 I ask those members who wish to speak in the debate to press their requests to speak buttons. oesio'r ysgol iaeth yn ei paramol iaeth, ac mae'r bod yn dwylo'r cyfle oherwydd i ddweud, gyda'r Llywodraeth Cymru. The next item of business is a debate on motion 1769 in the name of Michael Matheson on global ambitions for COP26. I would ask those members who wish to speak in the debate to press their request to speak buttons now. I call on cabinet secretary Michael Matheson to speak to and to move the motion. I welcome the opportunity to be able to debate the imminent COP26 summit in Glasgow and to outline the Scottish Government's plans and ambitions for what is a historical event. I assure members that a key priority for this administration is the successful delivery of COP26, along with our net zero on climate commitments in the years beyond the event itself. COP26 is our best and, indeed, possibly our last chance to deliver the goals of the 2015 Paris agreement, to match the signs and respond to the climate emergency that we see all around us. To achieve our global goals, delegates must arrive with enhanced national determining contributions that keep the prospects of 1.5 centigrade alive. However, the First Minister spoke plainly on Monday that their pledges must be backed by action, and not just from the point of view of keeping 1.5 alive. The issues of fairness and justice are at the heart of the climate crisis, and we have a responsibility to take decisive, meaningful action to support all of us. We are proudly proud of the significant progress that Scotland has made in decarbonising our economy, reducing our greenhouse gas emissions in 2019 by 51.5 per cent on the 1990 levels, while increasing economic growth in Scotland. Indeed, the United Kingdom's independent statutory adviser, the Committee on Climate Change, commanded us on decarbonising faster than any other G20 country since 2008. Our updated climate change plan provides a clear and credible pathway to continuing this trend to beyond 2032. Last year, the equivalent of 96 per cent of gross electricity consumption came from renewable sources, and by the end of this year, we will have allocated £1 billion since 2019 to tackle fuel poverty and improve energy efficiency. That is underpinned by the Scottish Government, which concerns for almost one gigawatt of renewable energy in the past two years alone. Over this payment, we are investing at least £1.8 billion to decarbonise homes and building heating, which will both reduce emissions while creating green jobs. We are also building on £1.7 billion for sustainable public transport in this financial year, and I have introduced legislation for free bus travel for those aged under 22. I will give way to Mr Kerr. The cost of the heat and buildings strategy is about £33 billion. The cabinet secretary has just talked about putting in £1.8 billion, so where is the balance going to come from and from whom? The member will recognise that it is a very ambitious target, but funding of this will come from a number of sources—part public sector, part private sector—and changes in the way in which we deliver heat in individual buildings, and the way in which was set out by my colleague Patrick Harvie during the course of his statement. Scotland, of course, can point to the successes that we have made. This Government has prioritised the climate emergency and introduced a rigorous legislative framework that underpins our climate emissions journey. After all, a crisis of this scale warrants a collective unified political response. The Scottish Parliament has, rightly so, set highly ambitious, legally binding annual targets of 75 per cent by 2030 and net zero by 2045 to reduce emissions, all of which are to be met without a reliance on offsetting credits. Scotland's ambitious and global leadership goes beyond what the IPCC report says is required to deliver the aims of the Paris agreement, as set out in our own indicative nationally determined contribution for COP26. Although, of course, I am proud of the progress so far, I have absolutely no doubt that our aim to decarbonise emissions through a just transition in the next 10 years will be challenging. In line with the requirements of Scotland's climate change legislation, we have today laid in Parliament an emissions reduction catch-up report, which sets out the additional emissions reductions that are required to make up the annual target missed in 2019. The policies and proposals included in the report will supplement our ambitious and transformational commitments in the updated climate change plan and advance and strengthen Scotland's emission reduction pathway laid out to 2032. We are proud of both Scotland's world-leading targets and that we take accountability for any missed annual goals in this way, ensuring that the promises that we make are underpinned by urgent and ambitious action. I will give way to the member. Michael Marra. I appreciate the minister giving way. He speaks of a collective unified political response. Can I ask the minister how many times he personally has met the UK Government in support of the ACORN project for the carbon capture in Aberdeenshire? In the course of probably the last month alone, I would say probably at least two, if not three occasions where I have raised a matter specifically with him on this issue. Turning now to COP itself, we are delivering an ambitious programme of events that will support the global objectives of COP26, advance our climate agenda, strengthen collaboration and showcase Scottish activity. As the First Minister said earlier this week, climate loss and damage is suffered already by communities around the world due to drought, floods, desertification, loss of life and population displacement. Scotland is therefore committed to doubling our climate justice fund over the next four years, leading the way even as a small nation on this issue. We make the best use of our international role, our networks and our influence, to achieve global change, including launching the net zero future initiative with the climate group and Bloomberg to galvanise state and regional governments. Our aim is to act as a bridge between those outside the formal negotiations and those inside the room. Through to our responsibilities as hosts, we will look to amplify a diversity of voices from less-herd nations and people. We are working alongside children and young people, those who face the greatest impact of the climate crisis so that they have meaningful opportunities to participate and can powerfully advocate for their future. We want children and young people, regardless of background and location, to have the opportunity to act as climate ambassadors with peers in their communities and on a global stage. That is why we are providing opportunities for children and young people from Scotland and across the world to work together on climate action to support the conference of youth. We have launched a series of initiatives to engage wider communities across Scotland in powering them to take action, while we support the international implementation of global citizens assemblies as a means to ensure the views of people worldwide are heard. We have worked in solidarity alongside our colleagues in the global south, ensuring that their voices are heard and that they can participate in shaping the ambition of COP26. Through initiatives, including the Glasgow climate dialogue, the women's environment development organisation and the Malawi climate leaders, and we have created multiple opportunities for Scotland at COP26 to showcase and raise the profile of our renewable energy sector and our transportation sector decarbonisation, positioning Scotland at the vanguard of action internationally and as an exhilarator for system change. We are working in partnership with Scottish businesses to exhilarate their journey towards net zero and to support a just transition, enabling them to adapt and leverage new, fairer and greener opportunities for all. In this way, we will lay the groundwork for more easier ways in which to get to net zero and to create climate resilience in our economy by 2045, whilst at the same time retaining a focus on tackling inequality and injustice in our country. I am proud of Scotland's world-leading targets and the responsibility and accountability that we are taking. We wish to ensure that the promises that we make are underpinned by urgent and ambitious action, even if the terms of the devolution settlement do not allow us to access fully many of the levers of control that decarbonisation requires. Absolutely fundamental to action on emissions reductions will be for the UK Government to match Scotland's level of ambition and act with us in areas such as electricity, policy and regulation and rebalancing energy prices. On fuel duty, we have been calling for a review of, as a mechanism for demand management, for car travel. Although the net zero strategy from the UK Government emphasises technological advances, it does not go far enough in tackling this issue. Regardless, Scotland is acting decisively, focusing on the transition to clean technology, reducing demand for high-emission products and encouraging behaviour shift to that end. We look forward to sharing our approach with international partners at COP26 as an example of world-leading best practice. Underpinning that, we have set stretching delivery targets, for example, to reduce by 20 per cent by 2030 km. Those are the measures that will help to achieve our targets, Presiding Officer. I would like to finish by once again welcoming the world to Scotland for COP26 summit in Glasgow and to thank all those who have contributed to enabling the summit to take place. I echo the First Minister's call for world leaders gathering in Glasgow to take the necessary action in their own countries to keep the target of 1.5 degrees and beyond very much alive. I look forward to contributions this afternoon, Presiding Officer, and I look forward to engaging with delegates and stakeholders over the coming weeks as we take part in COP26. I call Liam Kerr to speak to move amendment 1, 7, 6, 9.4. We too welcome the world to Glasgow next week as the UK takes over the presidency of COP26. It will be an extraordinary event, but one whose importance cannot be downplayed. I have lodged an amendment, which I hear by move, but let me start by acknowledging that the unamended part of the motion picks up what many commentators suggest is our last opportunity to limit global warming and deliver on the Paris agreement and that immediate and rapid action on emissions reduction and investment in low-emission and zero-carbon technology must be made. I am pleased that the UK, the United Kingdom, has the opportunity to showcase its track record on combating climate change and to seek to lead by example. That example is clear, yes. Rishi Sunak spoke today for an hour on the budget without even mentioning climate. He has lowered tax on beer and wine while polluting the rivers. Maybe we should be grateful for that because it sounds like we will not be able to drink the water. He has incentivised internal flights within the UK by lowering taxes on flights that are already cheaper than train travel. How can you say that the UK is leading on climate change when those are their policies? I am very grateful to the member for the invitation to say how the UK is leading. Britain has cut emissions by about 44 per cent since 1990. That is the fastest decline in the G7, while increasing the size of the economy by about 78 per cent. Denmark is the only other OECD country to have achieved a similar level of reductions. The UK is the second highest-performing country in the Climate Change Performance Index. The Yale ranking of the greenest countries in the world across 32 performance indicators places the UK fourth. If only climate change and CO2 emissions are measured, second. What of the leadership role? The UK was the first major economy to put into law targets to reach net zero by 2050 and updated them just this year. The UK is the largest producer of offshore wind energy in the world. The UK is doubling its international climate finance to help to develop in nations with 11.6 billion a year by 2025. The UK Government has produced a net zero strategy in which it sets out how it plans to deliver its net zero targets by 2050, which the cabinet secretary was a little down on, which is surprising because, of course, the climate change committee described it as