Meeting of the Parliament 26 June 2024
No, thank you. Members keep interrupting.
We need firm action. The climate emergency is not a future problem; it is a now issue. It is already damaging our rail and road infrastructure and forcing people out of their homes. We cannot afford another summer of wildfires in southern Europe or to have another incident such as the one in Saudi Arabia just weeks ago in which 1,300 people tragically died from extreme heat.
I am delighted that the SNP has adopted many of Labour’s ideas wholesale in its recent election promises. I just thought that the First Minister might have been here to tell us what he is going to do but, sadly, he is not. We had announced many of those proposals days before.
I go back to my point that words are not enough; we need to do things. In 2017, the SNP Government pledged to set up a publicly owned energy company, which of course has never happened. With Labour’s plan for GB energy, which would be headquartered in Scotland, we now have a real opportunity to build on our renewables success to bring down bills for Scottish people, provide energy security and ramp up our progress to net zero.
Ministers say regularly that they are keen to work with the incoming Westminster Government to ensure collaboration across the United Kingdom. That needs to happen now, because it is not acceptable just to always blame the Tory Government. I have blamed it for a lot, but a lot of what it is blamed for are SNP failures of government. The status quo is not enough. The Parliament needs to start with the publication of a new climate bill, followed by immediate publication of the climate change plan. That has been talked about for weeks now, but we still have no information on it. Let us get on with the change that we need. The current inaction is not good enough.
The Scottish Parliament has powers to make positive changes and to become true world leaders, not just world-leading talkers, in this area. However, we need immediate action to make that a reality. Let us get on with it.
I move amendment S6M-13759.2, to insert at end:
“; notes that the Scottish Government is still to legislate after announcing that the Scottish Ministers planned to scrap Scotland’s legal climate targets, and regrets that Scotland’s ambitious legal targets were not backed up by ambitious action from the Scottish Government, despite consistent cross-party support in the Parliament and the Climate Change Committee’s belief that reaching the targets was previously achievable.”
16:13Motions, questions or amendments mentioned by their reference code.