Parents for Future Scotland and Mothers Rise Up are calling on Andy Burnham to reject new oil and gas drilling in the North Sea, and invest in Scotland's green economy for the sake of our children and generations to come.

As people in Scotland raising families in a climate emergency, we can see the direct impact heatwaves and extreme weather patterns are having on children, families, and workers in the UK. Extreme climatic events will only worsen if we cling onto the fossil fuel vision; Scotland is not immune from these dangers.

The world is moving on from fossil fuels; we need our leaders to be strong, vocal advocates for Scotland to fulfil her potential at the forefront of this new, green economy, as a renewable energy powerhouse. 

Please take a moment to sign the letter below; we will deliver this letter directly to Andy Burnham's team

Thank you
Parents for Future Scotland & Mothers Rise Up

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Dear Andy Burnham MP,

The working people and families of Scotland stand in solidarity with the exhausted London bus driver, struggling in a cab exceeding 46°C, with the teacher in Warrington, knowing that they cannot keep a classroom of young children safe in a dangerously overheating school, with the care home worker in Glamorgan, trying desperately to keep their elderly residents cool, whilst worrying about their own small children, sweltering in poorly insulated housing.

We understand the science, we know that the dangers of the climate emergency are on our doorstep as well, and we know it is the poorest and most vulnerable, our children first among them, who will suffer. Allowing more oil and gas extraction in the North Sea, when the scientific consensus is crystal clear that this is inconsistent with keeping global temperatures below dangerous levels that will guarantee suffering on a terrifying scale, goes against the core of who we are.

This is a moment for the kind of bold leadership, creativity and conviction that can accelerate Scotland towards its low-carbon future, as a powerhouse of renewable energy generation and green growth. Families and communities across Scotland deserve a Prime Minister who will provide a clear, unwavering path forward to attract green investment at scale - not one who toys with condemning us to decades more of rising temperatures, food insecurity, and failing infrastructure in a desperate bid to extract the last shreds of interest that global polluters have in a basin in terminal decline.

The polluters - international companies whose profits flow straight out of Scotland, will take our hundreds of millions in tax breaks, extract the maximum profit by selling oil on the international market, doing absolutely nothing to bring down UK energy bills or increase our energy security, all the while investing nothing in transitioning Scotland’s workforce, and when these last slim pickings are gone, they will leave. This isn’t just insulting to Scotland’s working people, it’s bad economics. Scotland could be in the vanguard of global, net zero innovation; we need our Prime Minister to back us, not undermine us.

We urge you to:

1. Publicly oppose the Rosebank oil field and sign the Early Day Motion tabled by Clive Lewis MP, ensuring the leadership contest prioritises the needs of Scotland’s families, both at this moment of economic and societal pivot and in the future.
   
   
2. Commit fully to the urgent work of investing in our green economy and creating a just transition that protects workers, secures our and our children’s energy future, and brings well-paid, unionised green industrial jobs back into our local communities.
   
   

Polling of Scottish voters tells us time and again that the majority of people in Scotland support immediate and concrete action to tackle climate change. Perhaps in no other situation do the words of Jimmy Reid resonate quite so powerfully: “Reject the insidious pressures in society that would blunt your critical faculties to all that is happening around you, that would caution silence in the face of injustice lest you jeopardise your chances of promotion and self-advancement.”

Scotland’s working people are waiting.