Greens push Wishart over Climate Bill targets
New MSP Beatrice Wishart should back stronger targets if she wants to be taken seriously on tackling the climate emergency, the Shetland Greens have said.
The call came days after tens of thousands of people took to the streets across Scotland on Friday, including in Lerwick, to demand tougher action to address the Climate Emergency.
Last year, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned that there is just 10 years to prevent climate breakdown, making the next decade critical.
MSPs will on Wednesday vote on the Scottish government’s Climate Change (Emissions Reductions Targets) (Scotland) Bill.
Scottish Greens climate spokesman Mark Ruskell has proposed a target of 80 per cent by 2030, which non-governmental organisations including Stop Climate Chaos and Friends of the Earth Scotland were also calling for.
Shetland Greens spokeswoman Debra Nicolson has now called on Ms Wishart to back the 80 per cent target.
She said: “The most important part of this Bill is the 2030 target because it will have a direct impact on what we do now, and because scientific evidence tells us the next ten years are absolutely crucial.
“The Lib Dems have proposed an arbitrary 75 per cent target but we know they can shift position – last week it was 70 per cent. I’m pleading to our new MSP to listen to our young people, Friends of the Earth and the science and back our amendment.
“The Scottish government needs to listen too. The SNP are hailing their target date of 2045 for reaching net-zero emissions as being world-leading, but it is already out of date. As we heard from leading scientists this week, the pace of change is picking up as governments drag their heels.”
John Tulloch
Sorry, here’s what the 2018 IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5C, actually says:
From the Summary for Policymakers
“The report finds that limiting global warming to 1.5°C would require…… (global)..net human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2)…..to fall by about 45 percent from 2010 levels by 2030, reaching ‘net zero’ around 2050.”
The British government has already committed, unilaterally, to that, at a cost of £1 trillion, enough to fund the salaries of 314,000 nurses for 100 years.
The Scottish government, ever-eager to outdo Westminster, has committed to “net zero by 2045”.
Could we please stick to international agreements, informed by IPCC science, please?