ambitious, comprehensive and achievable and affordable vision, which sets a globally deliverable benchmark to take to COP26. It also points out that it is the most comprehensive in the G20. I listened earlier this week when Nicola Sturgeon called on world leaders to take credible action, not face-saving slogans to achieve net zero. Listening to the cabinet secretary just now with his relentless self-congratulation, perhaps he did not get the memo because, in data that we are all too familiar with, we know that this Government missed five out of seven climate targets set out in its 2018 plan. This Government has missed its own legal emissions targets for three years in a row. This Government's commitment to ban biodegradable landfill waste in Scotland by 2021 has been pushed back to 2025, and this Government has slashed the budget for agri environmental measures this year by nearly £10 million. Four days before COP26 begins, the new minister Patrick Harvie is forced to admit the Scottish Government's latest failure on its renewable heat target. World-leading targets, cabinet secretary, in a catch-up plan and matching ambition, some might say that's a face-saving slogan. We haven't even talked about transport, the largest single source of greenhouse gases, which has only been reduced in Scotland by about 0.5 per cent since 1990, and the context in which car journeys in Scotland have increased is about 8 per cent since 2016. I pointed out in August that to meet the required target of 30,000 EV charges, we need roughly 4,000 extra charging points a year. I asked where the plan was to do that, and yesterday I got a parliamentary question answer. There is no plan. Apparently, we learned that there are too few charges in Glasgow to charge the EVs ordered for this summit. With Glasgow on the eve of hosting COP26, Britain's largest ever summit, this SNP-led Glasgow City Council is an utter disgrace by allowing rancid conditions in Glasgow streets to multiply. Leading to a cleansing crisis, that was entirely preventable. To be clear, the SNP in Glasgow has cut the number of staff in our city's cleansing services. Is there a question you're putting to Mr Kerr? Height council tax by 4 per cent every year. It could be not have another speech, please. Can you put a question, please, Mr Gohani? Does my friend agree that Glasgow council is miles worse off with the SNP Government with the SNP City Council and is incompetent? I'm very grateful to the member for the intervention. I absolutely agree with that. I think that the member makes a very important point in the context of this debate, because this is about COP26. As the cabinet secretary said, the eyes of the world will be on Glasgow, an SNP council doing the bidding of an SNP government. What are delegates coming to? Road closures across the city. ScotRail on strike, because the Scottish Government shamefully refuses to get involved and the Minister for Transport has no idea his own words why it's happening. Refuse and recycling workers, school cleaners, janitors, catering staff, lawyers on strike, thanks to the legacy of nearly £1 billion of SNP cuts to local authority budgets in the last six years, which I suspect is what Dr Gohani was referring to. An accommodation crisis, as many as 3,000 people coming to Glasgow not yet having anywhere to stay. COP26 is a fantastic opportunity to showcase the UK and drive some real global change. We must do this together as one united kingdom. The UK Government is providing almost £100 million to Scotland for COP26 to ensure this event happens, which I'm delighted about. I'm sure the cabinet secretary will be too. Let's together show that leadership. Let's together show that leadership. Have the Scottish Government finally started taking that credible action to show the example to the rest of the world and recognise that, working together, we must seize this last opportunity before it's too late? Thank you. I now call on Monica Lennon to speak to you in move amendment 1, 7, 6, 9.1. Thank you, Presiding Officer. There are just four days to go until COP26 kicks off in Glasgow and on behalf of Scottish Labour. Police was speaking in today's debate on the global ambitions for this momentous climate summit. We need to be honest about the challenges ahead. We should take heart that there are solutions and keep a sharp focus on the bold actions that we must take to limit global warming and keep more than a half degrees alive. As the cabinet secretary has said, COP26 is regarded as the last best chance to avert climate catastrophe. That is how important the summit is. While COP26 is focused on securing international agreement, Friends of the Earth Scotland are right to say that the real action to tackle the climate crisis takes place at the national and local level. Today, we welcome and support the Scottish Government motion, but we should be using this time in the chamber. I am sure that the Government will welcome this to scrutinise and challenge the Scottish Government and to partner across Scotland to do more and to work with the entire Scottish Parliament, to work with local authorities, businesses and citizens to achieve more. In the debate, we will hear some of the precise actions that need to be given priority by the Scottish Government, but I want to take a moment to comment on the unique opportunity that we have in Scotland during the 12 days of the summit. The great city of Glasgow is providing the stage for COP26. That should fill us with pride. We should embrace this unique opportunity to show the best of Scotland and to provide leadership at home and internationally. However, it is also important that we get our own house in order. That is why the on-going organisation of workers through their trade unions is a strength. We should welcome that, because climate justice and social justice, justice for workers, are two sides of the same coin. Empowering and valuing workers is key to securing a just transition. Today, on those benches, we send a message of solidarity to workers who are taking industrial action and to all those who are fighting for fair work and for climate justice. As closed gaps say in their briefing today, we cannot have a just transition without enabling women and men to equally benefit from the shift in the labour market towards green jobs and a new future. That is something that we have to reflect on today. I hear a lot about ambition. I see Scotland as an ambitious nation, and the Scottish Government has rightly been working towards ambitious climate targets. We can all take stock listening to Greta Thunberg, who said that Scotland is not a world leader on climate change. Greta, not yet, not yet, but we can be. I hope that many of us will be out on the streets of Glasgow with Greta Thunberg, with the workers and with the people of Scotland who want to see urgent change. For our part, Scottish Labour has consistently called on the Scottish Government to be bolder and to take quicker action to tackle climate change. We believe that Scotland has the potential to lead Europe's green energy revolution, putting green jobs at the heart of new employment, training and manufacturing opportunities across Scotland. The people of Scotland have promised 100,000 green jobs under renewables revolution. A fraction of the jobs have been delivered, so we understand why people across Scotland, particularly in the north east, feel a little cynical about the prospect of a just transition, so we must get on and deliver it. Looking at some of the targets, I know that Liam Kerr has touched on a couple of stats that have come out today. We have learned that the Scottish Government's target of 11 per cent of non-electrical heat demand coming from renewable sources by 2020 was missed. Only 6.4 per cent was achieved, and that is a decrease on 2019. We are not quite getting there in terms of some of those targets. In the interest of time, I will speed this up. I want to come back to the ambition for a public energy company. We do not want that to kick down the road. It is a real opportunity to be a game changer. The market-led energy model continues to fail customers and workers, and our transition will simply be too slow if we leave that work in the hand of the market. On the circular economy, I do not know if Maurice Golden is speaking today. I think that it looks like he will be, so I am sure that he will cover that. I was disappointed about the Scottish Government's recent announcement on waste and incineration. Friends of the Air Scotland have called this position a burner's charter, and I hope that the minister will reflect on that. De-carbonising transport must be the urgent priority. ScotRail, we are seeing proposed cuts, 300 service cuts a day. Today, we have landed the day-tripper. The concessionary travel scheme is being axed. Just at a time when Coptra's ex-delegates are getting free transport, we are getting a bit muddled here. We have seen buses in my region disappear like the X1. I want to briefly mention Campbell, more than 60 charities, unions and community groups of Urshnicla Sturgeon, to explicitly condemn the Campbell oilfield proposal. There is a letter and article in the national today, so perhaps my colleagues on the SNP convention will have a read at that. We need to speak up. The children of Scotland are saying this is the moment. We need to take that moment. We need to put our ambitions into action, and I move the amendment in my name. I now call Liam McArthur to speak to and to move amendment 1, 7, 6, line, point 3. I also add my welcome and that of the Scottish Liberal Democrats to delegates and others arriving in Scotland for COP26, as the motion rightly recognises. Others have already said that this may well be humanity's last opportunity to limit global warming and deliver on the ambitions set in the Paris summit 2015. It is a weighty responsibility but one that we cannot afford to shirk. Ministers often talk of this Parliament having passed world-leading climate legislation. I agree that the legislation passed unanimously by this Parliament is stretching. I am proud of the role that my party played in forcing the Government to be more ambitious in setting an interim target of 75 per cent of emission reductions by 2030. However, Greta Thunberg is right in questioning the extent to which ministers have followed through on the commitments that are made in the target set. We know from the figures published back in June that once again the Government missed its overall targets. Earlier today, Patrick Harvie revealed that on renewable heat, far from hitting the targets, the Government is actually going backwards. In short, we are nowhere near where we need to be in reducing Scotland's emissions. If the picture is worrying in relation to heat, it is a little better when it comes to transport. Domestic transport accounts for around a third of emissions in Scotland. It is the single biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions and rates have scarcely budged from 1990 levels. Addressing this should be a priority and we will need a multifaceted approach. It must include a step change, for example, in the scale of ambition on EV roll-out, including charging infrastructure incentives and the faster phasing out of petrol and diesel vehicles. It will need the Government to reverse cuts to rail services and expand provision as well as accessibility. It needs, as we will hear in the debate that follows this, a strategic approach to ferry replacement. What it absolutely does not need is the SNP Government's continued support for a third runway at Heathrow. That would deliver 75,000 extra flights and 600,000 extra tonnes of carbon pollution to Scotland on the eve of COP26 to retain any credibility on climate. The First Minister should rip up the Government's contract with Heathrow to support a third runway. Lorna Slater and Patrick Harvie should be standing by with the recycling bin in which to dump it. Before concluding, I want to briefly highlight what is happening in Orkney, as I believe that it offers an insight into what can be done to meet the climate challenges that we face. As we heard at the SPRI cross-party group last night, Orkney really is the energy islands with world firsts and world leading innovation. From the first turbine on Burger Hill in the 1970s to the European Marine Energy Centre being established in 2003 to the world's most powerful tidal turbine orbital connected earlier this year, as the Minister will know better than most. More recently