Conference – It’s a Pleasure to Join You Today and to Have the
Chance to Discuss the Important Matter of Climate Change with
You.
The Twin Crises of Climate Change and Nature Loss Are Challenges
of Existential Proportion.
Unprecedented in Scale, Tackling Them Must Be the Collective
Mission of These Times.
Once a Seemingly Distant Threat, the Real and Devasting Impact of
Climactic Breakdown Is Now Clear to See with Wildfires, Flooding
and Draught Wreaking Havoc Across the World.
In July Un Secretary-general Antonio Guterres Observed That
“The Evidence Is Everywhere: Humanity Has Unleashed
Destruction.”
Just Last Week, Scotland Suffered an Exceptional Rainfall Event.
Argyle and Bute Saw a Month’s Worth of Rain in Just 36 Hours
Damaging Homes, Closing Roads and Ruining Crops.
Similarly, If You Can Believe It, Managing Water Scarcity in
Summer Is Now a Reality for Scotland. Scotland – Where We’re
Famous for Rain!
And As We Begin to Feel the Effects of Climate Change, Be in No
Doubt, Communities Around the World Are on the Front Line with
People Losing Everything up to and Including Their Lives.
Often, These Same People Have Done Little or Nothing to Cause the
Problem. Unlike Us, They Have Not Benefited from the Industrial
Processes Which Are Driving Climate Change but They Are Facing
the First and Worst Impacts.
This Is the Great Injustice As the Heart of Climate Change and
It’s Why It Is an Urgent Human Rights Issue to Which Scotland
Must Respond.
And We Are Responding.
Scotland Was Among the First Nations to Declare a Climate
Emergency and Are Now Half-way to Ending Our Contribution to
Climate Change.
I Am so Proud of What Our Party Has Delivered in Government in
This Regard:
We Launched Scotwind - the World’s Largest Floating Offshore Wind
Leasing Round - Which Will Deliver Many Billions of Pounds in
Option Fees, Rental Income and Supply Chain Investment As Well As
an Additional Capacity of up to 27 Gigawatts.
Meanwhile Our M Just Transition Is Empowering Workers,
Communities and Business in the North East to Drive the Fair,
Managed and Prosperous Transition We Need to See.
We Are Also Investing £100 Million in Renewable Hydrogen
Projects, Including in a Hydrogen Hub, Right Here in
Aberdeen.
In Transport, We Are Providing Free Bus Travel for over 2 Million
People, Including All Children and Young People Under 22,
Disabled People and Everyone Aged 60 and over. Our Peak Fares
Removal Pilot, Launched This Month by My Colleague Fiona Hsylop,
Is a First in the Uk.
Reducing Emissions, While Saving People Money – a Clear Example
of Our Snp Government Delivering for Our People and Our
Planet.
Our Targeted Investment Has Seen More than 500 Zero Emission
Buses on the Roads And, for Evs, We Have the Most Comprehensive
Public Charging Network in the Uk Outside of London.
Meanwhile, We Are Investing at Record Levels in Our Natural
World, Creating More Woodland and Restoring More Precious
Peatland than Any Other Nation in the Uk.
And Unlike the Tories Who Are Removing Direct Support for
Farmers, and Labour Who Often Seem to Forget Where Our Food
Actually Comes From, We in the Snp See a Bright Future for
Farming and Other Land Based Sectors in Scotland. Farmers Care
Passionately About Our Land. I Know This – and Not Just Because I
Recently Married One of Them!
Friends, As Net Zero Secretary, My Vision for a Net Zero Scotland
Is More – Not Fewer – People Living and Working on Our Land and
Seas. And That’s Why While I Support Rewilding, I Far Prefer the
Term Re-peopling and Why I Am Very Excited by the Land Reform
Bill My Colleague Is Currently Developing.
Friends This Is Just some of What We Have Already Achieved
Together. There Is a Great Deal yet to Do.
What I Hope Is Clear, Is That Scotland Is so Well Placed to Lead
the Way in Our Outward Looking, Internationalist Tradition.
Because If Climate Change and Nature Loss Are the Great Global
Challenges of Our Times, Then Scotland Has so Much to Offer the
World by Way of Solution.
But We Have a Choice.
We Can Choose to Be the Renewables Powerhouse of Europe.
We Can Choose to Deliver a Just Transition for Our Oil and Gas
Sector.
We Can Choose to Embrace the Future of an Economy That Is Fair,
Green and Growing.
Or We Can Choose – like the Uk Government Has Chosen – to Bury
Our Heads in the Sand, Pretending That Climate Change Isn’t Real
and That We Can Carry on Regardless. The Choice Isn’t Between a
Strong Economy and a Liveable Climate – One Depends on the
Other.
Because the Truth Is Tackling Climate Change Is an Environmental
and Moral Imperative but It May Also Be One of Scotland’s
Greatest Socioeconomic Opportunities.
As First Movers in a Just Transition, We Can Grow Our Economy, We
Can Protect Our Environment and We Can Avail the People of
Scotland of the Multiple Benefits of a Greener Future – Not Least
of Good Green Jobs; Warm, Energy Efficient Homes and Clean
Air. That Is the Prize of a Just Transition.
But Friends, We Cannot Do This While Tied to the Failed
Westminster System.
In Recent Weeks, Has Rolled Back on Key Net
Zero Pledges. And, Regrettably, It Appears Labour Have Been at
Pains to Follow Suit, with More Flip-flopping from .
Conference, What We Are Seeing from the Tories and Labour Is Not
Climate Ambition, It Is Climate Complacency.
And That Complacency Is Not Only Hampering Global Progress on
This Vital Mission, but It Is Also Depriving Scotland of the
Economic Opportunities of Net Zero.
Just As Successive Uk Governments – Both Labour and Tory – Have
Squandered Scotland’s Oil Wealth and the Hundreds of Billions of
Pounds That Have Flowed from Scotland - and This City - to the
Treasury, They Now Seem Intent on Squandering Our Economic
Opportunities to Lead the Way on Net Zero.
We Cannot Let That Happen.
Right Now Scotland Has the Energy, but Westminster Has the
Power.
We Cannot Let That Continue and Having Debated Our Route to
Independence, We Must Now Get on and Deliver It.
Friends, There Can Be Fewer More Important Tasks than Leaving a
Planet Able to Be Safely and Comfortably Inhabited by Generations
to Come.
This Is Our Collection Mission, in Which We Cannot Fail.
