THE Chancellor’s ‘too little, too late’ announcement this week of a windfall tax on energy giants to fund emergency cost of living measures has a shocking sting in the tail – it will allow those mega corporations to dodge the extra tax if they plough more money into drilling for climate-wrecking fossil fuels.

What a wasted opportunity this was, not only to help people in need, but also to speed up our necessary transition away from oil and gas. 
Our dependence on fossil fuels and decades of under-investment in energy efficiency measures has left the UK among the countries most-exposed to current energy price hikes. With the renewable energy potential we have, particularly here in Scotland, that’s an outrage.

It’s wrong to separate the real hardships facing households across the country from the need to ensure our future security and wellbeing in a world facing climate disaster.

Both can be fixed by rebalancing our economy away from its current prioritisation of exploitation and extraction of wealth by and for the richest few, towards a future where we retain that wealth in communities and protect and rebuild our natural resources.

In the coming weeks, Green councillors will begin work with colleagues in the SNP minority administration on a new five-year-plan to take the city forward.

We will be pushing forward policies that will tackle the climate and cost-of-living crises together. 

Our manifesto said that a greener Glasgow is a fairer Glasgow - and that’s what we intend to show, by transforming our neighbourhoods, supporting those in need, and strengthening vital public services.

We have already put £5 million into helping the most vulnerable through the last two council budgets and we will continue to support action to put more money into people’s pockets. 

That’s in addition to national action which Greens have delivered, including doubling the Scottish Child Payment, free bus travel for under-22s and expanding universal free school meals.

There’s more we can do at Council level. 

We can ensure crisis funds get to people quickly and effectively. We can support dignified access to food. 

We can increase help with housing costs and ensure effective rent controls are delivered by Scottish Green ministers. 

We can act to keep down the cost of going to school through a city-wide school uniform policy, holiday food provision and access to warm jackets, outdoor clothing and bikes. 

We can deliver increased allowances for foster and kinship carers that have been frozen for a decade. We can expand free and low-cost access to public transport. And crucially, we can finally settle Glasgow Labour’s historic pay injustice against thousands of women workers.
The Glasgow Times is doing great work championing practical solutions through its Beat The Squeeze campaign.

While the Tories in Westminster have acted cynically to divert headlines from the damning indictment of Boris Johnson’s lack of leadership in the Sue Gray report, Greens in Holyrood and in the city chambers will take the actions needed for a greener and fairer Glasgow, responding to this crisis and beyond.