THERE is “no appetite” in the Scottish Government to clamp down on climate protests and activists ahead of COP26, Scottish Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie has said.
It comes after Priti Patel announced in her speech to the Conservative Party conference last week that she plans to use the incoming policing bill to grant new powers to police to crack down on activists.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson backed the move in his address to delegates in Manchester, saying that Patel was set to bring in new powers to challenge environmentalist groups such as Insulate Britain to “insulate them in prison where they belong”.
Scottish Greens co-leader Lorna Slater said she “sympathised” with activists who are concerned the UK Government is not doing enough to tackle the climate crisis.
The National asked Harvie if he had any concerns that these powers targeting protesters could seep into Scotland, or if he thought police and protestors might clash at COP26, due to be held in Glasgow in November.
READ MORE: Energy crisis is 'excellent example' of why Scotland needs independence
He said: “I don’t think there is any appetite in the Scottish political landscape for the legislative changes that the UK Government wants, to clamp down on protest and on campaigners, and I also don’t think there’s any appetite in Scotland for the climate denial rhetoric that we sadly still hear.
“The UK Government just recently appointed as the international trade secretary someone who has repeatedly denied the reality of climate change, and Boris Johnson uses the most demeaning, childish language to pour scorn on people who campaign for change.”
Harvie added that while heating in buildings – which he set out the Government’s strategy on in Holyrood for the first time last week – is a matter on which Scotland can do “a lot”, the UK controls many of the levers to make real change.
He added: “They have delayed and delayed and delayed action. I was hoping to hear from their party conference some great big announcement about the action they were going to take on this agenda, and what did we hear instead? ‘How do we arrest the protesters?’
“Look, this should not be a matter of ‘blame the messenger’, it has to be a matter of heeding the message.
“If the UK Government wants those protests not to be happening, they need to crack on with getting the job done, just like the Scottish Government is trying to do.”
Slater labelled COP26 humanity’s “last chance to save the planet” and added that, without urgent action, half of Glasgow could be underwater in a few decades, as well as other coastal communities, with millions made homeless.
She said: “We need to keep that in perspective, and I have a lot of sympathy with protesters who are terrified and angry that governments aren’t doing enough – that some governments like the UK Government have not understood what needs to be done and how urgently.
“So yes, I sympathise with those protesters in the streets who are bringing those things to the Government’s attention.”
The co-leaders were speaking ahead of their party conference which kicks off today at Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh.
Harvie, Minister for Zero-Carbon Buildings, Active Travel and Tenants’ Rights, and Slater, Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity, also opened up about their new roles and the pressure of being in government for the first time.
Harvie delivered his first ministerial statement to Holyrood last week, when after 18 years of serving as an MSP on the backbenches, he finally got to take a seat on the frontbench, setting out a strategy on decarbonising homes.
READ MORE: £33bn will be needed to decarbonise Scotland's heating systems, ministers say
He said: “It was really good fun, I enjoyed it a lot. It felt very different though.
“If you’ve been in the chamber, you’ll know that if you sit up at the back, you’ve got this big, expansive view, you can see everyone you’re debating with.
“If you’re down at the front, you can see the presiding officer, and you can see one or two faces at either side of the frontbench, but most of the voices are behind you, and so it’s a very different feeling. But no, it was a terrific chance to really start saying how we’re going to put green ideas into practice.”
Slater, who was first elected as an MSP in May’s Holyrood elections, explained that for her it had been a “wild ride”.
She said: “Before I was elected I worked in the tidal energy industry as an electromechanical engineer, and what’s amazing about the role I’m in now is that this week I was working with the Cabinet Secretary on the national strategy for economic transformation and the green industrial strategy.
“So I’m able to bring my experience in that so-important industry, the renewables energy industry in Scotland, where I know how the supply chain works and how the manufacturing works, and bring that right into the heart of the Scottish Government, and that is really such a privilege to get to be part of that.”
Scotland is facing two crises at once – a pandemic and a climate crisis. Both co-leaders see the issues as linked, but admitted it was a heavy burden to take on.
Asked if the task of tackling the climate crisis made him feel under pressure, Harvie said: “Yes it does, I think it should make everyone feel under pressure though.
“This is a transformation that is going to affect every aspect of the way that we live our lives and I think the Scottish Government is now recognising that.”
READ MORE: 'Scotland needs us' Patrick Harvie tells Scottish Green Party conference
Harvie added that the Greens simply being in the room had had an effect, such as the Scottish Government conceding that there will have to be a reduction in aviation if climate targets are to be met.
He said: “There’s a great deal more that we need to do, we’ll keep challenging ourselves to go further, to go faster and to do it fairly, but I wish to goodness that the UK Government would either join us in that endeavour or just let us take the powers to do it ourselves for Scotland.”
For Slater, her focus is on a just transition under her brief for green skills.
On what her dream scenario would be, she said: “It doesn’t need to be a dream scenario – this is going to be a reality scenario.”
The MSP said there are three ways she aims to help the transition from oil and gas into renewables: through immigration, reskilling and young people.
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