Climate change broken promise
‘The worst environmental decision in the history of the Scottish Parliament’.
That’s how Friends of the Earth described the SNPGreen Scottish Government’s humiliating U-turn on climate change targets. And rightly so.
Last week, Humza Yousaf ’s government announced it is ditching its target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 75 per cent by 2030. It is humiliating but also a serious betrayal of trust and another broken promise from the SNP.
It is goes without saying this a very worrying development. Last month was reported by scientists as the world’s hottest ever March.
The SNP have maintained that, despite their failure to reach this target, they are sticking to their other target of reaching net-zero by 2045. However, they conveniently fail to mention that the 2045 target is legally binding – it is impossible to ditch.
Of course, as is typical with this government, they avoid taking responsibility and try to blame everyone but themselves for their repeated failures.
It is widely accepted that a key way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is by getting people out of cars and onto public transport. Yet under the SNP, public transport in Scotland is an utter mess.
In the last few weeks, the government has hiked up ScotRail’s train fares by nearly 10 per cent – while they have also cut one in 10 ScotRail services. In the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, this is precisely the opposite of what is needed to drive up train travel.
The SNP and Greens claim to want to save the planet but what planet are they on?
Here in Renfrewshire, we have also seen a 13 per cent reduction in bus services in the last year alone. What did the SNP-Green government do to stop these cuts? They didn’t lift a finger. They did absolutely nothing to help local people left abandoned.
Meanwhile, bus users here are paying amongst the highest bus fares in the whole of the UK.
They could have taken the action that Labour mayors have done in places like Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds but have shown no interest or leadership.
The SNP have had their chance on climate change and so many other issues. We need to get to grips with the climate crisis – and Labour has a plan to do it.
That is why Labour has proposed a windfall tax on oil and gas giants – who make billions of pounds of profits whilst working people in Renfrewshire have paid more for their energy. A proposal the SNP have consistently opposed.
A Labour government would also create a publicly owned GB energy company. Based in Scotland, it will provide clean energy to households across the country while creating jobs in renewables.
We would upgrade hundreds of thousands of cold draughty homes in Scotland and we would also bring local buses under local control and cap fares. These are just some the policies Labour will introduce if we win this year’s General Election.
Time is against us – we must tackle climate change now. It’s clear, though, the SNP’s time is up.