WE NEED DEEDS NOT WORDS ON CLIMATE CHANGE

THE world has breathed a sigh of relief at the news that the USA will re- join the Paris climate agreement.

However, with the Biden campaign only pledging net zero emissions by 2050, we simply don’t have time to celebrate the clearance of a dangerously low bar.

We remembered the horrors of war this week, and of course a large measure of relief at Trump’s eviction is due to the diminished risk of global conflict escalating from an intemperate presidential Tweet.

Yet the reality is that wars will be waged over ever- more precious resources like water, fought by people on shrinking land, desperate for food they cannot grow from scorched earth.

Our climate is too hot, and the world is experiencing ever- more frequent extreme weather events.

Even a few years ago, we in Glasgow could pretend climate change was just a problem for the Global South. But since then we’ve witnessed enormous disruption and tragic loss of life wrought by the Beast from the East.

We’ve seen the railway washed away on a key route. We’ve seen, just a few weeks ago, flooding that made some city roads impassable; not to mention across Scotland, like the huge damage to homes and businesses in Perth or the vast sums of money spent to reopen the Rest and Be Thankful. And winter has only just begun.

Our changed climate is yelling at us, screaming for us to pay attention, because now is the time we can turn it around. And we have less than a decade to do so. In 2018, the world’s best scientists reported that we had under 12 years to reverse the current emissions trajectory. That means the only meaningful target possible is 2030.

Biden’s 2050 pledge is manifestly too late. So too is the Scottish Government target of 2045, which the SNP love describing as “world- leading”.

A striking map doing the rounds on social media this week shows how much of Edinburgh is projected to be underwater by 2050 on our current pattern – so unless there’s a plan to rebuild the Scottish Parliament as Atlantis, we need to do better than this.

In Glasgow, too, the SNP talk a great game on climate. But when you look behind the curtain – like at the recent climate implementation plan created off the back of groundbreaking Greenled work to get all parties agreeing – it turns out that the net zero target for our city has been pushed to 2045.

We need action now, while it’s still possible to avert catastrophe.

If your house was on fire, and the fire brigade said they’d attend the incident in 25 years

( and hold a consultation about it in the meantime), it wouldn’t be much consolation to hear that was a faster target than the rest of the world.

Yet that’s the so- called emergency response we’re getting from this city’s leadership.

A year from now, the world is coming to Glasgow for a do- or- die negotiation to limit global temperature rise.

If Glasgow wants to actually lead, not just talk about it, then we need to sort out our priorities.