Scotland's reputation as a world leader on climate change is “crumbling” because of its failure to hit domestic green targets, a leading charity has warned.
Aid and relief agency SCIAF is calling for a major new drive from First Minister Humza Yousaf to “reinvigorate” climate action at home and abroad.
Launching the group’s “First for Justice” campaign, head of advocacy Ben Wilson said they had three key demands of Yousaf - including “urgent action” to ensure Scotland starts hitting its eco targets.
They also want the FM to continue predecessor Nicola Sturgeon’s work on the world stage calling for “loss and damage” funding for countries worst-hit by climate change, and to champion “food justice” around the world.
It comes as a shocking 800 million people across the globe go to bed hungry every night including hundreds of millions of kids.
And it’s feared pressures from climate change on farming and food production will make the problem far worse.
SCIAF is urging the new SNP chief to host an “expert summit” later this year covering all of these issues to “re-energise action” domestically and internationally.
Mr Wilson said that in the past decade or so, the Scottish Government had “raced to the front and become one of the global leaders on climate change” by setting ambitious targets.
But he warned: “In recent years, they are really lagging behind - and you could say that their climate change leadership is crumbling as we speak.
"The new First Minister needs to take this opportunity to reinvigorate action on climate change in Scotland and get on track to achieve and to surpass the legal targets which the Scottish Government have to reduce our emissions.
"And that's through urgent action on transport, urgent action on homes and buildings to make them more energy efficient, and also urgent action on nature.”
However, he praised the SNP’s government outreach abroad on climate issues - particularly Sturgeon’s move to provide international aid for climate-linked loss and damage at COP26 in Glasgow.
It’s thought the Holyrood administration’s championing of this issue played a small but important role in a deal for a global loss and damage fund agreed the following year at COP27 in Egypt.
Mr Wilson said: “The Scottish Government’s money broke the taboo on loss and damage finance and then that had a huge contribution to the agreement at COP27.
“But there's still more to do - the issue is still highly contentious.”
And the Catholic Church-linked charity said Yousaf should emulate Sturgeon’s approach to advocate for a fairer food system across the planet.
Katie Ann McGeary, Senior Campaigning Officer at SCIAF, said: “We're at a point in the world where there's nearly 1 billion people living in hunger, and 2 billion people don't have access to nutritious foods."
She said the world economy was structured so that "huge swathes of land" in poorer countries are geared towards industrial agriculture rather than feeding the people who live there - leading to famine.
Ms McGeary added this, as well as the impacts of climate change like extreme heat and droughts, had placed small local farmers in an "inhospitable world".
She said: "The climate crisis has been a perfect storm for an unjust food system - so, we need the Scottish Government to look at those aspects of food justice and come up with complimentary solutions."
Net Zero Secretary Mairi McAllan said she was “committed to deliver our statutory climate targets in a way that is fair, including through driving down greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to the impacts of warming that we are already experiencing”.
She added: “As we tackle climate change at home, we will also deepen our global leadership on international climate justice.”
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