Climate Crisis No Longer 'A Looming Threat'

The climate crisis is no longer "a looming threat" Alliance MLA John Blair has said, adding that the "refusal to act at the pace the science demands is deadly".

Making a call for action, Mr Blair said: "In 2020, extreme weather events uprooted 30.7 million people from their homes, the highest figure in a decade, according to new analysis from the Norwegian Refugee Council's Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC).

"In recent weeks, we have witnessed disastrous floods in Germany, Belguim and Italy that have had a devastating impact on people's lives. We've seen wildfires razing Turkey and spread across southern Europe.

"Climate experts are clear: these recent events mark the end of a stable climate, we must step up our efforts to minimise the damage caused by extreme weather.

"We have learned many lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic, but a distressing lesson has been that high impact threats must be acted upon in a timely fashion and delay is costly. We need a green recovery with huge investment and urgent, radical changes to our economy – this radical change it isn't just sensible, it's now critical."