People & Planet descends on Scottish Parliament to Stop Climate Chaos

A number of Scottish P&P groups joined an April rally outside the Scottish Parliament as part of the Stop Climate Chaos Scotland coalition. Ben Miller, Regional Rep for South Scotland reported.

While it may be old news down south, Scotland is only just in the early stages of getting our own Scottish Climate Bill. We’re trying to make it even better than the UK Bill as it goes through the Scottish Parliament. Some of the key outstanding issues are the need for bold annual targets rather than a distant 2030 or 2050 one, and the need for limit on the amount of international carbon trading that is allowed to count towards that target.

Scottish P&Pers know how windy and wet it is up here, so we’d like to see Scotland’s great renewable resources translated into massive domestic carbon cuts. There shouldn’t be a big role for dodgy carbon trading schemes where new motorways get ‘offset’ by fencing off a tract of forest in a developing country.

It was a great sunny day for the rally and a good few hundred people turned up (not bad for a weekday). We helped create a massive sea of mini people (see photo) who represented the millions who don’t get a voice in the climate debate but will be hit hardest. Many school children had decorated them so it was a colourful affair.

We’ll keep you up to date on the Scottish Climate Bill but meanwhile there’s lots of campaigning to do to turn targets into reality.