John Swinney urges all parties to ‘recommit’ to action on climate change

Scotland’s First Minister is urging politicians from all parties to “recommit” to tackling climate change – insisting the issue is “one of the greatest global challenges of our time”.

Hitting out at Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, John Swinney will say there is a need to “ignore the dangerous rhetoric growing on the right” and continue with efforts to tackle rising temperatures across the globe.

He will make the call in a speech to business leaders, social enterprises and young climate activists in Glasgow on Friday.

It comes after Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice used a visit to Scotland in March to highlight his party’s commitment to scrapping “net stupid zero” initiatives, echoing the words of US President Donald Trump by saying “drill, Scotland, drill”.

Meanwhile UK Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has argued it is “impossible” for Britain to meet its targets of achieving net zero by 2050.

Scotland has passed legislation committing the country to reaching net zero five years ahead of that.

And in his speech on Friday the SNP leader will highlight the commitment that “Scotland will be a net zero, nature positive nation by 2045”.

While he will stress that “our goal is that Scotland’s contribution to climate change will end, definitively, within one generation”, Mr Swinney will add that this is taking place “amidst an increasingly challenging global context”.

The First Minister will warn: “As populist leaders like Nigel Farage trade the hope and health of future generations for short term gains, they push back against the very idea of a climate crisis.

Conservative party leader Kemi Badenoch has insisted it is time to ‘get real’ about the UK’s 2050 net zero target. PA Media

“And they undermine the need for urgent action – but we cannot allow ourselves to be side-tracked.

“In the face of anti-science climate denial it is for all parties to recommit ourselves to tackling one of the great global issues of our time – and ignore the dangerous rhetoric growing on the right.”

Politicians who “undermine” the need for action on the climate “do so in the face of all the evidence”, Mr Swinney will insist – adding it is now “undeniable that extreme weather events are becoming more frequent”.

Scotland has seen “an increasing number of named storms”, he will note, while across the globe the UN’s World Meteorological Organisation has said that extreme weather events displaced more than 800,000 people last year alone.

Mr Swinney however will make clear that Scotland will “continue to play our part” in supporting poorer nations who suffer the more extreme impacts of climate change.

The First Minister will say: “As some nations scale back climate commitments and uncertainty grows around multilateral funding, there is a growing risk that momentum on climate finance for vulnerable nations could be sidelined – just when it is most needed.

“Scotland may not have a formal negotiating role in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, but we have never been a nation content to stay on the sidelines.

“We stand in solidarity with those in the global south, and we are championing climate justice on the world stage. We will continue to play our part.”