Representatives from across the political spectrum are set to be quizzed on their response to the climate emergency as part of an environmental hustings.
The Herald will present a special debate on the future of Scotland’s climate in partnership with ScottishPower and WWF exploring how the main parties will deal with environmental issues ahead of the December 12 vote.
READ MORE: Michael Gove turned away from Channel 4 climate debate
The event, chaired by journalist Bernard Ponsonby, will feature Labour’s shadow under-secretary of state for Scotland, Paul Sweeney, LibDem MSP Liam McArthur, Green MSP Mark Ruskell and the SNP’s Westminster spokesperson on Transports, Infrastructure and Energy Alan Brown.
The Conservative and Brexit Party representatives are yet to be announced for the event, which takes place at ScottishPower’s Glasgow headquarters tomorrow.
However, organisers have not confirmed whether any ice sculptures will be in place of missing candidates.
The stage is set for Scotland’s #climatedebate…are you all still coming @theSNP @scottishlabour @ScotTories @ScottishLibDems @scottishgreens or do we need to get the ice sculptures out the freezer? pic.twitter.com/U7lsbqrnbB
— ScottishPower (@ScottishPower) November 29, 2019
Keith Anderson, chief executive of ScottishPower, said: “In a fortnight we’ll know who’s forming a new government in Westminster. Whoever walks through the door of Number 10 Downing Street will find themselves with a full in-tray. Top of the pile is what we’re going to do to deliver a practical plan on the climate emergency, one of the biggest issues in this election.
“Scotland has already set some of the most ambitious targets in the world to cut carbon emissions, we want to be net zero by 2045, the rest of the UK by 2050.
“That seems a long way away, but in planning and investment terms it’s not.
“That’s why we’re partnering with the WWF to host a hustings with five main parties to hear directly how they would tackle the climate emergency.
“At ScottishPower, we’ve changed. Since January we’ve generated 100 per cent of our electricity from renewable sources and achieving this took nearly 20 years. It meant taking tough decisions with the future in mind.
READ MORE: EU parliament declares climate ’emergency’ in symbolic move
“We also all know we have to change and we’ve commissioned independent research to set out the scale of the challenge. It found that we need around two million electric vehicle charging points and to install just under two million heat pumps in Scotland by 2045 to hit our target. Doing this won’t be easy, but it will create over 10,000 jobs along the way.
“We are on a journey to help get communities to get to net zero and we hope all parties will join us.”
You can tune into the debate here or on The Herald’s Facebook page from 2:35pm.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here