IF a week is a long time in politics, then the last six months have been a lifetime.

This weekend, the Scottish Greens will gather in Greenock for what will be our first party conference since April, making it our first since the UK election and first since the end of the Bute House Agreement, and our time in government.

It’ll be a chance for members to debate, discuss, reflect on and digest everything that has happened in that time.

Conferences are inevitably a bit of a trip down memory lane and a chance to catch up with familiar faces, reminding ourselves of the things that make us Green and why we joined our party.

As a former renewables engineer, it was a combination of the 2014 independence referendum and the climate emergency that convinced me to join the Scottish Greens. For me, it was the only party that recognised the urgency of democratic renewal and fundamental climate action.

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From the time I attended my first meetings as a new branch member through to my time as a minister, I knew that I had found a home in a party and a movement that lives its values and wants to break away from a tired and unsustainable status quo so that we can do things differently.

But, just as importantly as what brought us together in the first place, it’ll also be a time for us to look forward to the months ahead, as there is no shortage of crucial work that we need to do.

Scotland’s government may have changed, but our values have not, and with global temperatures rising and Labour doubling down on failed Tory policies, our values are more vital than ever.

The climate emergency is the defining issue not only for this generation but for every generation that will follow. Every country and every government needs to change what we are doing and as a country with vast renewables potential, Scotland is better placed than most to effect change swiftly.

Yet, even when the Scottish Greens were in government, we found the pace of change was often far too slow. Everything took a lot more time than we would like, and at times, we were faced with institutional caution that we had to work hard to overcome.

Since we left, that has only become worse. Without Greens in the room, the SNP have already taken several backward steps on our environment – cutting funding for active travel and nature restoration, reintroducing costly peak rail fares that we got removed through budget negotiations, and doubling down on wasteful and unproven carbon capture technology. It’s not good enough.

With a new Climate Bill on the horizon, we will be pushing for Scotland to maintain an assumption against new fossil fuels, halt oil and gas projects, such as the proposed expansion of the gas-powered station at Peterhead, and shift investment from road building into public transport.

At the same time, we will also continue to push hard for the commitments that were made during our time in government to be upheld. Whether it is the Heat in Buildings Bill to deliver warmer, greener homes, the Natural Environment Bill to protect our iconic nature and biodiversity or the Land Reform Bill that will take steps to democratise the land around us, there is work to do.

We showed one way we can do so earlier this month when we used a parliamentary debate to secure a commitment from the SNP to re-commit to delivering free bus travel for people seeking asylum, a policy that they had dropped only three months prior.

It is a small but significant change that will open up our country to people forced into state-sanctioned poverty, and one that reflects the type of country that we believe Scotland should be – one that extends a hand of friendship to those seeking sanctuary, rather than turning away in their hour of need.

It showed the impact we can have when we mobilise with campaigners and community groups. It is an approach we’ll be taking in the months ahead as parliament scrutinises the Housing Bill, which was introduced by the Scottish Greens to provide rent controls and permanent protections for tenants.

With some members of the SNP keen to drop it, my Green colleagues and I will be doing everything we can to ensure that it is not watered down, weakened or cast aside, and that Scotland’s tenants get the support and protections that they deserve.

In or out of government, what none of us want is to get to the end of this parliamentary session and think about the things we could have done if we had been a bit braver. There isn’t time for those kinds of regrets.

The changes we are striving to achieve for Scotland, and the changes we’ll be talking about this weekend in Greenock, are not about party politics; they are about securing a better future for people and planet. They go to the heart of why we are Greens, and they echo the society we want to build.