% of Scotland's electricity was generated from renewable sources.

"The SNP continues to set out ambitious plans to reduce Scotland's emissions, including 100,000 homes with sustainable heating, making our meat and food production more sustainable and legislation to restore Scotland's peatland.

"As the Tories continue to talk Scotland down we will talk it up."