Tipping point

The Scottish Government was hailed for its work on addressing climate change at Cop26 but, having torn up its own rule book, has opted to dilute strategy at the worst possible time

After years of devastating drought, when the rains finally came to Hadija Jillo’s town in Northern Kenya they were relentless and unforgiving. Floodwaters tore through the streets, sweeping away her home, the school where her children learned and played and the hospital that cared for her neighbours.

As the waters rose, Hadija fled with her family while the village’s elderly people were jolted from their beds and carried to safety on the backs of donkeys. Not everyone made it.

Thousands of miles away in Edinburgh, the Scottish Government’s decision to rewrite its own climate rule book and abandon the legal goal of cutting emissions by 75% by 2030 hasn’t just led to the collapse of the power-sharing agreement between the SNP and Scottish Greens, it has raised uncomfortable questions about the Government’s commitment to those, like Hadija, on the frontlines of climate devastation.

It’s easy to see why. Axing the 2030 target isn’t the ‘very minor legislative change’ the Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero claims it is; it’s conceding defeat on a landmark climate target six years early, substantially weakening trust with the Scottish people while seriously tarnishing Scotland’s global reputation. The stark reality is that inadequate climate action by rich, polluting nations like Scotland isn’t merely shameful, it’s lethal.

Scotland’s global emissions footprint may seem relatively modest compared to the world’s biggest polluters, but each fraction of a degree of warming matters. And history shows small nations can be powerful agents of change.

A global climate leader?

Two and a half years ago, at Cop26 in Glasgow, the Scottish Government was hailed for its pioneering commitment to loss and damage funding. One prominent global activist described Nicola Sturgeon as the “true leader” of the talks.

The momentum was palpable when a new global Loss and Damage Fund emerged last November.

Since then, the Scottish Government continues to boost understanding about how the fund can deliver tangible benefits across low-income and climate vulnerable nations. Oxfam is proud to have received funding to work with communities like Hadija’s in northern Kenya, where repeat droughts and floods have damaged infrastructure, destroyed livelihoods, and fuelled conflict.

In a speech last September during New York Climate Week, the First Minister, Humza Yousaf, pledged to continue this “moral leadership” while making Scotland “the net zero capital of the world”.

But a failure to clean up Scotland’s own act quickly enough, means the echoes of these promises now ring rather hollow. Helping communities to