still, there is the news of plans to transform the oil terminal in Flota into a hydrogen production facility using offshore wind produced west of Orkney. Tied in with innovative projects looking to develop hydrogen ferries, low-emission aircraft and the decarbonisation of heat across the islands, it shows how Orkney is playing a pioneering role in the transition to net zero and the creation of green jobs. It should be backed by both the UK and Scottish Government in terms of funding but also a supportive regulatory environment. It represents the sort of bold, innovative action that we will need to see from Scottish and UK ministers if we are to rise to the challenge of being a global leader in tackling climate change. We must raise our eyes beyond the horizon of our own interests and COP must work in leadership as an engine of a global attack on climate emissions, mitigation and adaptation, which brings together the global north and the global south. There is only one world and there is only this one last chance. A just transition means ensuring that nobody is left behind globally as well as nationally. It is vital that world leaders listen, engage and understand those who are experiencing climate change now from the countries and people who did the least to cause the climate emergency. Global south countries are bearing the brunt of global climate change with warming temperatures, unpredictable weather patterns, driving economic hardship, food insecurity and migration, with mass displacement of people. In September this year, the Glasgow climate dialogues took place co-convened by the Stop Climate Claims Alliance and the Scottish Government, providing detailed recommendations from global south leadership to inform discussions at COP26. Recommendations from those dialogues include the need for industrialised, polluting countries to significantly increase the financial support available to help impacted communities, adapt to spiralling climate impacts and the need to ensure a global just transition based on the UNFCCC principles of common but differentiated responsibilities. I'm enjoying our contribution thus far. Presumably, the member also welcomes the doubling of the UK's international climate finance to £11.6 billion a year by 2025. I think that it's really important that we all increase our climate funding but we can't use it to mask over cuts in international development aid, which the UK Government and indeed others have done. It's important that we welcome that but be mindful of how it might be presented. Yesterday, I heard from Dr Asher from the Red Cross, Kenya, about the need to provide funding for loss, mitigation and adaptation. Those priorities must be placed at the heart of COP26 by participants. The editors of more than 100 respected medical journals across the world published a common editorial calling for emergency action to limit global temperature increases, restore biodiversity and protect health. The joint article points to the chilling fact that, in the past 20 years, heat-related deaths among those over 65 had increased by more than 50 per cent. A decade ago in my previous role as a minister, I remember calling on the EU to prepare for environmental refugees fleeing Northern Africa. The displacement of millions of people because of the climate emergency will be a consequence of actions from the Pluton Global North. People, businesses and organisations across the country are active and ready to work towards a drive to net zero. Just last week, in the Festival of Politics, we heard from David Farker, CEO of Intelligent Growth Solutions, who shared the global opportunities of vertical farming to support the exponential global demand for food at a time when we need to reduce farming emissions. That is a great global innovation driven from Scotland. Innovation has to be global and it has to be shared. The climate emergency presents us with one big challenge, but there are many solutions. We must be conscious and non-judgmental of how other countries with different experiences strive for change. Scotland and the wider UK who contributed and led the industrial revolution must listen and embrace and not judge too swiftly those who are following our past path but help and share experience in transitioning to greener energy and technologies. In conclusion, yes, we have one of the most ambitious pieces of climate change legislation in the world. Because of that, we have more responsibility. People around the world will be watching how we turn our goals into actions and we must lead by example. We are going to have to move faster, quicker and over more areas with more solutions than we thought. We are going to have to stretch our capabilities. Yes, this is a global challenge, but there is not one global solution. Justice and fairness at home and abroad must be at the heart of our ambitions. We only succeed when we all succeed, east, west, north and most definitely south. We have one world, we have one chance. Thank you. I now call Maurice Golden. Do we follow about Alasdair Allan up to four minutes, please, Mr Golden? Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. COP26 has been held against a backdrop of a worsening climate crisis. Over the past year, we have seen severe weather events tear across this planet, soaring temperatures in the US, dust storms and cyclones in the Far East and flash floods across Europe, including here in the UK. Property has been damaged, businesses ruined and, worst of all, lives have been lost. There is no doubting the warning from COP26 President Alex Sharmer that the cost of an action on climate change is most definitely greater than the cost of action. We can be proud that Britain is taking action, amongst the world's major economies. Britain was the first to establish legal targets to reach net zero by 2050 and is decarbonising the fastest. In fact, Britain is now the second highest-performing country in the climate change performance index. Britain is committed to helping the rest of the world to take climate action as well, committing £11.6 billion a year by 2025 to help developing nations. The combination of action at home and a helping hand overseas gives Britain enormous climate credibility. We lead by example, and that is vital if we are to convince others to take action that is needed to limit warming to 1.5 degrees. Deputy Presiding Officer, COP26 gives Scotland a platform to aid that effort. What WWF Scotland described as a historic opportunity to help to create a race to the top on climate action. I have always welcomed the Scottish Government's setting ambitious climate targets, ambition that can encourage others to set their own bar higher, especially other devolved Governments around the world. Welcome, as that ambition is, there is simply no getting around the fact that emissions targets have been missed for three years in a row. So, where the Conservative UK Government is building credibility, this SNP-Green coalition is running it out. To be credible, the Scottish Government must, at a minimum, deliver Scotland's emissions targets. We can afford no more excuses. Not my words but a damning assessment from Oxfam. This is the SNP's problem on the environment. Quick to tell everyone what they want to do, just not very good at actually doing it. Let's look at that record. It was very enlightening to hear the member discuss Britain's credentials in tackling the climate emergency. I wonder if he might want to reflect how much Scotland's renewable potential and the ample scope of our natural environment, including in peatland restoration and tree planting, given that we are planting 80 per cent of the UK's trees, just how much that has contributed to Britain's credentials that he mentions. Let's look at the SNP's track record. Air quality standards have not been met for 10 years in a row. Out of 20 international biodiversity targets, over half were missed. A renewable heat target has been missed, along with the target for locally generated renewables. Recycling is going backwards, with a rate worse than 2016. Incineration capacity, skyrocketing and SNP and Greens could end up having to import waste to burn. Glasgow, COP26, the SNP-run council has plunged the city into a growing crisis of rubbish and rats, but that is not all. It failed to eradicate fuel poverty by 2016, and it broke the promise to deliver 28,000 green jobs. It failed to meet its cycling target. Currently, it will take 290 years to make it. Public transport and active travel use for commuters is down. 2 per cent of plastic waste collected here in Scotland is actually recycled here. Three tonnes of waste a minute leave Scotland. It failed to introduce a landfill ban on biodegradable waste. DRSs are shambles, businesses are in the dark, even though the SNP has been working on it for a decade and they cancelled Zero Waste Scotland's textiles programme. I genuinely hope that Scotland can set out an example for the rest of the world, but with the SNP and the Greens in government, I really fear for it. In 1869, a poem was collected by the folklorist Alexander Carmichael in Iochger in South Uist and published in the second volume of Carmina Gadelicar. The poem predicts this for one fertile coastal area of Uist. Tornish of the barley with the great sea around its middle, the walls of the churches shall be the fishing rocks of the people, while the resting place of the dead shall be a forest of tangles among whose mazes the pale faced mermaid, the marled seal and the brown otter shall race and run and leap like the children of men at play. The poem is, members may find, unnervingly prophetic of the coming disasters that sea level rises will bring to coastal regions across the world. Unless the reference to mermaids makes you inclined to dismiss it, that is, I should say, far from the only unsettling and very specific prophecy of its kind in Gaelic folklore. It mirrors many of the same fears that are now voiced within contemporary scientific debate. Global sea levels rose by three centimetres in the past decade, but it is predicted to get worse. The most recent UN report on climate change in August 2021 warned that we could see the ocean ascend nearly one metre or more by the end of the century. Such outcomes threaten many societies existentially. Under that scenario, island nations such as the Maldives and Tuvalu will simply disappear. Cities including New York, Shanghai and Calcutta will be exposed to coastal flooding by 2070 and Bangladesh could lose up to a fifth of its land mass, displacing some 15 to 20 million people. Scotland will not be immune. Among places that will be particularly vulnerable are low-lying areas with soft coasts of Machard, including Uist, Islay and Tyree, as well as Sandy in Orkney. Large tracts of arable land in Uist were created through centuries of drainage programmes. However, that means that land is often below the mean high water mark. If a storm large enough broke through the Machard dunes, that land could become inundated, possibly permanently so. In the aftermath of the deadly 2005 storm, the primary school close to the shore in Balavanech was abandoned and a new one built further away from the sea. Presiding Officer, multiply that up and you see the kind of threat and cost that now faces human infrastructure across much of the planet. However, the climate crisis will undermine intangible cultural heritage too, many of the kinds of things that make it worth being human. So it is important that the debates on climate change take notice of indigenous voices in addition to science and reflect on the cumulative experience and knowledge of these societies, whether they be in Greenland or Tuvalu or Uist. The Gaelic word for a person, dunia, literally means one who is from the land. They inhabit a homeland or dui. The social and ecological bond that ties the two together is duchus, an intranslatable concept comprising heritage, culture, ancestry and identity, concentrated within a place made sacred. Be in no doubt that rising sea levels represent a threat to all of that as well as to everything else. We should listen to the breadth and depth of information that exists in endangered and indigenous languages across the globe. That information is not only relevant to fully understanding the crises that we face, it may perhaps just also point to a way out of them. The First Minister said earlier this week that COP26 must produce credible action, not face-saving solutions. I would certainly agree with