NEW coronavirus restrictions announced this week will be hard for many.

But with hospitalisations increasing sharply, across all ages, it is clear that we must act to prevent the virus killing many more of our friends and neighbours, and causing long term ill-health for others.

The Scottish Greens have said consistently that we need to strengthen testing as our first line of defence, and that we must do everything we can to stop inequalities from worsening. That’s why, for instance, we’ve stood up for the city’s hospitality workers, many of whom face uncertainty and risk to their incomes now, on top of existing low pay.

The lack of clarity and sufficient financial support to protect jobs alongside new restrictions is dismaying.

Above all, this is a reminder that we are in a national and global emergency which requires us to make a collective effort.

The same is true of the other defining emergency of our age - that of climate breakdown.

This week, the council published its long-awaited Climate Emergency Implementation Plan. Greens want this to be a plan that unites the city behind a mission to rebuild our economy to serve people and the planet.

It should have cross-party backing. But that won’t happen if it's not credible.

Unfortunately this plan shows the SNP once again putting spin before substance.

That was obvious this week when the council leader tweeted about how much she enjoyed telling a global audience about Glasgow’s plan for net zero by 2030.

That would be fine, if that’s what her plan actually said.

Instead it suggests the city’s target should be 2045 - the same as the rest of Scotland. So far from being a story of our city’s climate ambition, it is actually suggesting that Glasgow, with all its resources and ingenuity, cannot lead Scotland in this. That’s unacceptable.

For a 95-page plan, it’s light on detail. On the vital measures needed to get fossil fuels out of our homes and our vehicles, there’s little to convince that transformation will happen fast enough.

Crucially it offers no new investment plans, even though the Greens put a £10 million climate emergency fund into the last council budget so work could start right away.

It has been two years since the IPCC published its landmark report on the devastating consequences of failing to keep warming to 1.5 degrees.

Since then we’ve seen a global wave of protest. Young climate strikers, scared and angry, have demanded radical change.

Scottish Greens have heard their call. My colleague, councillor Martha Wardrop pressed for stronger targets straight away but the SNP voted them down.

She then set up a climate emergency working group and delivered 61 cross party recommendations in just six months.

The SNP only thought to declare a climate emergency once Nicola Sturgeon did that at their party conference, and they’ve taken 14 months to water down the working group’s proposals.

Now they want yet another public consultation. We will support that, but let's be clear on one thing.

It’s those whose futures will be determined by what we do now who must be heard most clearly, not those whose vested interests have caused the crisis.

If the SNP is prepared to do that then perhaps we can still salvage a climate emergency plan worthy of the name.