Climate change rally

Yesterday the campaign to Stop Climate Chaos came to town, and there was a really great buzz about the place. Every political party is now behind the effort to pass the Climate Change Bill, putting long term targets in place to cut Scotland’s emissions. There even seems to be a growing majority for annual targets.

The Scottish Government has agreed to bring the interim target in the Bill forward from 2030 to 2020, but won’t say anything so far on the annual targets which lead up to that date. They will clearly need to be toughened up, but that might be left to the committee if the Government won’t act.

But my real concern right now is everything that’s not in the Bill. We’ll all agree the long term cuts which are needed, but SNP, Labour, Tories and Liberals seem to think these days that we can get there without real change of policy. They’re all still happy to vote for new coal fired power stations, airport expansion, new roads and bridges, and all the rest.

There has been some great work done on the Bill by the NGO and activist community. It seems crucial that we keep that energy up once the Bill is passed, and use the network of supporters to build an unstoppable momentum for change in policy.

I don’t think the Scottish or UK Governments really have a clue what’s going to be needed to achieve 80%-plus cuts in emissions, and especially on transport we’re still at the stage where people are talking a good game but changing nothing. Today’s debate on transport infrastructure was a good example of that.

If you’ve written to your MSPs, or signed a petition, or joined the campaign on the Climate Change Bill in any way, thank you. But please don’t rest there – keep the pressure up once the Bill passes so that long term targets turn into immediate and radical action.