that. Yet, unfortunately, face-saving is the default setting of this Government all too often. No platitudes to world leaders, no gestures at the conference, no greenwashing of the Government benches here in Holyrood can change that. So many issues, there is a gulf between rhetoric and reality under the SNP and it has been exposed by COP. This is no time for self-congratulation in Scottish politics. It is time for some self-awareness in Scottish politics. The Scottish Government must confront their own record. The Government motion specifically refers to the co-operation agreement between the Scottish Greens and the SNP. It is what that agreement means for transport that I want to address today, which we know from other speakers as a major emitter. The Labour amendment in the name of Monica Lennon makes clear delivering better, regulated, regular, connected, affordable public transport in the interests of Scotland's passengers is one of the principal ways in which we can make a difference. As Monica Lennon said on the very day that the SNP and the Greens announced their coalition, Scotland unveiled a consultation on a new timetable that will cut 300 services per day on pre-pandemic levels. That means drastic reductions in rail services to and from Glasgow, the COP26 host city. The transport minister has defended that consultation. He has refused to accept calls to restore services to pre-pandemic levels. He has ignored those concerning against reducing rail capacity when we are facing a climate emergency. I will be interested to hear the thoughts of the Green Minister on that in the summing up, perhaps. We know that car travel has already returned to pre-pandemic levels, but public transport has not. Model shift to our railways is essential, but we cannot achieve model shift that Scotland needs if the Government makes it harder for people to leave the car at home. That is a critical challenge for us. I want to acknowledge the rail workers who kept Scotland moving throughout the pandemic, even if there is a resolution to the outstanding RMT dispute that will happen during COP. The past few months have still been immensely difficult for industrial relations on the railways. The Scottish Government must take its share of responsibility for that. Going forward, the new publicly owned ScotRail must provide proper representation for trade unions and its governance structures. Passengers must be represented too. They deserve improving affordable services. There is no reason to hike passenger fares in the coming year, which is what is set to happen. Again, it is chasing people away from using public transport. However, the most common form of public transport is not the train, but the bus. However, bus services, as Monica Lennon also said, are in decline to here in Scotland. Under the SNP, the total number of bus passenger journeys in Strathclyde in the south-west, home of the Glasgow city region—again, the whole city of COP—has fallen by 79 million. 48 million vehicle kilometres have been lost from the bus network in the same greater Glasgow and Strathclyde area. Fares are up a fifth, so I will give way to Mr Kerr. I am very grateful. Is the member going to address the fact that Graham Simpson found that there is a 640 million black hole in the SNP's attempt to decarbonise our buses? We clearly need investment in our bus network if we are going to be serious about tackling climate change and the Government needs to ensure that the rhetoric is matching with the reality and the proper resources that it is needed. The bus market in Glasgow is broken in the west of Scotland. Labour has fought for improvements to the transport bill to make local public control a reality through public ownership, but the Scottish Government's bus partnership fund is directed at operator-friendly improvements. There is no strategy to intervene in the market in Glasgow or anywhere else in Scotland and to put the interests of passengers first. If public control is good enough for Edinburgh buses, if it is good enough for London buses, if it is good enough for the modern thriving cities of Europe, then why is it not good enough for Glasgow and the west of Scotland? Public transport should be a public service again if we are serious about tackling the climate emergency. The IPCC's co-dread report shows the clear threat of facing the world, but there is still time if we act now to take collective action and limit the temperature rise to 1.5 degrees. As the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, it is right that Scotland is at the forefront of the Green Revolution. Action is required at the local, national and international levels. In terms of the local, lots of important work has been done to position East Kilbride as a smart, sustainable town. I recently visited an award-winning East Kilbride business retake, which focuses on sustainable IT asset disposal. It was great to see how their operations make a positive impact in the fight against climate change. I hope that companies like that will continue to grow at home and abroad. The Scottish Government is committed to raising global climate ambition and action at all levels and from all sections of society. Launching the world's first climate justice fund almost a decade ago, the SNP Government recognises that those suffering most from climate change are those who have done little to cause it. Recently, Stop Climate Chaos Scotland and the Scottish Government co-convened the Glasgow climate dialogues, enabling citizens from the global south to publish their COP26 demands. As the First Minister said earlier this week, Scotland will help those around the negotiating table to listen to activists, including from the global south. To return to East Kilbride very briefly, does the member agree that the news that the dualling of the East Kilbride railway has been axed is the wrong decision and will she ask the ministers to get back on the table and make sure that we get this back on track? I have written to the Minister for Transport to outline some of the issues that have been raised as well at a local level from East Kilbride. Another important voice in this debate is that of young people, many of whom are so engaged in the fight against global warming. Greta Thunberg will be in Glasgow and I am sure will inspire even more young people to stand up for their future. It is so important that children and young people are able to speak out and encourage leaders to go further. That is why it is so welcome that the Scottish Government is supporting the COP26 youth climate programme with an investment of £450,000 and £350,000 for the conference of youth. I am really looking forward to taking part in the moment on Friday. It will be great to chat with pupils from St Vincent's Primary and East Kilbride, as well as a group of secondary school pupils to discuss the climate and hear the actions that they want to take. The legacy of COP26 has to be rooted in actions. It is our best and possibly last chance to achieve what is required to safeguard our planet. Following the Paris agreement in 2015, the Scottish Government set a legally binding 2030 target to reduce emissions of all major greenhouse gases by at least 75 per cent, compared to baseline levels. Furthermore, we will end Scotland's contribution to climate change by 2045. However, we must deliver a just transition to net zero for people in all parts of Scotland but also for people in all corners of the globe. Scotland is the right place for a COP focused on delivery and action. We are ready to play our part in delivering successful outcomes, and, importantly, the Scottish Government will ensure that the voices of everyone, including our young people and citizens of the global south, are heard. Before I call Mark Ruskell, I remind members that speeches are up to four minutes. We have no extra time, so if you wish to take an intervention, by all means do, but it will be part of your speech timing. Mr Ruskell, to be followed by Jenny Binto. Thank you, Presiding Officer. COP26 is now finally here, and I am sure that many of us in the chamber will have mixed emotions, perhaps a sense of relief that is finally happening, a sense of hope, and a sense of belief that we can deliver better agreements through Glasgow talks. I hope that there is also a sense of collective guilt that there is no Government around the world that has made sufficient enough action to tackle the crisis. The Paris agreement provided a skeleton of the framework to keep needed to keep the world within 1.5 degrees, but it is the Glasgow COP that must now flesh that out with ambition from all nations, acting in solidarity with those who have contributed the least to the crisis but will inevitably suffer the most. The pledges made from states so far simply do not add up, and we are heading towards nearly three degrees of global heating, which would be a huge climate injustice. A crisis based on the idea that some people are worth more than others, as Gretta Thunberg has described it. It is the voice of the marginalised and colonised global south that needs to be heard loud and clear at COP26. I look forward to the Scottish Government amplifying those voices using the Glasgow Dialogs Communicain. The focus on how we cut emissions is critical, but it cannot crowd out discussion and agreement on how to compensate the vast loss and damage to life and the economy that is already happening in the global south. The annual $100 billion pledge made in Paris to help countries adapt is just the starting point and must be delivered in full. This is just the first bill from the cleaner half of the world to the developed nations like us for using our shared atmosphere as a waste dump for generations. It must be paid in full. There are, I suspect, many different Cops taking place in Glasgow, in the blue and green zones on the streets and in private lobbying spaces. For many business sectors that will be providing the product services and, hopefully, the fair work of the future, COP is a great opportunity to build confidence at rapid changes possible now. There is a first move advantage for Governments to drive recovery through investment in innovation supply chains while creating entirely new markets. We also have to recognise that, for many fossil fuel corporations, COP26 is a further opportunity to steal the narrative around just transition, just as it has attempted to control the narrative for years about whether climate change was real. Many corporations continue to spin the myth that maximising economic recovery of every last drop of fossil fuel reserves is totally compatible with climate objectives while parading false solutions such as negative emissions technologies has been capable of lying their business models to continue largely unchanged. The time has come for all Governments to stop copying and pasting drivel from fossil fuel corporations into their energy strategies. For example, the concept of a net zero basin in the North Sea is utterly meaningless when industry wants to scale up from 6 billion to 20 billion barrels of oil and gas extraction. The UN production gap report last week showed how states are planning to allow the extraction of double the amount of fossil fuels that we can afford to burn if we are to stay under 1.5 degrees. We wonder why young people are so angry about the failure of Governments to address their basic facts of physics. The politics and the action has to be in line with the science, and so far it is nowhere close. In conclusion, the post-Cott legacy from us in this Parliament to the young climate strikers, the global south and the world will be to double down on our own climate plans, take responsibility, drive a real just transition and deliver the system change needed to tackle climate change. The hard work has barely even begun. I have been dipping into the radio 4 series 39 Ways to Save the Planet and one episode caught my attention. It was called Local Wisdom. The programme suggested that indigenous knowledge and direct historical experience had lots to offer the world in the journey to net zero. Whether that wisdom is the knowledge that has been passed down through the generations by the Inuits or the astute observations in a 100-year-old Isla Farmer's diary, those are insightful glimpses into how our forebears live their lives in tune with nature. So how do we get back to that? Well, COP26 in Glasgow is a great opportunity, not a once in a lifetime opportunity but perhaps a once in a species opportunity, our