Time to 'get a move on' to battle climate change, warns Green MSP
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
ACTION on climate change is needed now, a north-east Green MSP has warned.
Maggie Chapman MSP made the call after a major report by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) starkly stated that human activity is changing the climate in unprecedented and sometimes irreversible ways.
Dubbed a "code red for humanity" by UN Secretary General António Guterres, the ground-breaking study warns of increasingly extreme heatwaves, droughts and flooding unless action is taken with a degree of urgency.
Chief among these is drastic cuts in greenhouse gas emissions to stabilise global warming.
Ms Chapman said the effects of global warming were being felt in north-east communities and action had to be taken.
She said: “The IPCC report is clear – the climate crisis is only accelerating.
"We are already seeing the results of this crisis across our communities with flooding becoming an increasing danger in places such as Stonehaven, drought like conditions affecting farming in Aberdeenshire and Angus, and our fishing communities having to adapt to cold water species moving further north.
“The solutions require political leadership. But they can work. And we can act now: we must see places such as the Slochy Woods and St Fittick's Park protected, Aberdeen City Council must break their partnership with BP, and the North East Pension Fund must divest from fossil fuels.
"Then we need genuine commitment to transforming our society, connecting all of our communities including those along the north east coast with affordable rail services, shifting to sustainable agriculture, an urgent housing retrofitting program, and the real Green New Deal _ a credible plan for a just transition for oil and gas workers. We need to get a move on to avert catastrophe.”
