Minister demands ‘national endeavour’ on climate crisis

●Sweeping review of all government policies days after air tax cut is scrapped

Scots have been urged to tackle cli- mate change as a “shared nation - al endeavour” as the S cottish Government announced a green summit with businesses and a sweeping review of all policies.

Environment secretar y Roseanna Cunningham said responding to the climate emergency “must be hardwired into our national psyche” as the issue was “not just about government action”.

And she called on the UK government to accept the same zero emissions target of 2045 adopted by the Scottish Government last week.

However, despite her pledge that climate change would “be at the core of our next Programme for Government and Spending Review”, the Scottish Greens said they would refuse to back future government budgets if financial decisions were not focused on the environment. Campaign group Extinction Rebellion S cotland also denounced the statement as “rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic” and demanded the zero emissions targets be brought forward to 2025.

Ms Cunningham’s statement comes a week after the Scottish Government announced it had scrapped its plans to cut air departure tax in the light

of the “climate emergency” and that its support for a third runway at Heathrow was also being reviewed. It has also challenged opposition parties to back its proposed workplace parking levy as an environmental policy.

The statement also came just hours after Chris Stark, chief executive of the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), which recommended the 2045 deadline for zero emissions, told MSPS that policies in Scotland needed to “step up to the task” if the target was to be met.

Speaking in Parliament yesterday, Ms Cunningham said: “We must take this journey together, seize the economic opportunities available to us and redefine what world leadership means, not just as a government, but as a country.

“We all have a par t to play; individuals, communities, businesses, other organisations. And opposition parties also have a responsibility to look at their own approaches.

“An emergency needs a systematic response that is appropriate to the scale of the challenge and not just a kneejerk, piece-meal reaction. All cabinet secretaries are looking across the full range of policy areas to identify areas where we can go further, faster.” She added: “To inform our approach ... we will be consulting widely over the summer to feed into the update of the Climate Change Plan and let everyone have their say on what needs to happen across Scotland in response to the climate emergency. We will co-convene a summit with industry to develop a shared understanding of what needs to be done ... and we will be seeking views from key sectors such as agriculture and land use.”

But Scottish Green MS P Mark Ruskell said the environment could not wait until the next government spending review. He said his part y “cannot commit to negotiations at the next budget unless it has climate change and a green new deal at its hear t”. Ms Cunningham said the budget was finance secretary Derek Mackay’ s responsibility, but the government was committed to “develop - ing budgets which supported climate change ambitions”.

A statement from Extinction Rebellion Scotland dismissed Ms Cunningham as announcing nothing more than “more consultations, summits and goals”. “An emergency requires an emergency response and this doesn’t even come close ,” the statement said.

Earlier yesterday MSPS on the environment committee had heard from CCC members, who said the 2045 target for Scotland was the “most ambitious in the world”.

Mr Stark said :“We don’ t have that much more time to achieve these kinds of targets.

“The luxury of looking at it, thinking we have decades and decades of time, will soon evaporate.”