species. We should not only demand that our leaders hammer out solutions, we need to inspire them to do so. I get my inspiration and my optimism for the future from the local wisdom I find in abundance in my own community. I suggest that world leaders do the same to keep 1.5 alive. Across our Gile and Bute, people are engaging in finding solutions for climate change and adjust transition. Time for change, our Gile, is one such group and it is mobilising for a better world. Joining the school strikes at Loch Gilpead joint campus and then creating a great blue wave of people along the sea front at Obann to represent rising sea levels and flooding caused by climate change, we are also celebrating our fantastic coastal communities that we must protect. The dynamic coast project has been providing strategic evidence on the extent of coastal erosion across Scotland since 2012 and, as Alistair Allen mentioned, Tyree's natural beaches and sand dunes have in the past provided important protection to the low-lying land behind. Those must continue to be valued and managed to continue providing this protection. As part of COP26, the former slate-producing island of Ling has been chosen as one of the six sites across Scotland to have a Royal Institute of Architects marker made from traditional materials to highlight places potentially affected by rising water levels. Ling, like the neighbouring island of Isdale, is suffering from serious coastal erosion. Its community is investigating different ways to reduce the erosion and working with dynamic coast, giving them a framework to do so. Separately, the community is exploring with hess and high the possibility of mining slate again, starting a community enterprise to provide local material for local use and creating local jobs, bringing back traditional skills to work with a local resource. In other words, local wisdom, combining with science to find workable solutions. There are many more projects happening across Argyll and Bute. Sea Wilding is returning native oysters to Loch Cregnus. They create complex reefs where young fish thrive and biodiversity increases, restoring the health of a local marine environment. Local people are working with the scientists at SAMS. Find futures on Bute are aiming for a carbon zero island. They have a myriad of projects from electric bikes to up-cycling furniture. This year's project encourages activities around growing food, sharing food and making use of local resources whilst learning new skills. Farmers across Argyll and Bute are committed to sustainability but need to be involved in the decisions that will affect them as they know what works for their land. COP26 in Glasgow will bring together senior politicians and scientists from all over the world, but, as well as talking, they need to listen. They need to listen to the women and men of their own communities, people who already possess the local will and wisdom to combat climate change. Of course, I think that Argyll and Bute is special, but it is not alone in being home to people with the local wisdom to find the solutions for climate change. The great and the good at COP26 in Glasgow need to listen to them. Thank you. I call Graeme Simpson. We are followed by Katie Clark. Up to four minutes, please, Mr Simpson. Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. This debate is titled COP26 Action and Ambition. I fear we'll see little of the former and only warm words about the latter because that's what we get in SNP Scotland. Just today we learned that it's target to meet 11 per cent of non-electrical heat demand from renewable sources by 2020 has been missed by a mile. Most of the people of Glasgow and the surrounding area are going to be unaffected by COP26, unless they want to get into and across the city centre, of course. To that end, it will cause a big amount of hassle and inconvenience. Delegates will get the five-star treatment and be kept away from the rubbish in the streets or the creaking public transport system, while locals are told to keep their distance for the fortnight. If anyone does want to get into Glasgow, there will be little point in driving, so you would think that turning to public transport might be an option. Well, not if the RMT have anything to do with it. The barons of that particular union have decided that the latest pay-offer shouldn't be put to members and are hell-bent on causing chaos unless they've changed their minds in the last couple of hours. To strike for the entire period of the conference is irresponsible, they should do the right thing and ditch the strikes. Perhaps if the transport minister did what I've been urging him to do for weeks and get round the table with the RMT, then they could be persuaded to tone down the posturing, for that's what it is. They know nationalisation is coming and they smell blood, but we can see through it, so they need to grow up. After the conference, we need a transport system that's greener, transports the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, and we all know that we need to decarbonise the way we travel, so it's quite ironic that delegates to the conference will be ferried around in electric cars charged up at EV points powered by diesel generators. Who are we trying to kid here? Or they may, if they're lucky, get to go on an electric bus. The Coalition of Causes programme for government announced plans to remove the remaining 4,400 diesel buses currently on the road by 2023. That's a noble and lofty ambition that they'll get nowhere near achieving at current rates. There's £50 million in the pot from the Scottish Zero Mission Bus Challenge Fund when it will take £640 million to replace those 4,400 buses. Now, I'll be taking part in a mass cycle ride to Glasgow a week on Saturday. People from all parts of the UK are wheeling their way to the city, which leads me on to action and ambition. If we want to get people out of cars and on to bikes or public transport, then that needs to be funded. You don't achieve that by cutting rail services and cutting projects like the east rail, the dueling of the east rail ride line that the member for east rail ride didn't give an opinion on earlier. You don't do that. Now, a cycling Scotland survey showed that people would be motivated to cycle if there were more cycle lanes, traffic-free routes and off-road cycle paths, because the main barrier to cycling is not feeling safe on the roads. Cities such as Glasgow and Edinburgh need to show the ambition of, say, Paris and make them bike and pedestrian friendly. We need properly organised and integrated public transport systems, such as London or Manchester. I'm afraid, Presiding Officer, Glasgow is not miles better on this or anything rats apart, but the COP26 delegates won't get to see any of that. I believe that this Parliament needs to be very clear that we need ambitious outcomes from COP26. I don't think that party political pointscoring is necessarily the way to do that, so I hope that over the coming days that we are able to unite with a very clear message on behalf of the people of Scotland that we want to see ambitious outcomes and that we amplify some of the more radical voices that we are going to hear over the coming days and raise our game. I say that because I think that we all need to be humble and recognise the challenge that we face. Greenhouse grass concentrations are at their highest levels in two million years. In 2018, the UN, based on the work of scientists and government reviewers, said that it was necessary that global temperatures rose no more than 1.5 per cent to help us to avoid the worst climate impacts and maintain a livable climate. Even 1.5 per cent of warming will lead to wildfires, dwindling biodiversity, storms growing even more powerful, oceans becoming more acidic and killing off our seas and many of the parts of the planet that we have become so aware of, according to Al Gore's climate reality project. The first thing that the Parliament should be saying is that we have a duty to speak on behalf of the people of Scotland. We recognise that Scotland does not necessarily have a status as such in those negotiations, but our role as the host is one where I believe that we are uniquely placed to give a very clear message and to work with those who are campaigning, who will be on our streets and will be arguing from all parts of the world that it is necessary for there to be a far more ambitious approach to the challenge that we face. We are not one of the 10 countries with the largest emissions. However, as has already been said, the history of the industrial revolution has helped to contribute to the situation that we are in. Between 1988 and 2015, 100 companies producing fossil fuels were responsible for 71 per cent of all global emissions. As a major country that is involved in the energy sector, we need to have a very clear and distinct message in terms of what we say. The role of oil and gas, which makes up 75 per cent of all Scotland's energy consumption and 90 per cent of all heat demand, represents 6.6 per cent of Scotland's GDP and supports more than 100,000 jobs, as well as being a massive export. 82 per cent of Scotland's oil and gas is exported is a key issue in those discussions. The voice of the Scottish Parliament and the voice of the Scottish Government needs to be heard. There has been a lot said about transport in this debate. Scotland no longer has any domestic capacity to build and maintain its own trains. As has already been said, there are massive cuts in train services coming, which is far from the message that we want to be sent in when we are welcoming delegates in a few days' time. I think that we need to send a clear message. I hope that the party political bichar ring is not mainstream in that message and that we unite over the coming days to say that we stand with young people in this country, we stand with those on the streets, we stand with the trade unions and we will fight and argue for a more ambitious proposal to come out of COP26. As politicians, we will be fighting for that. I am pleased to be able to contribute to this afternoon's debate. The impact of COP26 is being felt right across Glasgow, but it is in the former industrial communities of Anderson, Finiston and York Hill that global leaders, delegates and activists will descend in order to discuss and debate the best ways forward for our environment and ultimately our planet. As a nation, Scotland's impact on the world has been significant, and central to this has always been our greatest resource, our people. The excellence of our thinkers and those institutions that educate them continue to be pivotal and will undoubtedly impact the conversations that are taking place at COP26. We know the work to develop a critical thought, Mr Erly, and I warmly welcome Glasgow Caledonian's initiative, the Caledonian club, which works with schools in Glasgow to equip primary five and primary six pupils to answer questions such as what is climate change and its effects and what can I do to raise awareness about climate change. Glasgow Caledonian University is also supporting a series of talks focusing on the climate emergency, improving local and international experts in conversation with girls from Glasgow. This focus on young people and providing them with an environment and platform to flourish is shared by Strathclyde University, who is hosting the United Nations climate change conference of youth. The event is designed to help to prepare young people for their participation in COP26 and ensure that the voice of youth is heard. Against the backdrop of Brexit and the hostile immigration policies of the United Kingdom, I welcome the demonstrations of international co-operation that reinforce Scotland does not share in an isolationist dogma, but instead embraces an outward and collaborative approach to solving truly global problems. Indeed, COP26 is a unique opportunity to showcase Scotland to the world, including what we are doing to meet our world-leading climate targets. A perfect example of that is in Glasgow Kelvin's business, Patrick Technologies. Their CEO moved from India to Scotland in order to attend the nautical college before eventually graduating from Strathclyde University with a master's degree and an idea. That idea developed into a technology to capture, converge and convert energy from waste heat, wind and waves into mechanical vibrations, producing profitable zero-carbon electricity, and revolutionary work being done in Glasgow