Lorna Slater: Labour's Green pledge U-turn is total climate cowardice

None of his colleagues are even pretending that he has done it for any valid economic or scientific reason. It was a purely political decision based on attacks from a Tory government that the vast majority of people have long stopped listening to.

Coming on the same day as climate experts revealed that average global temperatures have breached the critical 1.5C safe threshold for the first time, it was nothing short of climate cowardice in the face of the greatest environmental crisis we will ever face.

Last week Scotland’s First Minister, Humza Yousaf (above), hosted a summit of party leaders at Bute House to talk about Scotland’s climate ambitions and the urgent need to work together. This is the collaborative leadership we need when it comes to the climate crisis.

We began with a compelling and sobering presentation by the outgoing chair of the UK Climate Change Committee, Chris Stark, which spelt out the severity of the crisis and the need for ambitious and united action in Scotland and across the UK.

Anas Sarwar sat with the rest of us, listening to the warnings while Mr Stark laid out how much work is needed to decarbonise our country.

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From fixing our broken energy market to changing the way we heat our homes, getting cars off our road, reducing transport emissions and reducing our reliance on oil and gas, there is no shortage of work to be done. Work that is not only essential for our climate, but will help build a vibrant and green economy that is fit for the future.

This will not happen by itself. It needs investment and, most of all, it needs political will. It needs governments and leaders who are willing to step up to the scale of the challenge and make the positive choices that are only becoming more crucial by the day.

That is what we have focused on in Scotland and what we will never shy away from. While Starmer was going back on his word, our Parliament was debating a Budget that included record funding for climate action.

The decisions we have made are already having an impact: creating thousands of new green jobs in the renewables sectors and other industries, delivering a record rate  of clean heat system installations and the most ambitious ever programme to ensure people have warmer, greener homes with lower energy bills.

I worked in the renewables industry before I was elected as an MSP and it’s a hugely exciting time for the industry and for the technology it relies on.

I have worked in shipyards and factories all across Scotland, and have had the privilege of working with some of the most skilled engineers in our country. They are doing really amazing things.

I have seen the huge difference that can be made by supportive governments who genuinely believe in a just transition and are prepared to reach beyond rhetoric and invest in green skills and industries.

Scotland’s green economy is already booming. We saw a 50% increase in renewables jobs in 2021 alone. We have a huge opportunity to build on that success, and we must do everything we can to  seize it.

This is exactly when we need  to be bold so we can create even  more opportunities for well-paid high-quality jobs in new and growing sectors across our country.

One of the most frustrating aspects of my role as a Scottish Government minister is that we are constantly coming up against the huge limitations of devolution.

No matter how desperately we want it to be otherwise, as long as we are governed from Downing Street we are tied to a system where the most important powers lie with a UK Government that is barely even trying to hit its net-zero targets and simply doesn’t care about the climate vandalism it is inflicting.

It is so counterproductive. The UK is being left behind as the global race to build a green economy accelerates. In the US, the EU and all across the world there are major public investment programmes being put in place.

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In contrast, Westminster is actually cutting capital investment and pushing those cuts on  to Scotland.

I hope that Sarwar and his fellow MSPs can show some principle and courage and tell their London leadership to stick to their promises.

Because the stakes couldn’t be higher. 2023 was the world’s warmest year on record. We can’t afford many more of them. We all need to be prepared to be ambitious, work across party lines and step out of our comfort zones.

Yet, even after a year of floods, wildfires and extreme weather events, and even with the polls showing a huge Labour lead,  Starmer is too afraid of taking on  the polluters.

That’s why he’s pledged to honour the climate-wrecking drilling licences in Rosebank and why he’s gone back on his climate programme when it is more needed than ever.

With a Labour government perhaps only months away, these are decisions that will be felt for generations to come.

We may not be able to reverse  the massive damage that has already been done by decades of inaction and climate neglect, but, as we  look to the future, we can transform our economy, climate-proof our future and mitigate the impacts going forward.

But it can’t and won’t happen on its own, and it will require political courage that goes beyond anything we are seeing from Westminster. That’s why independence and our climate must go together.