Citizens climate assembly can lead recovery
Economic recovery should be shaped with the help of the Citizen’s Climate Assembly rather than be guided by requests from wealthy elites, the Scottish Greens have said.
Green MSPs secured a requirement to hold such an assembly as part of the Climate Bill last year, but implementation will be postponed as a result of the current crisis.
Scottish Green MSP Ross Greer, who sits on the Scottish Parliament’s COVID Committee, called on Cabinet Secretary Mike Russell to confirm that the government would use the assembly in planning the economic recovery from the coronavirus.
Ross Greer said:
“The scale of the economic collapse from this virus means that instead of rebuilding the old economy, we now face having to build an entirely new one. It is essential that the recovery plan doesn’t double down on the mistakes which have forced so many into poverty and fuelled the continuing climate crisis.
“That’s why the recovery must be guided by the people, through a Climate Citizens’ Assembly and advised by experts across every relevant field. The need for this assembly’s voice is greater now than ever, to provide a vital counterweight to the economic elites demanding huge bailouts from their private islands.”