A protest was held at the Scottish Parliament with young Scots saying politicians must go further if they are to take meaningful climate action
Young Scots have called for stronger action on climate change.
The day after the Scottish Parliament approved a new Climate Change Bill, school children and students from across Scotland organised a demonstration at Holyrood to say the legislation does not go far enough.
The children presented a list of demands for MSPs that they say would actually address the climate emergency.
The Scottish People’s Climate Action Declaration covers a wide range of policy areas from energy production, food and transport to the curriculum. The demands set out a bold and positive vision for Scotland. The headline asks include Scotland achieving 100% net-zero climate emissions by 2030, reforming the Scottish curriculum to address the climate and ecological crisis, and implementing a Scottish Green New Deal that ensures decarbonisation is fair for workers and communities across the country.
The list was developed on Sunday 22 September when Scottish Youth Climate Strike held People’s Climate Assemblies across the country to allow members of the public to discuss what action they wanted to see from the Scottish Parliament.
The organisers from Scottish Youth Climate Strike also dressed in green and attended First Minister’s Questions to remind politicians that despite the new bill, they are listening and not going away. They also met with MSPs to discuss the declaration.
They brought a large copy of their demands to the Parliament where they asked individuals, organisations and politicians to sign on to support the demands.
Emil Carr, 17, from Glasgow Youth Climate Strike, said: “The targets and policies outlined in the Climate Change Bill are nowhere near radical enough to halt the climate crisis. The science says we must be carbon neutral by 2030 or we are endangering the future of the planet. Our leaders have failed us, both in not delivering strong enough targets and not putting social justice at the heart of the Climate Change Bill.
“The policies that we have outlined in the declaration, developed from discussions between people held around the country, lay out how we think we can best tackle the climate crisis, and achieve both the goals of social justice and climate justice.”
