Climate Change

There can be little doubt that the climate is changing - and we don't have to look far for evidence of change - Record rainfall in a single day - a foot of rain in 24 hours !

November - a wet month normally - was the wettest month ever recorded.

This first decade of the millennium, according to the World Meteorological Organisation, looks set to see it be the warmest since records began 250 years ago.

Tragic for our biodiversity, but the effects of climate change don't just effect plant life and animals, it also effects us, sometimes tragically as we saw recently in Cumbria.

Last Month in my own South region, Hawick saw the Volunteer Flood Action Group sprang into action for the first time after the damaging flood of 2005, flooding has become a major issue there and across my region, Bowmont Valley flooded with the worst flood in living memory, to be followed by a similar flood the next year, Dumfries has continuing and worsening problems at the Whitesands.

And interestingly the Hawick Volunteer Flood Group and local NFU members all stated, pre and post the recent floods, that clearing of gravel and dislodged trees from rivers, as was done in the past, should be allowed by sepa to prevent flooding. I believe we do need to revisit this issue, and balance the safety to life and threat to any river fauna.

Further afield, droughts in Australia are seeing viable farmland, become unsuitable for vital food production. And who knows what future medicines we may lose if further extinction of plants in rainforests and other areas continues. And as we all know loss of arctic ice threatens to alter our planet for generations to come. The North West passage as of this year is now more navigable than ever known. 2007 08 and 09 see the arctic ice at its least extent since records began (1979 satellite info).

The melting ice doesn't just increase the sea level, but releases trapped methane into the atmosphere - a greenhouse gas that will further increase global warming.

But we have to concentrate on what we can do to combat this real threat - we can, as individuals all sign up to the 10-10 campaign - 10% less carbon use by the end of 2010 ---and we have seen good moves in this parliament already when we all passed the Climate Change bill back in June - part of my input to that was to amend the bill to stop the bizarre proposal by this Govt to sell a quarter of our Public Forests to the Banks for them to make money from land banking - uncanny that a Scottish Nationalist Government as soon as they get into power start off by trying to sell lifetime leases of our Scottish Publicly Owned Forests to the highest bidder - the result would have been lost timber income and lost control of our Forests, which we all know can be a huge part in addressing climate change, as well as a necessary resource for our industries and a place of access for communities and tourism.

Forestry, outwith peaty soils and Agriculture can play an important part also, and I believe livestock play an important part in maintaining our countryside and providing natural fertilisation of our soils. Grazing land of course encourages plant growth and therefore helps absorb CO2.

The LibDem minister started the process by being the first to introduce our first climate change targets and now we have set ambitious targets for Scotland already, And its widely recognised. On a recent European Committee meeting, we were reliably informed that Scotland was seen as a leading light regarding climate change targets - therefore it was double standards from Miliband to disallow this Scottish Govt to officially attend Copenhagen, as Jack McConnell did attend the Earth summit in 2002.-

But lets remember that it was the Liberal Democrats that held out for the 42% by 2020 in the Scottish Bill, we have been unswayed throughout the process, but anyway we all know that these targets mean nothing unless we achieve them.

The heating insulation scheme - much fanfared will spend a third on administration and not one penny south of the Central Belt, where there is much need - climate change measures should not be a post code lottery.

It should also not be a Country Lottery - the key one nation in the world is of course the USA - if the US doesn't sign up to legally binding targets, then there is the threat that others, like Australia, Japan and Canada will follow suit - a backward step for us all - climate change is now - and action is needed now.

The Government motion is quite correct to focus on the World threat of climate change, especially developing vulnerable Countries, we have started the process in Scotland, the UK Government needs to follow with a 42% reduction by 2020 and I believe that Europe can be a big player in influencing World policy, I therefore urge all delegates at Copenhagen to come out with a worthy successor to the Kyoto protocol that will give action now to tackle global warming head on.