OUR latest community column comes from Ross Greer, Green MSP for West Scotland.

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THIS July, more than 200 people lost their lives as unprecedented flash flooding hit Germany and Belgium.

Thousands more were forced by wildfires to flee their homes raging across Greece and Turkey. The property damage caused so far stands in excess of €10 billion.

These disasters are increasingly common around the world, with scientists telling us this is the climate crisis in action.

Without bold action, things will get much worse, much quicker.

The Scottish Greens recognise this as a time for politicians to get out of our comfort zones and to cooperate in the interests of people and planet. That’s why we spent the summer negotiating with the SNP to form a new kind of government.

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The agreement we’ve reached is the greenest agenda for government ever seen on these islands.

Some £5bn will be spent over five years improving and expanding our railways, including to communities who currently have no access to the rail network.

The budget for walking, wheeling and cycling improvements will almost triple to £320 million a year. A new community bus fund will be introduced, making it easier to bring bus services back into public ownership.

And there will be a major shift away from new road building after decades of non-stop, shockingly expensive road expansion, this is a major and long-overdue change.

A total of £1.8bn will be spent to ensure buildings across Scotland, from homes to schools to hospitals, use less energy, are warm and get their heat from renewable sources rather than from fossil fuels - reducing carbon emissions, lifting families out of fuel poverty, and creating tens of thousands of jobs in the process.

We’re going to double Scotland’s onshore wind capacity and put far greater emphasis on a domestic supply chain, creating manufacturing jobs here rather than shipping parts in from across the world.

Businesses who seek the government’s support will have to pay the real Living Wage and show how they are helping to tackle rather than cause the climate crisis.

Our climate is less than a decade from its tipping point. We will be judged for a long time to come by the actions we take right now.

In May, the Scottish Greens asked the public to vote like our futures depend on it. This is our first opportunity to enter government, but also the last before that planetary tipping point. We have a moral obligation to rise to the challenge and bring a sense of urgency to the heart of government.

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