that could power our homes and electric cars for many years to come. Once again, the excellence of Scottish education, which has been safeguarded by successive SNP Governments, attracted and developed the best and brightest, and we are delighted to call Patrick Technologies a local success. In summing up, with the Scottish Government committed to delivering the ambitious targets of net zero emissions by 2045 and an interim target of a 75 per cent reduction by 2030, I am proud of the world-leading research and development that is currently under way in Kelvin and Scotland and work that could provide the solutions to those global challenges being addressed at COP26. Tackling the climate emergency, we've heard today must be a shared national and indeed global endeavour. The IPCC is made clear that we don't have the luxury of timing everything that we do needs to be seen through the prism of the climate emergency. Therefore, I think it was right that Fiona Hyslop urged us to raise our horizons, particularly in the interests of those affected most but least responsible for and is able to cope with the effects of climate change. However, even in our own self-interest, the need to act is obvious. I thought that Alasdair Allan made an excellent speech and pointed to the impacts of rising sea levels in the communities that he represents. He even alluded to the island that I was brought up on, which I have long known as low-lying and at particular risk of rising sea levels. Therefore, in a spirit of our own self-interest, we need to be acting. More as golden, I thought graphically outlined the worsening picture that we are seeing in terms of severe weather patterns in terms of the costs that that is incurring. It reminds us that the costs of inaction are considerably greater than any cost that we face in taking the required action and the fatal consequences that we are seeing more and more. I thought that Katie Clark made a reasonable point in pointing to the predictable back and forth that we had between SNP and Tory colleagues between who should show the more blame, the accusation and counter-accusation about mis-targets, counterproductive actions and the need to do more. However, the UK Government and the Scottish Government and, as Mark Ruskell said, all Governments clearly need to do more. I set out earlier some of the actions that Scottish Liberal Democrats have been proposing in terms of the Climate Emergency Community Fund, such as the Highlands and Islands Just Transition Commission, and in the area of transport, which was the focus of many colleagues' remarks in the OBBI in particular, focused on the need for a modal shift and making it easier for people to get out of their cars. However, even where they remain in their cars, we need to reduce the carbon impact of that. We need to expand the charging infrastructure for EVs, we need to see Government-backed rental schemes and, indeed, loan schemes to increase the take-up, and we need to decarbonise other areas of transport as well. I pointed in my own remarks to what is happening in Orkney in relation to ferries and in terms of air services. As Graham Simpson reminded us, transport is Scotland's largest source of emissions. Heathrow is the single biggest producer of emissions, yet the Scottish Government holds a contract with the single's biggest polluter, aimed at adding around 75,000 flights between Scotland and London by 2040. That is not tenable, it is not credible and it is not sustainable. The First Minister should be encouraged by her green colleagues, by her own members, to bend this ahead of COP26. We have heard a great deal today about this being our last best chance, but in order to take advantage of what Jenny Minthaw described as a once-in-a-species opportunity, we need to move from talk of world-leading legislation to world leading action. The world is watching and COP26 must see the Scottish, the UK and all Governments walk the talk and I move the amendment in my name. Today's motion recognises the disproportionate impact of climate change on those least responsible for it. As colleagues across the chamber have said today, we are seeing this right across the world, from coastal erosion in Bangladesh to erratic rainfall and droughts in Malawi. We need to work together. I was delighted to see the Dear Green Place launched in the Scotsman today. It is a Glasgow-inspired partnership storytelling project, linking young people from the country's most acutely affected by the climate emergency, with journalism students in Scotland and across the UK. It aims to raise awareness amongst the public and add to the voices calling for climate justice from world leaders who are arriving in our Dear Green Place for the world's biggest climate change conference. That is absolutely vital, because we need the leaders gathering in Glasgow to make the necessary changes in their own countries to keep the target of 1.5 degrees alive, make sure that it is achieved and, vitally, deliver on the funding commitments made in Paris to support countries in the global south in tackling climate change and its impacts. However, while the cabinet secretary talked about the importance of action in the global scale in his opening remarks, he did not really reflect on the fact that the annual emissions targets have been missed for three years in a row by the SNP Government. That is why we are calling today on the coalition SNP green government to use the powers that it has, such as planning powers, to realise Scotland's full potential in the renewable energy sector, to create local green jobs in communities across Scotland, to implement a bold industrial strategy to grow domestic supply change and take the necessary steps to secure a just transition for Scotland so that no one, no family, no community is left behind as we transition to net zero. That needs political leadership that Monica Lennon highlighted in her speech. We need bold action in our homes, how they are insulated, how they are heated and use this to drive fuel poverty into a thing of the past. One in four of our households were experiencing fuel poverty in 2019, and that was before this year's rising costs. We need the action, the community and cooperative heat networks, that we know work but our councils need the support and the finance from the Scottish Government to deliver. It is a huge opportunity to create jobs and training right across our society and to reach every one of our communities. However, as others have commented, we need our Government to work together. Something we do not see happening. The SNP minister won't work with his own colleagues in local government Glasgow to get a solution for the workers who are so vital to maintaining a healthy environment in the city. The Conservatives in the UK Parliament haven't convened a GMC meeting bringing national and devolved governments around the tables in 2018. Why has there not been a GMC on climate and environmental issues set up? Posturing right across the chamber will not solve the climate emergency, as several colleagues have commented. Where is the work on cross-border high-speed rail? Where is the new capacity to ensure an increase in long-distance freight? We have also called for better, interconnected and affordable public transport and again support across the chamber for this and investment in active travel. If we are going to get a model shift from cars, we need better alternatives. We need to entice people to make it possible for them to use different options. We have seen discussions going down to the wire with the rail unions. It has been embarrassing to watch over months as we have seen the Government dragging its feet on giving key workers a fair pay deal. That is against the backdrop of the cut services that Neil Bibby talked about. We need action. We need more public transport, not less, especially after a pandemic, where people are using their cars more. Train use is 50 per cent lower than pre-pandemic levels, and research shows that many people are deterred from using trains because they are worried about the enforcement of face coverings and they are worried about social distancing from other passengers. Passengers could also be facing potential fare hikes of up to 200 quid extra for a season ticket on key commuter routes that are already expensive. We need to encourage people and make it possible. We need more attractive services and more affordable services. For example, let's go for a rail fare freeze as a start. Will the Scottish Government sign up to that? As Neil Bibby said, we also need to make bus services more reliable, more usable and more affordable. We have got the example in Lothian with municipal ownership. It works. It is award-winning. Can we not just have this across the country and let our councils work together using the powers that we had in the transport act where we amended it? Let us get the action. I hope that ministers will reflect on today's speeches right across this chamber because there is political agreement on the core things where we can act, where this Parliament and this Government can get the powers that we already have and use them. I hope that we will see the political support to get moving. In concluding, I want to go back to my opening comment about the importance of fairness and the importance of a just transition in Scotland and our support for the global south next week. We need to act. We need to get the change needed. As people arrive in Glasgow, let's look at the distribution of vaccines as well. Oxfam, Christian Aid and the Global Vaccine Alliance have done a brilliant job raising awareness on that. Of the 1.8 billion doses that are promised by rich countries, only 14 per cent have been delivered. At a UK level, less than 10 per cent of what was promised. It is in our collective interests that we work together. We need to act. The spirit of COP means that we stand together and, as with tackling the climate emergency, getting the virus under control means working together. I hope that the minister will commit to act in our closing speech. We need to work together on our climate emergency and Covid recovery. It is in our global collective interests. Let's get the political commitment to work across this chamber to make the change that we need now, not in 20 years' time when it is too late. I am delighted to be closing this debate on behalf of the Scottish Conservatives. As I have said, COP26 is a hugely significant event. It cannot be understated that the opportunity here, as has been said before, is the best and probably the last opportunity to reverse the global climate emergency. It is a global crisis that will require global solutions. So, despite the absence of some significant global players, as the UK takes over the presidency of COP, the eyes of the world will look expectantly and hopefully towards Glasgow. Warm words will not cut it. Targets without deliverable outcomes can no longer be acceptable. It has been a bit of a predictable debate, and we have had the Scottish Government keen to avoid talking about its consistent failed record on climate change targets. I think that it is a point hammered home by that guru of the circular economy, Maurice Golden, in a speech that laid bare those failures. We have heard from across the chamber the denigration of Glasgow under the stewardship of an SNP-led council. A wee spruce-up is all that is required, declared the council leader. Anyone who frequents the city cannot fail to be shocked at the speed with which this great city has been allowed to become dirty, litter-strung and rat-infested. However, in a spirit of collaboration, I agree with the Scottish Government Minister, Lorna Slater, who declared a pre-election. I quote, We have practical costed policies for a fair and green recovery, merely all of which we can implement under the current constitutional arrangement. We do not need to wait for independence. She is, of course, right. However, roll forward to post-election on a ministerial car later, and the same Scottish Government Minister then does a screeching U-turn and says, and I quote, I do not see how I can realistically talk about tackling the climate crisis when I do not have the powers to do all those things. Well, which one is it? Perhaps the minister will enlighten us in closing. What the Scottish Conservatives say is that, with COP26 on our doorstep, the time to take definitive action has to be now. We are a small country, so what can we be expected to do, given the global