Humza Yousaf has been forced to postpone a post COP 28 cross-party climate summit for Holyrood leaders today after falling ill.
The First Minister was due to host the meeting with opposition chiefs and the co-leaders of the Scottish Greens this afternoon.
He wants to reach greater consensus across the political divide on the suject. But the meeting has now been put off until the New Year.
Deputy First Minister Shona Robison will stand in for Mr Yousaf at First Minister's Questions at Holyrood at 12pm today.
It is understood Mr Yousaf is hoping to be better in time to be in Holyrood to hear Ms Robison, who is also the Scottish Government's finance secretary, deliver the Scottish Budget plans next Tuesday.
READ MORE: Yousaf to hold climate summit for Holyrood party leaders this week
The First Minister had planned to hold the gathering in a bid to open dialogue in the wake of COP28 in Dubai which he attended last week.
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.
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 pace of 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.
READ MORE: Analysis: Is an SNP rebellion brewing over Harvie's heat pumps plans?
Countries at the COP28 climate summit yesterday for the first time reached a deal to transition away from fossil fuels in an attempt to reach global net zero emissions by 2050.
But despite COP28 president Sultan al-Jaber hailing the agreement as “historic”, the deal was criticised by 39 small-island nations that complained it was pushed through without their support.
The text asks all countries to set “ambitious” emissions targets over the next two years that take into account their fossil fuel use, in an effort to limit global warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.
READ MORE: SNP-Green Government poised to delay climate change plan
But it also recognised that targets should be set “in light of different national circumstances”, acknowledging that poorer nations may find cutting emissions more difficult than wealthier countries.
The future role of fossil fuels had been the main issue at COP28, hosted in the United Arab Emirates, one of the world’s largest oil and gas producers.
A draft document this week had dropped references to phasing out fossil fuels, triggering outrage from diplomats who accused Saudi Arabia and other Opec countries of hindering efforts to tackle global warming.
European, Latin American and vulnerable island states, as well as the US and UK, intensified efforts over the last day to obtain a stronger agreement on the ditching of oil, gas and coal.
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 hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel