CLIMATE change dominated yesterday’s SNP conference with three key resolutions passed by members on how Scotland should tackle the crisis.
Delegates backed securing a legacy for future generations through COP26, to take on recommendations from the Climate Assembly report released in June and condemned the UK Government for removing two “climate asks” from the text of the Australian trade deal.
Firstly, in the morning, Glasgow Council leader Susan Aitken (below) put forward the resolution titled “Securing a COP26 legacy” which passed by 480 votes to just five.
Delegates at the virtual conference voted in favour of acknowledging that COP26 was attracted to Glasgow due to the SNP administration’s ambitious climate targets.
The motion also recognised that delivering climate justice to those most affected by climate change is vital to a just transition.
READ MORE: SNP conference votes overwhelmingly in favour of building COP26 legacy
The resolution stated that COP26, to be held in six weeks time, was “probably the most important international event in a generation”.
Moving the motion in her name, Councillor Aitken told the conference: “It’s no exaggeration to say that at the UN climate conference COP26, the future of the planet is at stake.
“The negotiations and the Glasgow agreement that we hope emerges from them, are the opportunity to steer us away from catastrophic global warming towards the adoption of new economies and new ways of living, working and trading to reverse the worldwide loss and damage that climate change is causing right now and to put the wellbeing of people and planet ahead of profit.”
Aitken added that she believed UK minister Alok Sharma, who is serving as president for COP26, was being hindered by Boris Johnson.
She said: “COP26 President Alok Sharma is, I believe, doing his level best to secure a Glasgow agreement worthy of the name, but he’s undermined at every turn by his party leader who’s only really interested in green infrastructure as something to stick a Union flag on and pose beside for a wacky photo op.
“But Glasgow, Scotland and the SNP can lead the way, and Cop26 can give us a pivotal moment to do so. We know what the prize is: clean air, local food security, an end to fuel poverty, better, cheaper public transport, green spaces for all and sustainable high-value skills and jobs in a resilient modern economy.”
Atiken added that it was a matter of “considerable frustration” for SNP members that First Minister Nicola Sturgeon wouldn’t be leading negotiations at the summit, which will instead be led by Sharma.
READ MORE: SNP conference condemns UK Government giving in to Australia climate demands
Members also voted through a topical resolution lodged by Stirling MP Alyn Smith (below) which criticised the UK Government’s attempts to “avoid scrutiny” over the contents of the Australia trade deal which would devastate Scotland’s food and drinks industry.
The resolution, titled “climate change and sustainable trade” was passed overwhelmingly yesterday by 503 votes to five.
We previously told how Tory ministers caved in to demands from Australian ministers to drop two “climate asks” from the text of the trade deal. One of the areas removed was a reference to the Paris Agreement temperature goals.
And now, SNP MP Smith lodged the motion which raised concerns over the lack of scrutiny the deal was given in Westminster before it was passed.
It read: “Conference condemns the UK Government’s attempts to avoid scrutiny of the UK-Australia trade negotiations which will be devastating to Scotland’s world-leading food and drinks industry; maintains that the UK Government’s handling of negotiations sets a dangerous precedent of trade policy being established by executive decree and bypassing parliamentary scrutiny; maintains that the economic benefits of the agreement with Australia are deemed to be at best negligible by independent assessments; condemns the government’s removal of climate policies within the agreement in the strongest possible terms; and calls for the UK Government to imbed its commitment to an environmentally sustainable and accountable international trade policy in law.”
Smith told delegates it was a “democractic outrage” that Brexit happened against the will of the Scottish people, who overwhelmingly voted to remain in the EU, and that it was a “failure” the SNP couldn’t stop Brexit.
He said: “We did everything we could within the reality within the rule of law in the UK, and the reality of democracy within the UK.
“And it’s that reality that is moving so many people from scepticism about independence to enthusiasm for independence in Europe.”
Smith added that Scotland was not anti-Australia, but that there were concerns over the environmental impacts of a trade deal with a country on the other side of the world.
He said: “It’s about how our trade is orientated and how our trade is organised and geography matters.”
READ MORE: 'There's still time': SNP conference backs climate crisis recommendations
Later, a third resolution backed the recommendations from the citizens Climate Assembly report but agreed that the “full powers of independence” are needed to tackle the crisis.
Party members voted overwhelmingly to pass the motion “Walking the walk on climate change” on Saturday by 502 votes in favour, with five against.
Chris Hanlon, SNP policy development convener, was the first to speak in favour of the motion and laid out how the Climate Assembly report came to agree on 16 goals and 81 recommendations on how Scotland can tackle climate change.
The report, published on June 23, 2021, consists of a long list of recommendations covering areas from public transport, education, land use, carbon labelling of food, taxation and 20-minute communities.
The resolution read: “Conference therefore enthusiastically supports the recommendations of the report and adopts a good faith effort to implement them as party policy, recognising that we can still make progress under the limited powers of devolution with innovation and determination, but that Scotland needs the full powers of independence to make the required transformational changes”.
READ MORE: SNP members back National Transport Company to hit 'challenging' climate targets
Hanlon said that the report was a “strong consensus” of the “absolute minimum level of intervention that they expected their government to make in response to the challenge ahead”.
He said: “The time for talk is over, pretty words and a veneer of commitment to action is not going to save us when the water comes up over our bottom lips. The climate assembly published a report a couple of months ago that set out 16 goals and made 81 recommendations. None of which were optional, many of them are extraordinarily ambitious, some will be very inconvenient or costly, but the consensus of the assembly members was that all were absolutely necessary steps as an absolute bare minimum to avoid an ecological catastrophe, the cost and inconvenience of which would make that of the recommendations themselves pale into insignificance by comparison.”
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