Humza Yousaf is to hold a post COP 28 cross-party climate summit for Holyrood leaders this week in a bid to reach greater consensus across the political divide.

The First Minister has invited opposition chiefs and the co-leaders of the Scottish Greens to the meeting on Thursday in a bid to open dialogue on the subject in the wake of the international gathering in Dubai which ends today.

Holyrood voted unanimously to back statutory climate change targets in 2019 after MSPs backed a Scottish Labour amendment aimed at strengthening emissions targets. The Scottish Greens abstained after MSPs rejected the party's aim of targeting an 80% reduction in emissions by 2030.

SNP, Scottish Conservative and Scottish Liberal Democrat MSPs supported an amendment from Scottish Labour for a 75% cut in emissions by 2030.

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However, since then the issue has become a source of heated rows with the Scottish Government coming under fire from the Conservatives in particular over the speed at moving away from fossil fuels. 

There have also been tensions inside the SNP over some of the Scottish Government's environmental policies including over the transition away from the North Sea oil and gas sector and over plans to decarbonise Scottish homes.

Last month The Herald revealed SNP ministers to delay their crucial updated climate change plan – adding to fears that Scotland is off track in hitting its ambitious legal emissions reduction targets.

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The Scottish Government was due to publish its updated blueprint to reduce harmful emissions by the end of November, but ministers are set to delay the publication of the plan into next year after Rishi Sunak rolled back a series of UK-wide net zero policies.

In September, the Prime Minister announced he was delaying several key 2030 targets for decarbonising transport and heat in buildings to 2035 or watering them down altogether.

Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said: “I’m happy to work constructively with all sides on climate targets, and after the SNP government’s delay on producing their climate change updates, it’s in everyone’s interests to get the process back on track. It’s especially important that we should find a route to a genuinely managed transition that safeguards jobs in the oil and gas industry and ensures our energy security.”

Scottish Lib-Dem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said: "I want to take every opportunity to urge the Scottish Government to move faster in tackling the climate emergency. However the fact that Scotland keeps missing our reduction targets and that this meeting has already been cancelled twice by the First Minister suggests it is not such a priority for the government.

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"Since the meeting was first proposed Scotland has been wracked by devastating storms, hammering home how important it is that we respond to our changing environment. 
 "From insulating homes to cut bills and reduce emissions to expanding our charger network and making electric cars a viable option for everyone, there are so many issues that are being allowed to fall by the wayside. I will be making these points to the First Minister whenever the meeting eventually takes place."

Scottish Greens co-leader Lorna Slater who will attend the meeting with party co-leader Patrick Harvie, said: "The climate crisis is the greatest environmental crisis we will ever face. It is nothing less than our future that is on the line.

"The decisions we make now are far bigger than any one party or leader, and we all need to work together to build a lasting consensus and a shared commitment to deliver the bold climate action that is so vital.
"In Westminster we have seen the UK government shredding its environmental commitments as part of a divisive and reactionary culture war. In Scotland we can and must follow a different path.
"We need as many ideas, perspectives, innovations and solutions as possible if we are to have any kind of sustainable future, and cross-party work can be a key part of that process."

Scottish Labour did not respond to a request for comment from The Herald.

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: "The First Minister has invited Holyrood leaders to a meeting to discuss the climate emergency, given that our statutory climate change targets were unanimously voted for in the Scottish Parliament. It is important that we all work together to make a constructive contribution to addressing global challenges such as the biodiversity and the climate crisis.”

The First Minister last week attended part of Cop28 in Dubai which yesterday prompted anger by reaching  a deal that allowed countries to “consider reducing fossil fuel use”.

Delegations from the UK, the EU, the US and island states threatened by rising sea levels expressed frustration at the way language had been watered down after Saudi Arabia and other big oil producers opposed a fossil fuel phase out following negotiations in Dubai.

Released on the penultimate day of the talks, the draft referred to “reducing both consumption and production of fossil fuels”.

Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber, chairman of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company and president of Cop28, claimed that the document marked a “huge step forward”.

However, several of the 198 parties that will decide the final Cop28 deal took the opposite view. “What we have seen today is unacceptable. We will not go silently to our watery graves,” said John Silk, a minister of the Marshall Islands, a Pacific island state.