nature of this crisis? We can lead by example. We can immerse and weave climate change and the green economy learnings and qualifications throughout the education system and delivering the skills that are required for the jobs of the future. Innovation is the key. I think that that was a point that Fiona Hyslop made, I thought, in a very balanced speech. Education is completely devolved to the Scottish Government, but, as I have said before in the debate, we import too much of the technology for wind power and import much of the servicing expertise. The Scottish Government have had years to think and sort this out. It was Alex Salmond, if you remember him, who declared that Scotland would become the Saudi Arabia of wind. However, the Scottish Government has failed to recognise and act upon the economic and environmental opportunity that is preferring to blame Westminster. We can demonstrate that transitioning to a green economy does not mean abandoning a growing economy. Progress has been made. Liam Kerr pointed out quite rightly in his speech that Britain has cut emissions by about 44 per cent since 1990, the fastest decline in the G7, while increasing the size of the economy by 78 per cent. UK is the second highest performing country in the climate change performance index, and the UK is measured as the fourth greenest country in the world. It is not enough, of course—a rare point of agreement here with Mark Ruskell, I have to say—and we need to accelerate that transition significantly, but it shows that the road that we must travel can support a robust economy. The change at this scale and pace will require significant funding, and Governments will not be able to foot all of that bill. We need a collaboration from both the public and the private sectors. In so many potential projects, seed funding from Government will lead to significant private investment. However, I have to say that the Scottish Government reckons that it is absolutely abysmal. There is little wonder with the Government's partners in crime, the Greens, who are against growth and a Scottish Government who have neglected the private sector for too long. How on earth can we expect the private sector to be an enthusiastic partner of the Government so hostile and distant from private enterprise? We need to help the transition from oil and gas economies, especially in transport, and heating a step that the oil and gas sector recognise and are already doing. Investing in renewables, in wind and tidal and hydrogen, among others, we need their R&D budgets and their innovation. Instead, we have a Government minister helpent on millifying them at every opportunity. Patrick Harvie's heat and building strategy requires input from the private sector at a point that was conceded by the cabinet secretary. I look forward to Mr Harvie reporting on his negotiations with the private sector. I asked him a couple of weeks ago when the Scottish Government would be able to give consumers the date for replacing gas boilers with hydrogen boilers. He did inadvertently give away the Scottish Government's bill in excuse for not hitting the target. He will blame Westminster when the target that he set is missed on a paper that he produced. Moving transport away from fossil fuels is an essential element, but, as Graham Simpson pointed out, the Scottish Government has announced plans to remove the remaining 4,400 diesel buses currently on the road by 2023. Our plans, they know, they will not meet. The considerable financial investment aside, the charging infrastructure and the network capability are not there. At some point, the Scottish Government has to realise that it's outcomes that will tackle the climate emergency, not targets designed to create headlines. COP26 will come and go, and our hopes are that the world will finally collaborate to get a global grasp of the climate emergency and put significant policies in place. Anything less has got to be too little. For Scotland's part, we demand that the Scottish Government do their part, stop setting targets without strategy that has led to a continual failing to meet said targets. There are so many people in Glasgow and in the rest of the country that COP26 will bypass, whom the delegates will not see, but who are the very people that we need to take on this journey. Where is the Scottish Government's consideration of their needs? Smoke and mirrors, Presiding Officer, that approach by the Scottish Government will no longer be tolerated. I ask the chamber to accept the amendment in the name of lean care. Warms my green heart to hear so much passion for and commitment to caring for our planet and being good global citizens. I also welcome the world to Glasgow for the COP26 summit and note my thanks to those who have contributed to enabling this vital summit to take place. As noted in the parliamentary motion, Glasgow will be humanity's last opportunity to deliver on the ambitions set out in the Paris climate summit of 2015 and to limit climate change to within 1.5 degrees, beyond which the impacts for people, wildlife and our planet become intolerable. The climate crisis is intensifying with every day that passes. Across the world, we are now witnessing the impact, suffering and loss at a frequent and devastating scale around the world. This is no longer about targets, it is action that we need. Inaction is costing lives. Our response to this crisis to this emergency has to be—I am going to try to get through all the debate responses, so I will not take interventions. Our response to this crisis to this emergency has to be commensurate to the size, scale and urgency of it. Today, I have heard many suggestions from across the chamber, all of which I will reflect on, on how we can do more. I look forward to the chamber's support as we strive to bring about the transformative action at the scale that we know is needed. The cabinet secretary has already spoken to the progress that Scotland is now making. I am proud to see green policies being taken forward in the programme for government and the co-operation agreement between the Scottish Government and the Scottish Greens. Warmer-efficient homes, free bus travel for young people, a massive increase in funding for cycling, walking and wheeling, record investments in marine renewables plans to double the size of the onshore wind sector. Those changes are a good start, but I also have no doubt that that is not enough. Monica Lennon is right to note in her amendment that the Scottish Government has not met its climate targets. It is right for us to show some humility here that we have not been getting it completely right and that we have not done enough. I welcome Monica Lennon's amendment to today's motion because it talks about modal shift in transportation, achieving Scotland's full potential in renewable energy and creating local green jobs. I am glad that we share a vision for investing in and growing domestic supply chains and securing a just transition that leaves no individual family or community behind. The Scottish Greens will support Liam McArthur's amendment, covering, as it does, an area of policy aviation that is excluded from the co-operation agreement with the Scottish Government. It is the Scottish Government's position that demand for aviation must decline in order to reach our climate targets. With respect to Maurice Golden, the UK is not credible on climate. The international energy agency says that on-going oil and gas extraction is not compatible with keeping global heating to 1.5 degrees, so, although the UK does not commit to ending oil and gas extraction, it cannot be credible on climate. I am going to go through with the other members. Alasdair Allan and Jenny Minto are right to highlight the very real dangers of sea-level rises in Scotland. The cost and damage of that is immense, and every time anyone asks who will pay for preventing climate change, I always think that who will pay for the cost of not preventing it. Neil Bibby, I welcome his comments on public transport. It is indeed the key, along with an increase in active travel, to meet our target of 20 per cent reduction in car miles. I have got to keep cracking through. The co-operation agreement provides funds for councils around Scotland to look at setting up their own bus services. Graham Simpson, it may come as a bit of a shock to him that councillors from his party and some MSPs have been voting against cycle lanes being installed and campaigning to get them removed where they have been built. No, I am going to keep going. Katie Clark is right to highlight that the 1.5 degrees of warming is not safe. It is pretty bad, but it is not quite the apocalyptic levels of disruption that we will see at the three degrees of warming that Mark Ruskell described. Sarah Boyack's support for community and co-operative heat networks is very welcome, as is her recognition of the jobs that this decarbonisation of our heating will create. Brian Whittle says that he is very happy to elaborate if he is not clear on what the reserved powers are to Westminster. There is an excellent Wikipedia article on it if he is not. It can both be clear that we can do more in Scotland and that we could do even more if those powers were devolved. We have reached a critical moment in time. I sincerely hope that the UK Government can lead these talks to a constructive and productive conclusion in a way that allows all Governments to reconsider their priorities and secure our survival. I also call on world leaders to take immediate and rapid action on emissions reduction and investment in low emission and zero carbon technology on a global scale, lest the losses and impact of climate change intensify and become more destructive. As a global citizen and as highlighted by Fiona Hyslop and Collette Stevenson, I am proud of the positive start that we have made with Scotland's climate justice fund, which will help those in the global south to tackle the climate crisis. We recognise the loss and damage already occurring as a result of climate change and that those suffering most from those changes are the least responsible for it. Here at home, I look forward to the analysis that will be conducted of Scotland's North Sea Oil and Gas production with a view to assessing the compatibility of current and future field development with the parameters of the Paris agreement. The impact of climate change will reach every area of our country and culture and so we must act now and prepare ourselves and all aspects of our way of life, for otherwise the consequences of our inaction will be too awful to bear. Thank you to the members of the chamber for today's debate and for all the points raised. That concludes the debate on global ambitions for COP26, point of order, Graham Simpson. