The First Minister was speaking from the summit in Dubai as he criticised the PM for approving new North Sea oil and gas licences.
Humza Yousaf has blasted Rishi Sunak’s government as not “serious about its responsibility to the planet” after approving new North Sea licences.
Speaking at COP28 in Dubai, the First Minister insisted we “cannot extract every single drop of oil and gas” without triggering devastating warming of the planet.
And he also defended his own attendance at the UN climate talks, claiming his devolved government is helping to keep negotiating states honest.
The crucial climate talks in the United Arab Emirates have been dominated by the issue of fossil fuels – with efforts to get a “phase out” of coal, oil and gas written into the final agreement.
In Scotland, Yousaf’s government is considering whether to oppose all new North Sea drilling by default.
However, licensing is reserved to Westminster – with Sunak earlier this year vowing to “max out” the North Sea and approving more than 100 new licences.
In a series of media interviews at the summit, the Scottish First Minister hit out at the PM, blasting: “This is not the time to be awarding 100 new oil and gas licences.
“[The UK Government] is now seen as a government that unfortunately… is not serious about its responsibility to the planet.”
Experts believe that only with massive cuts to global emissions – including a rapid scaling back of our use of fossil fuels – can we avoid catastrophic levels of climate change.
But a target to keep global temperatures to no more than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, before we started burning fossil fuels, is in mounting jeopardy.
Yousaf told Politico said: “Nobody in the Scottish Government believes in anything other than taking oil and gas workers with us on the transition.
“But we cannot extract every single drop of oil and gas out of the North Sea.
“If we did that right across the world, then we’re never going to get close to 1.5C, let alone 2C.”
Yousaf also drew attention to claims Sunak spent longer travelling on private jets to and from COP28 than the eight hours he spent in Dubai.
In a separate interview with the PA news agency, Yousaf – who has been at the summit since Sunday and returns today (WEDS) – said he had “not seen” any impact the Tory government has had at the global talks.
The First Minister said: “If you want to see a demonstration of Rishi Sunak’s seriousness of attacking the climate crisis, the fact that he was Cop28 for I think all of around eight hours shows and demonstrates how seriously he takes climate change.”
He added: “I’ve met world leaders, I’ve met heads of government, I’ve met ministers, I’ve met the civic society – I’ve had many meetings, pushing the parties here to go further.
“And not any of them, I have to say, have mentioned the UK Government’s contribution or actions.”
Sunak has said he is confident what his government has achieved at COP28 as “significant” and said he was not judging success “by hours spent” but “by the actual things that we’re doing”.
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