Tinderbox Conditions

There has been shocking news about wildfire ravaging woodlands in various parts of Scotland and beyond. It's been the hottest April on record. Climate action to protect our nature assets seems more urgent than ever.


Greens are committed to meeting Scotland’s emissions targets through domestic effort, without the use of carbon credits, and we’ll ensure public sector emission cuts are in line with the targets in the Climate Change Act. Existing annual targets are too weak, and we back 4.5% annual reductions.

Photo from Climate March, Glasgow.

It is essential to build on the success of the Climate Challenge Fund by continuing to support community projects, with  additional tiers of support including a small grants scheme with minimal bureaucracy, and a ‘partnering’ system so successful projects can help build capacity in other communities. The fund would be expanded to £25m a year.


There is also a need to begin to develop a consumption based approach to calculating Scotland’s real contribution to climate change, taking proper account of the emissions associated with the goods and services this country imports. This is complex work and would take several years to complete. We’ll build on the limited carbon assessment of Scotland’s budget to enable transparent scrutiny of budget documents in relation to carbon costs. We will also conduct individual carbon assessments across public sector spending and policies.