Scotland has officially declared a climate emergency.
Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon declared the emergency over the weekend in a speech to the SNP conference in Edinburgh.
Sturgeon said that she recently met with young climate change activists who were on strike from school.
She said that the campaigners were right about their fears for the planet and that Scotland needs to “live up to our responsibility” to tackle climate change.
Sturgeon then declared a climate emergency for Scotland and said that the country is already a “world leader” for addressing climate change.
“A few weeks ago, I met some of the young climate change campaigners who’ve gone on strike from school to raise awareness of their cause,” she said.
“They want governments around the world to declare a climate emergency. They say that’s what the science tells us. And they are right.
“So today, as first minister of Scotland, I am declaring that there is a climate emergency. And Scotland will live up to our responsibility to tackle it.”
There is no one definition for a ‘climate emergency,’ but many towns and cities across the UK have already declared so.
Local councils have started admitting that there is an emergency in a bid to tackle climate change by reducing their carbon emissions and even pledging to become carbon-neutral over the next 10 or 15 years.
Scotland has promised to become carbon neutral by 2050 and has urged other countries to follow suit in declaring an emergency.
The UK’s Labour Party is expected to add pressure to Theresa May’s government regarding the issue this week.
Leader Jeremy Corbyn said that the recent protests and demonstration have been a “wake up call.”
“The inspiring climate activism we have seen in recent weeks must serve as a massive and necessary wake-up call for rapid dramatic action,” he said last week.
“For young people the climate emergency is the cause of their generation. We in older generations must face up to this seriously.
“We have to have a much more focused and serious approach towards climate change and the damage we’re doing to our planet.”
