Hansard

In the course of the past month alone, I have probably raised the matter with it specifically on at least two, if not three, occasions.

I turn to COP26. We will deliver an ambitious programme of events, which will support the global objectives of COP26, advance our climate agenda, strengthen collaboration and showcase Scottish activity.

As the First Minister said earlier this week, climate

“loss and damage … is … suffered already by communities around the world, due to drought, floods, desertification, loss of life and population displacement.”

Scotland is, therefore, committed to doubling our climate justice fund over the next four years, leading the way, even as a small nation, on this issue.

We make the best use of our international role, and our networks and influence, to achieve global change. That includes launching the net zero futures initiative, with the Climate Group and Bloomberg Philanthropies, to galvanise state and regional governments. Our aim is to act as a bridge between those outside the formal negotiations and those inside the room, and—true to our responsibilities as hosts—we will look to amplify a diversity of voices from less-heard nations and people.

We are working alongside children and young people—those who face the greatest impact of the climate crisis—so that they have meaningful opportunities to participate and can powerfully advocate for their future. We want children and young people, regardless of their background and location, to have the opportunity to act as climate ambassadors with peers in their communities and on a global stage. That is why we are providing opportunities for children and young people from Scotland and around the world to work together on climate action to support the conference of youth. We have launched a series of initiatives to engage wider communities across Scotland, empowering them to take action, while we support the international implementation of global citizens assemblies as a means to ensure that the views of people worldwide are heard.

We have worked in solidarity alongside our colleagues in the global south, ensuring that their voices are heard and that they can participate in shaping the ambition of COP26 through initiatives including the Glasgow climate dialogues, the Women’s Environment & Development Organization and the Malawi climate leaders project. We have created multiple opportunities for Scotland, at COP26, to showcase and raise the profile of our renewable energy sector and our transportation sector’s decarbonisation, positioning Scotland in the vanguard of action internationally and as an accelerator for system change. We are working in partnership with Scottish businesses to accelerate their journey towards net zero and to support a just transition, enabling them to adapt and leverage new, fairer and greener opportunities for all.

In that way, we will lay the groundwork for more and easier ways by which to get to net zero and to create climate resilience in our economy by 2045, while at the same time retaining a focus on tackling inequality and injustice in our country. I am proud of Scotland’s world-leading targets and the responsibility and accountability that we are taking on. We wish to ensure that the promises that we make are underpinned by urgent and ambitious action, even if the terms of the devolution settlement do not allow us to access fully many of the levers of control that decarbonisation requires. It will be absolutely fundamental to action on emissions reductions for the UK Government to match Scotland’s level of ambition and act with us in areas such as electricity policy and regulation, and on rebalancing energy prices. We have been calling for a review of fuel duty as a mechanism for demand management for car travel. While the United Kingdom Government’s “Net Zero Strategy: Build Back Greener” document emphasises technological advances, it does not go far enough in tackling that issue.

Regardless, Scotland is acting decisively, focusing on the transition to clean technology, reducing demand for high-emission products and encouraging behaviour shift. To that end, we look forward to sharing our approach with international partners at COP26 as an example of world-leading best practice. Underpinning that, we have set stretching delivery targets—for example, to reduce car kilometres by 20 per cent by 2030. Those are the measures that will help us to achieve our targets.

I once again welcome the world to Scotland for the COP26 summit in Glasgow, and I thank all those who have contributed to enabling it to take place. I echo the First Minister’s call for world leaders who are gathering in Glasgow to take the necessary action in their own countries to keep the target of 1.5°C and beyond very much alive. I look forward to hearing contributions from members this afternoon, and to engaging with delegates and stakeholders over the coming weeks as we take part in COP26.

I move,

That the Parliament welcomes the world to Glasgow for the COP26 summit and thanks all those who have contributed to enabling the summit to take place; considers this to be humanity’s last opportunity to limit global warming and deliver on the ambitions set at the Paris Climate summit in 2015 and calls on world leaders gathering in Glasgow to make the necessary changes in their own countries to keep the target of 1.5 degrees alive and ensure it is achieved, and also deliver on the funding commitments made in Paris to support countries in the Global South in tackling climate change and its impacts; further calls on world leaders to take immediate and rapid action on emissions reduction and investment in low-emission and zero-carbon technology on a global scale, and to recognise the loss and damage already occurring as a result of climate change, recognising that those suffering most from these changes are those least responsible for it, and to support those countries already living with such loss; notes the commitments recently set out through the Programme for Government, the Cooperation Agreement between the Scottish Government and the Scottish Green Party Parliamentary Group, and other documents that build upon the updated Climate Change Plan and increase the steps being taken in Scotland to address the climate crisis; looks forward to the publication, starting from next year, of sectoral just transition plans, and welcomes the undertaking, in support of this, of further analysis of Scotland’s North Sea oil and gas production to assess the compatibility of current and future field development with the Paris Agreement, and to Scotland’s economy, security and wellbeing.