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I seek your guidance. During the debate that we just had, Sandesh Gulhane intervened on Liam Kerr and was then interrupted by the Deputy Presiding Officer who told him to hurry up and ask a question. Mr Kerr was untroubled by the intervention, I have to say. It seemed perfectly normal to me. Can you advise if there is now a time limit on interventions and if they do indeed need to end in a question? It is, of course, a matter for the Presiding Officer in the chair at any point in time to make a ruling on any question that is put to them. I will certainly look at the matter that Mr Simpson has raised, but I have no doubt at all that my Deputy Presiding Officer will have handled it in a manner that they saw fit. It is now time to move on to the next item of business, which is an urgent question. I call Sue Webber. To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the statement that NHS Lothian services are under extreme pressure and that patients should not attend the emergency department unless it is life threatening. Cabinet Secretary, Humza Yousaf is online today. Our health and care system is under extreme pressure due to the pandemic in NHS Lothian. Like all health boards, it is experiencing significant pressure, including workforce challenges and a high level of delayed discharge, which is inevitably affecting waiting times in the A&E. We recognise that some people are not getting the services that they are, or, indeed, we would expect. I apologise to anyone that has suffered as a result of that. It is our ambition to ensure that more patients receive person-centred care in the right place, in the right time, and in a way that helps staff to deliver high-quality care in treatment. That is why we invested £23 million this year to support the development of the redesign of urgent care. I recently announced a £300 million package of winter measures that includes a focus on bolstering the caring workforce by increasing the numbers and providing them with additional support. Along with my senior officials, I have met the executive team at NHS Lothian this morning and we have agreed a set of immediate actions that will support improvements and minimise delays for patients. The figures that were released yesterday confirmed that we have the worst A&E waiting times on record. Since the cabinet secretary's NHS recovery plan was published in August, more than 55,000 people have waited over four hours to be seen in A&E, and more than 11,000 of those people have been from NHS Lothian. After the advice from NHS Lothian last night, there has rightly been a lot of concern from people about having to self-diagnose whether something is life-threatening or not. Some injuries are not life-threatening, but are serious. A broken ankle may not kill. A stroke left untreated can have life-changing consequences. Does the cabinet secretary now accept that the Government's recovery plan was not sufficient and does he endorse the advice from NHS Lothian and, if so, how can people access treatment that they need? I thank whoever for what is an important question. I think that all health boards, all clinicians, would say that if you think that your condition is critical or life-threatening, do not hesitate for a second. Call 999 or get yourself to your A&E department, but, of course, if you do not think that it is critical or life-threatening, then there are other alternative pathways such as calling NHS 24, for example, but, of course, people should err on the side of caution if they feel their injury condition or that of a family member or friend is critical or indeed life-threatening. However, it is important that people listen to the advice of clinicians of their health board, because I think that all of us would accept, all of us would understand that those who are working in our hospitals and right across our NHS only want the best for the people that they treat. However, it is a time of extreme pressure, and what I would say to whoever is that this Government will continue to invest. Of course, we are facing the most significantly challenging winter that the NHS has ever suffered. That is going to be of course of cold comfort to people who are waiting in A&E departments. Our performance is not where I want it to be, but it is the case that our A&E departments are the best performing in the entire United Kingdom. The reason I mentioned that is because, just to highlight that, those are common challenges that are being faced right across the UK. We will continue to invest in my £300 million winter package that I announced. I know that health boards are working around the clock to try to maximise capacity by safely discharging those who are clinically safe to discharge back into community settings. Sue Webber. This morning, a constituent of mine got in touch with me by text. She was too scared and upset to go into work at the Royal Infirmary because she knew that people had been waiting for over 30 hours in A&E due to the lack of beds. In the announcement, NHS Lothian chief executive Callum Campbell admitted that NHS Lothian hospitals are close to capacity and the hospital system is under extreme duress. NHS Lothian has asked for mutual aid to help ease the sustained pressures on their teams and their patients. Will the Government provide this aid and what message does the cabinet secretary have for hard-working NHS front-line staff who are having similar fears as that of my constituent? First and foremost, I thank Sue Webber's constituent for all that they have done. During the pandemic, but particularly at the moment during this very significant period of challenge, I also spoke to a clinician this morning who works in one of the Edinburgh hospital sites. Again, they reiterated how challenging and pressured the system is. I spoke to Callum Campbell, as well as the NHS Lothian chair, John Conaghan. This morning, they have had urgent and rapid discussions with the local authority partners, with the HSEPs in the region, and they feel that they can make exceptionally good progress in order to safely discharge those people who are clinically safe to discharge from hospitals into community. Of course, the effect that will have is freeing up capacity, which will also help with flow within the hospital. That is what the winter announcement package was there to help. I will not pretend otherwise that, even with that increased investment, it will still be a very challenging winter ahead. Performance will continue to be difficult, but, of course, where boards ask for aid, and that aid can be provided, we will leave no stone unturned in helping our health boards at this difficult time. The cabinet secretary asked people to think twice before calling an ambulance. Now, patients are being told in Lothian to hold off completely unless it is life-threatening. This winter, the NHS is reaching the crux of years of under-resourcing and mismanagement. It is in genuine jeopardy. I personally do not have a medical degree, so I would be grateful for some advice from the cabinet secretary. What exactly does life-threatening mean? Will the health secretary accept that asking people to judge for themselves whether or not their condition is life-threatening will possibly prove deadly? As I have already said to Sue Webber, if people feel that their condition is critical or life-threatening, of course, they should pick up the phone and call 999 to get an ambulance, or, indeed, if they are able to get someone to transport them to an A&E department, then get themselves to an A&E department. Of course, there are other pathways that are available if you are not critical or life-threatening, and that would be, for example, to call NHS 24, which is a 24-7 helpline to be able to get that assistance, but every health board in the country is under pressure. We know that, and therefore, if we are able to be assessed by using alternative pathways, if your condition is not critical or life-threatening, then that is the advice that is being given right across the board. NHS Lothian made absolutely clear in the most recent briefings to MSPs in the Lothians that one of the major pressures that their hard-working staff are facing in the enduring pandemic, alongside high levels of staff illness and self-isolation, is the acute staff shortages in social care, which is impacting on the whole health and care system, vacancies elsewhere, and the shortage of EU workers. Can the minister state what the very recently produced adult social care winter plan can do to help those pressures? Cabinet Secretary. I thank Fiona Hyslop for again what is an incredibly important question. Again, the adult social care winter plan, plus the winter plan that was produced in relation to the £300 million winter package, really does focus on social care, because we know if we can bolster the social care workforce, then we can help at both the front door and the back door of our acute services. We can prevent people from going to hospital, hopefully, if they have the care at home and care home packages that they need. Of course, we can help at the delayed discharge end by safely discharging people to community settings, again, where that is clinically safe to do so. The £300 million that I announced, £48 million of that, is being made available to increase the hourly rate of social care staff. That will match NHS band 2 staff. It will also help to recruit 1,000 additional NHS staff to support MDPs, multi-disciplinary teams, and more than £60 million of that investment is to maximise capacity of care at home services. There is a significant amount of investment going into that. Of course, it will take some time to recruit the workforce that I have mentioned, but I know that every single health board is looking to do that as a matter of urgency and pace. Cabinet Secretary, people urgently need front-line health support, and many are going to A and E because they or their family members are having a health crisis and they cannot get the support locally. I have been inundated with patients in the riverside surgery area in Musselborough, for example, who have heartbreaking stories about not being able to access GP services, predating the pandemic, but the issue has been raised by other constituents across the region. Can the cabinet secretary say what he is doing now to ensure that patients have the local medical services that they need, as well as the support that they need when they attempt to access accident emergency services? Cabinet secretary, I thank Sarah Boyack for her question. I met recently with Colin Beattie MSP, who raised his issue with me around riverside medical practice, and again have offered to continue the dialogue with him. Of course, I would extend that offer to Sarah Boyack to see how we can assist in that. Of course, it is for the local health board to take forward those issues, but in terms of local services, I wrote jointly with the BMA recently that every single GP practice in the country, including those in the Lothian health board region, where I laid out quite explicitly my expectation that, given the changes in guidance, there would be an increase in face-to-face GP appointments, which we know may well help in this regard. I thank the GPs for the incredible hard work that they are doing at this time. Of course, when it comes to other local services, again, the investments that I have already mentioned have helped to bolster some of those local services and hopefully take that pressure off acute settings. Gillian Mackay Sorry, do you continue, Ms Mackay? We can hear you now. Thank you, Presiding Officer. NHS Lothian's chief executive has said that the board has requested mutual aid, but I am concerned about other health boards' capacity to fulfil this request. As we know, the issues facing NHS Lothian are impacting health boards across the country, and just a few days ago, NHS Lanarkshire moved to its highest risk level. What assurance can the cabinet secretary provide that requests for mutual aid can be met and that health boards that are struggling will be provided with the assistance that they need? Gillian Mackay is absolutely correct that every single health board area is under pressure and under strain. Where they can get potentially mutual aid is, for example, reaching out to the Golden Jubilee, and they can help, for example, with planned care. We know how important it is to try to address issues with planned care, particularly where there has been postponement of P2, P3 and P4 groups of surgery. We know that if those backlogs continue to increase, we are just storing up problems for the future. It is for each health board to discuss with other health boards what mutual aid may well be available. Of course, where a request comes in for other support, such as military support, we will give that serious consideration and pass that on to the military and the armed forces where appropriate and necessary. That concludes the urgent question. The next item of business is consideration of business motion 1797, in the name of George Adam, on behalf of the parliamentary bureau setting out a business programme. Any member who wishes to speak against the motion should press their request to speak button now. I call on George Adam to move the motion. No member has asked to speak on the motion. The question is that motion 1797 be agreed. Are we all agreed? The motion is therefore agreed. The next item of business is consideration of four parliamentary bureau motions. I asked George Adam on behalf of the parliamentary bureau to move motions 1798 on code of conduct for councillors, 1799 on model code of conduct for members of devolved public bodies, 1800 on approval of an SSI and 1801 on designation of a lead committee. Minister, the questions on those motions will be put at decision time and there are five questions to be put as a result of today's business. The first is amendment 1769.4, in the name of Liam Kerr, which seeks to amend motion 1769 in the name of Michael Matheson, on global ambitions for COP26 be agreed. Are we all agreed? The Parliament is not agreed, therefore we will move to a vote and there will be a short suspension to allow members to access the digital voting system.