THIS weekend the SNP have embraced the language of climate leadership, with Humza Yousaf saying, "my government will continue to prioritise the fight against climate change as one of our most important objectives", which is a good start.
But the fact remains that during their time in office they have failed to meet targets on green jobs, failed to create a publicly owned energy company and have missed their emissions targets in eight of the past twelve years.
The just transition they have promised to deliver is yet to materialise. The Scottish Parliament will reconvene this week, and the first item on the agenda is the Programme for Government - a speech from the First Minister that sets out the priorities for the coming parliamentary session.
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Since parliament has been in recess, the scale of the climate crisis has become plain to see. Globally, we’ve seen the hottest days on Earth for 150,000 years. Wildfires are ravaging islands in the Mediterranean.
Soil is at risk of going sterile in the heat, decimating food supplies. Our own Western coast is boiling, killing wildlife we should be protecting. Just this summer we have seen the Scottish Government miss their eighth greenhouse gas emissions target in the past twelve years.
The SNP leadership, during a summer of activism, has not taken the opportunity to definitively oppose Rosebank. Instead Yousaf (below) "remains unconvinced".
Since Yousaf’s ascension to the office of First Minister, he has been clear in his goal to paint the SNP as climate leaders. But the reality is they fail to move beyond rhetoric.
AuditScotland tells us the Scottish Government has not done enough. With their report pointing to gaps in the Scottish Government’s plans for Net Zero and mitigating the impact of climate change.
As young people across the country take action to protect our future, challenging multinational oil corporations, building a vision for a fairer, greener future, we need to ask whether the SNP and the Scottish government are with us or with the oil and gas industry the party has met with over 200 times in the last five years.
Their rhetoric suggests they understand the crisis we’re in. Humza has himself labelled the North Sea a mature basin.
And with continued anti-science, anti-economic, and anti-just transition policies from the Tory government in Westminster, we need to see Holyrood, and the SNP, offer a different vision. A Green New Deal for Scotland would lift people out of poverty, create a new renewable industrial revolution for our communities in the Northeast, provide affordable housing and functioning public transport.
The SNP has been vocal this past week that climate change is a serious threat today. We need to see policy that reflects the scale of this crisis.
Without clear action on the climate crisis, we cannot take seriously the continued rhetoric of "climate leadership".This Tuesday’s Programme for Government speech is the perfect opportunity. We need to see a speech filled with radical policy and a clear vision for a Scotland that takes its climate commitments seriously.
Before the summer, the Scottish Government’s Energy Transition Strategy was painted as a hallmark of how serious the SNP are taking the climate emergency. While it’s great to see the government plan for the future, the response from NGOs, universities, and campaign groups shows a clear problem for the current iteration of this strategy.
Unison writes that we must have public ownership of energy production. The Centre for Energy Policy writes that "much is yet to transpire around how increasingly ambitious plans to transition rapidly away from oil and gas will map to the transition of the workforce". Without the policy or detail to back these claims, they stay in the realm of just talk.
This Programme for Government speech must include a clear commitment to reject new oil and gas licences. This includes actually taking a position on Rosebank. We must see work done to finally bring in a public energy company that was promised back in 2017, both driving the move to renewable energy and cutting bills for millions of Scots.
Finally, we need to see a genuine pathway to a green jobs guarantee, with legally binding targets set to meet the commitments promised by 2030.
We have seen movement by the Scottish Government in recent weeks. Humza Yousaf has made clear he’s not afraid to annoy people as he aims to be bolder on Scotland’s climate commitments. He has also, finally, spoken out on Rosebank - only going as far to say he is unconvinced by its climate compatibility and effects on energy security.
The climate movement is slowly seeing victories in convincing the government it needs to do more to address the climate crisis. The big test for the SNP will be next week's Programme for Government announcement.
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Anything less in this speech is a failure of leadership, and yet another missed opportunity to create that fairer, greener Scotland the SNP are desperate to paint.
As we wait for the priorities of the SNP, young people are terrified for our future. About growing up and living through the greatest crisis we have faced. We are not talking about future predictions, or scare stories, but the state of the planet today. This is the beginning of the climate breakdown.
Every year we waste, election we squander, and promise y reneged on is another nail in the coffin for our generation.
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