SNP’s Climate Promises Are Unrealistic, Says Environmental Policy Expert
Omar Malik
08/03/24
The Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh. (Image Credit: Waldo Miguez/Pixabay)
Climate pledges set out in the SNP’s latest independence paper are unlikely to be achieved, says an environmental politics expert.
Angus Robertson - the Scottish Government’s External Affairs Secretary - this week launched a policy paper outlining how an independent Scotland would be a “good global citizen.” But according to environmental experts, the blueprint’s climate promises are unsustainable.
Dr Hannes Stephan, a lecturer in environmental politics and policy at the University of Stirling, says “the ability to achieve these aims is limited in the current situation. The more time runs out, the harder it will be to pretend that these plans can be realised unless extremely drastic action is taken. So I’m not too optimistic that they can be reached.”
The policy paper, titled ‘Building a New Scotland: an independent Scotland’s place in the world,’ includes plans to transform Scotland into an internationalist nation post-independence; focusing on combating global issues such as “climate and biodiversity crises.”
(Image Credit: Filmbetrachter/Pixabay)
According to Dr Stephan, achieving the proposed climate pledges on a world stage will be challenging as “the SNP really don’t know how to get there. Because getting there would mean making some really hard choices, which could potentially annoy a lot of voters, and also spending a lot of money - which is very difficult if you don’t have it.”
But the SNP’s climate agenda is commendable on a national level, says Dr Stephan: “It’s still good to have these pledges because if you don’t have them, you’re not going to strive to achieve them. They’re already aiming to do quite a lot; to become net zero earlier than the UK, and they’ll have the Just Transition Commission - which is a good idea too.”
Dr Stephan credits the SNP-Greens coalition with contributing to “stabilising the environmental policy and not letting it be reversed quite as easily as some other parts of the SNP would have probably liked - such as the fossil fuels proposals.”
(Image Credit: Pete/Pixabay)
The policy paper is primarily a political intervention, Dr Stephan says: “It’s setting out what the SNP would be doing if we were back in the EU - joining the progressive international community again. By measuring themselves against small, successful countries like Finland, Norway and Sweden, they’re being quite fair and not too radical on climate and energy.”
With Scotland’s oil industry facing significant closures, Dr Stephan warns: “Scotland will need all the sources of income it can get, because it’s going to be a rough time for the first decade or longer. If the demand is offset by the amount of benefits the country gets from the oil industry, they will probably want to continue it for longer.”
The policy paper includes additional plans for an independent Scotland; from becoming a full Nato member and making proposals for the armed forces, to removing the country’s nuclear weapons and supporting the development of countries in the Global South.