Proposals for a new law which could see the bosses of major polluters jailed for up to 20 years has received enough support from MSPs to be introduced at Holyrood next year.
Monica Lennon’s proposed Ecocide Prevention Bill has the backing of enough cross-party members to be brought forward and the Scottish government has indicated that it will not intervene to stop it.
This would clear the way for the bill to be formally introduced in the Scottish Parliament next year.
Scotland would be the first part of the UK to have such a law which could impose harsh penalties on executives responsible for major environmental damage.
The specifics of who proposed this give me some hope. Monica Lennon is part of Scottish Labour, so the UK Labour party that’s currently in power in the UK parliament is less likely to interfere. The largest party in the Scottish parliament right now is the SNP, who agree with Labour often enough and have a reasonable environmental record. Good enough that they formed a coalition with the Greens, not good enough for that coalition to last after the first three years. The Greens themselves are enough of a presence to counteract a few Labour or SNP oppositions.
It’s definitely not a surefire thing though. This will be controversial and will face opposition. Scotland is both the renewable energy centre for the UK and the oil & gas centre.