SNP and Conservatives block the Scottish Parliament from declaring a nature emergency!

Following a motion by the Scottish Greens, the Scottish Parliament had the opportunity yesterday to vote on the declaration of a nature emergency .... see here.

Unbelievably, the ruling party of government, the SNP, joined forces with the Conservatives to block the motion when most people would have hoped and expected that the SNP, Labour and the Scottish Greens would have have supported this milestone declaration.

The Scottish Greens have issued a press release in response to yesterday’s debate in the Scottish Parliament which said:

SNP blocks declaration of a nature emergency

The Scottish Parliament has missed the opportunity to declare a nature emergency, after the SNP blocked the vote with an amendment congratulating the Scottish Government instead.

If passed, the Scottish Green motion would have made Scotland the first country to formally recognise the rapid decline in species populations as an emergency.

However, the proposal was defeated after the Conservatives backed a Scottish Government amendment which removed the words ‘nature emergency’, and other parties refused to commit to radical action required to halt and reverse the decline. 

MSPs therefore voted against calling a halt to practices which are environmentally damaging such as driven grouse shooting, large-scale peat extraction and damaging fishing practices such as dredging. 

Speaking afterwards, Scottish Greens environment spokesperson Mark Ruskell said: “While I’m proud that the Greens brought this issue to parliament, I’m extremely disappointed that Scotland has not declared a nature emergency when the evidence on species decline is so clear.

“It was truly shocking to see SNP ministers congratulating themselves on their inadequate efforts, when their own data shows an alarming decline in species and a shocking loss of biodiversity. 

“It is clear that only the Scottish Greens are committed to actions such as ending the scourge of Scotland’s grouse moors, and we will put our commitment to acting on the nature emergency in our manifesto.”

ENDS

What is it with politicians refusing to acknowledge and take steps to tackle the climate emergency and the biodiversity extinction crisis facing our nations and the planet as a whole?

This is appalling leadership at a time when there is an ideal opportunity to jointly address these critical issues and provide a genuine New Green Deal to lead us out of the economic havoc wrought by the Covid-19 pandemic and to provide a green recovery and future resilience.

I had hoped for so much more from the Scottish Parliament.

This is the text of the e-mail that I received from the Scottish Greens:  

Dear Richard,

The SNP just teamed up with the Tories to block the Scottish Parliament from declaring a Nature Emergency.

I’ll be honest – we didn’t expect this. Every other party supported the declaration, as did thousands of people like you and nature organisations like the RSPB and WWF, but the SNP were not listening. They argued that they were already doing enough on this issue and in the end their votes were enough to block it.

I set out the case as to why the Scottish Parliament should declare a nature emergency, and my colleague Alison Johnstone focused on the need for urgent action on Scotland’s grouse moors. You can watch my speech here and Alison's here. 

Thank you so much for backing our campaign. We might not have made it happen this time round, but I’m proud that we brought this debate to Parliament – it was the first time the Scottish Parliament has debated nature issues for years - and together we’ve exposed the huge challenges we face if we’re to win. And rest assured that the Scottish Greens will keep the pressure on and will keep on fighting for Scotland’s wildlife.  In fact, next week new legislation will be coming to the Scottish Parliament that is meant to ensure environmental protections from the EU continue to apply. The Greens will propose strengthening nature protections – I’ll let you know more very soon!

We’ll be giving the nature emergency a lot of thought over the coming weeks, and will especially be thinking about how we address this critical issue in our manifesto for the elections next year. If you have thoughts or ideas or just want to respond to today’s debate, just reply to this email.

All the best

Mark Ruskell 

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Stay safe, stay well, stay strong, stay connected with nature