Fight to save the planet has been damaged by amateurs
◆ It was a case of when not if the Bute House Agreement would end after the climate targets U-turn, says Jackie Baillie
What’s yellow and green, driven by hot air, with no visible effect on the environment? The Scottish Government, of course, which was already a bad joke before ministers abandoned their promises to meet key climate change targets. Now the whole Snp/green alliance is going the way of Scotland’s climate plans.
A panicked and desperate Humza Yousaf called his ministers to an emergency Cabinet meeting to pull the plug on the deal before the Greens pulled the plug on him. As Kermit the Frog was wont to complain, it ain’t easy being green. But if Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater fought to remain as the world’s only Green ministers to support scrapping climate targets, they’d look like the muppets.
Since the climate U-turn, it was a case of when not if the Bute House Agreement would end. Grassroots Greens were coming out of the undergrowth to demand Slater and Harvie give up their ministerial limos and enhanced salaries.
Eager to keep the keys to the kingdom, the pair tried to claim it’s best to stay the course. However, the decision has now been taken for them. Yousaf dumped them rather than wait on Green members’ verdict. The damage done to the Greens is substantial but Yousaf cannot escape the fact that it’s the SNP that have left almost one-in-six Scots on NHS waiting lists, gutted public services and failed to tackle the cost-of-living crisis.
When Rishi Sunak rolled back on the UK’S climate commitments, Yousaf rightly said it was an unforgivable response amid the climate catastrophe. His humiliating U-turn, an admission that the government is incapable of having a strategy or implementing one, was described as “the worst environmental decision in the history of the Scottish Parliament” by Friends of the Earth.
That’s as nothing compared to Green members’ responses, considering how to distance themselves from the toxic environmental reputation of the SNP, a party that defends oil and gas giants’ profits while tearing up legally binding climate commitments. The real losers here are not Slater and Harvie’s bruised egos or the diminished figure of Yousaf.
It’s the planet and its inhabitants that lose out because of this rabble of an administration’s lack of focus, drive and competence. None of this changes the fact that it’s SNP failures that have left Scots with higher bills, higher taxes, fewer jobs and a healthcare service on the brink.
This government is so unserious about climate change it cannot even sort out the paperwork to approve Scotland’s biggest offshore windfarm in time. SSE’S Berwick Bank project in the Firth of Forth could create over 4,000 jobs and add 4.1gigawatts to offshore wind by 2030. But because of Scottish ministers’ failure to grant approval, the scheme is shelved.
It shows how a lack of drive on climate change inevitably means higher bills, fewer jobs and more energy insecurity for Scots. Labour has a Green Prosperity Plan to drive down emissions, cut bills, and create jobs. We will establish a publiclyownedgbenergycompany to drive forward the shift to clean energy and insulate homes, saving Scots hundreds on energy bills. Our country doesn’t have time for amateurs and now that the Greens are gone from government, the SNP are next.