THE Scottish Greens are calling for an “emergency response” in the year leading up to COP26, including taking a greater stake in an under-threat renewables yard in Fife.

With a year to go until the UN’s environmental conference, the Scottish government has been urged to take action to prove its credentials in tackling the climate emergency. 

COP26, which was delayed by a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, is due to begin on November 1, 2021 with heads of state, climate experts and campaigners attending to agree co-ordinated action to tackle climate change.

Despite claims from the Environment Secretary Roseanna Cunningham that Scotland can use the gathering as an opportunity to “showcase” Scotland’s “world-leading approach” to tackling climate change, the Greens have said that the response has been “sadly lacking.”

Co-leader Patrick Harvie said that it was “vital that we are able to demonstrate the scale of our ambition to inspire others to take bold action.”

He added: “But, in order for us to do that, the Scottish government needs to get its act together and finally deliver the world-leading action it so often talks of.”

Mr Harvie said that this should include the government taking more of an ownership stake in BiFab, a yard branded a “political failure” by unions after a manufacturing deal fell through in October. 

He added: “We have the skills, the expertise and the technology to create thousands of quality, unionised, green jobs.

“But the Scottish government’s much publicised failure to deliver any green jobs at Bifab, for a massive wind project just a few miles offshore from the Fife yards, demonstrates a lack of political will from ministers.”