Nicola cosies up to Trump opponents on her US tour
NICOLA Sturgeon’s first act on a week-long, taxpayer-funded visit to the United States was to sign a climate change agreement with a vocal critic of President Trump.
The First Minister met the Democrat Governor of California to discuss how officials in Scotland could work with those in the west coast state to tackle growing emissions problems across the globe.
The pair met in private at Governor Jerry Brown’s office in Sacramento, where they signed a joint agreement pledging to work together on climate change.
They also discussed the importance of offshore wind and how knowledge and practice could be shared between Scotland and the Golden State.
Miss Sturgeon is not expected to meet any officials from the Trump administration during her week-long stay.
Critics claim her trip is a ‘publicity tour’ taking place while schools and the health service suffer at home.
The SNP leader yesterday also held a private meeting with car manufacturer Tesla to discuss the importance of energy
‘Still much to achieve’
storage technology before moving on to a number of tech companies based in California. She then took part in a round table discussion about encouraging female entrepreneurs.
During her meeting with Governor Brown, Miss Sturgeon spoke about the plans set out in the Under2 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), which has been signed by 33 countries and 167 jurisdictions all pledging to take ‘ambitious actions’ to tackle climate change across the world.
The MoU does not have legal constraints but encourages all countries and areas involved to limit emissions to 80 to 95 per cent below 1990 levels by 2050.
Miss Sturgeon and Governor Brown also signed a document vowing to work together to tackle climate change, although officials failed to explain what the validity of an agreement with California would be.
Speaking after the meeting, Miss Sturgeon said: ‘Scotland is making huge progress in delivering our climate change ambitions, but we are not complacent and there is still much to achieve.
‘Today’s meeting strengthened our relationship with the government of California and I’m confident we can work together to achieve the targets set out by the Under2 MoU.’
Governor Brown is one of the US President’s most vocal political opponents. Last week, he urged him to ‘come down from Trump Tower and walk among the people’ as he hit out at proposals to change health care. And at the weekend he refused to rule out running for President in 2020, even though he would be in his 80s at the time.
Despite his backing for action against climate change, Governor Brown has been criticised for allowing fracking and for taking money from oil firms during his election campaign.
Miss Sturgeon will today remain in California to address Stanford University on Scotland’s place in
the World. She will then head to New York City to appear at the Women in the World Summit alongside Hillary Clinton.
The First Minister’s ambitious schedule includes a speech at the United Nations on human rights and the role of women in building peace. She will also visit the New York University TISCH (school of performing arts) to meet ballet students on Scottish Governmentfunded exchange programmes.
Miss Sturgeon has been criticised for visiting while health care, education and businesses continue to suffer in Scotland.
Conservative MSP Annie Wells said it was ‘turning into a publicity tour’.
She said: ‘Rather than signing pledges and talking about independence, many Scots would prefer to see Nicola Sturgeon spending her time dealing with the serious problems we have in our health service and in education here in Scotland.’
Graham Grant – Page 14