Climate crisis? Sturgeon will jet off to US to beat drum for independence
Critics say FM should focus on issues closer to home
SHE has declared a climate emergency and allowed punishing taxes on motorists as an attempt to cut emissions.
But now Nicola Sturgeon has announced a jet-setting jaunt to the US to preach about the climate crisis.
The First Minister’s overseas trip will pump out the same amount of C02 cruising across the Atlantic that an average Scottish household does in six months.
Critics last night said the main reason for her trip was to take her independence campaign on tour and bang the drum for breaking up the UK.
The SNP leader will visit the States next week on her first official trip abroad since the pandemic, sparking accusations she is wasting time and money rather than tackling the cost-ofliving crisis.
Opposition MSPs have accused her of attempting to escape her ‘woeful record here at home’ and lecture American politicians and companies about the apparent benefits of separatism.
Scottish Conservative external affairs spokesman Donald Cameron said: ‘Only a few days after the local elections and Nicola Sturgeon has already abandoned local issues to jet off on an “indy tour” to the United States.
‘The vast majority of Scots don’t want a referendum on Nicola Sturgeon’s timeline, yet instead of focusing on the issues Scots really care about, the First Minister would rather promote independence at the taxpayer’s expense.
‘The Scottish public will be outraged to see the First Minister taking her eye off the ball so soon after local elections – not to mention furious at this waste of taxactive payer money in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis.
‘Nicola Sturgeon should be focusing on tackling her government’s woeful record here at home, instead of taking the SNP’s obsession on tour.’
The First Minister will ‘underline Scotland’s key interests in global issues’ while meeting members of the US Congress and business leaders as the Scottish Government attempts to become more overseas. She will also deliver a speech on Monday to the Brookings Institution – a leading US think tank – that will be ‘focusing on Scotland’s future’ and European energy.
The climate crisis will feature on the jet-setting tour, but carbon footprint calculators reveal flying to have discussions face-to-face would produce 1.56 tons of C02 emissions for only one person’s return journey between Edinburgh and Washington DC.
The Government has refused to say whether the First Minister would be treating herself to firstclass tickets.
The cheapest flights available from Edinburgh to Dulles Airport at the time the trip was announced would cost almost £1,300 per person, with first class tickets with British Airways coming in at a staggering £12,528.
Miss Sturgeon’s trip will follow the launch of the Government’s Global Affairs Framework that declares Scotland’s international contribution ‘would be significantly enhanced with the powers of independence rather than devolution’, despite the country being represented abroad as part of the UK as a whole.
Ahead of her trip, Miss Sturgeon said: ‘The pandemic and the climate and biodiversity emergencies prove in the starkest possible way we live in an interconnected world and it is more important than ever Scotland plays its part.’
But chief executive of campaign group Scotland in Union, Pamela Nash, said: ‘Our trade with the rest of the UK is worth more than every country in the EU combined. Nicola should not use her foreign trips to grandstand about separation, which is supported by a minority of people in Scotland.’
The Scottish Government last night said that the First Minister’s flight was not specially chartered, but refused to say for security reasons whether or not she would be flying first class or departing from a Scottish airport.
‘Abandoned local issues’