I GREW up at a time when most politicians didn’t have much to say about the environment.  

Scientists were already ringing the alarm bells, but the fossil fuel industry was pumping out propaganda to prevent action. It fell to a few determined campaigners to put the issue on the political agenda … and my mum was one of them. 

Scotland’s early Green activists were setting out the need to cut carbon emissions decades before governments were setting targets. Awareness of this was a big part of my childhood. 

In my time as a Glasgow MSP, it’s been a privilege to work across the full range of Green policy, from housing to equality, and from purely local issues to building the case for Scotland’s future as an independent EU member state.  

But in all that time, the response to the growing climate emergency has been the thread running through everything. Scotland has had climate legislation, and ambitious targets, for 15 years now. And while we’ve done well at producing green energy, the truth is that many other sectors have hardly cut their emissions at all. Those 15 years without enough progress is what has led to the dire warning last month from the UK Climate Change Committee (the independent advisers to both governments) that there is now no way to meet the 2030 target. 

It would be easy to pick out the mistakes of the past and point out years of Green demands for change on roadbuilding, on energy efficient homes, on agriculture and so on, and just say “we told you so”. But that would achieve nothing. 

It’s what we do next on climate action that matters. And this particular moment - knowing that the 2030 target is now out of reach but that we can still achieve net zero by 2045 if we act with urgency - this needs to be a pivotal moment.  

The climate crisis is bigger than any one of us, it’s why I’m in politics and why my party exists, and the need to step up Scotland’s response is the single most important reason why our party agreed to enter into government. 

As an opposition party we won some limited progress, and we exposed how some former ministers had squandered years with self-congratulation about setting targets while they also demanded more roadbuilding, more aviation and more fossil fuel extraction.  

But it was clear that we could make much more of a difference as part of the Government. As a result, Scotland is committed to expanding renewable energy, nature restoration funding is at an all-time high, we finally have a serious programme to shift away from fossil fuel for heating, and we’re investing as never before in making it safer to walk and cycle, and giving young people free bus travel.  

All of this has been achieved despite vested interests and a UK Government that would set fire to the future rather than face reality. The Tories have dragged climate into their toxic “culture war”, and tried to demonise those who take a stand as public enemies, criminalising peaceful protesters for speaking truth to power. 

But while Scotland’s efforts are in stark contrast with the UK Tory government, we need to be clear that we have to be braver, bolder and more urgent in our actions.  

We can still achieve the critically important goal of being net zero by 2045. But only if Scotland commits itself to a reset on climate and takes action on a scale we have never seen before.  

What we do next matters, because it will define all our futures.