SEAD (Scottish Education and Action for Development)

Over 600 people turned out in front of the Scottish Parliament yesterday (22nd April 2009) on a beautiful Edinburgh sunny day. Their message to MSPs was simple; they must pass a strong world leading Climate Change (Scotland) Bill before Copenhagen.

The Stop Climate Chaos Scotland coalition rally was held just two days before the TICC Committee of the Scottish Parliament is due to publish its Stage 1 report on the Bill. It was a carnival atmosphere from the crowd and over 30 MSPs turned out along with other parliamentary staff, reporters and chief executives from Scotland’s leading charities and faith groups.

Representatives from all the political parties made speeches with the strong message that action is urgently needed now!

SEAD, an active member of the coalition,  joined the rally to support them in commending the Scottish Government for showing leadership and committing to at least 80% cuts in greenhouse gases by 2050 in the Bill.

However, if we are to really tackle climate change, we need to act urgently so there are three main things that the Bill needs to address:

• Statutory annual reductions in greenhouse gas emissions of at least 3% year on year starting now
• The inclusion of emissions from international aviation and shipping from the beginning
• Ensure that the action to tackle climate change takes place in Scotland and is not ‘bought in’ from overseas.

You can read more about the coalition and the policy briefings we have put together by visiting our coalition partner’s website stopclimatechaos.org.

This entry was posted on 23 April 2009 at 3:41 pm and is filed under General news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.