LAST year saw dramatic global political events and Brexit, Scottish budget negotiations and the council elections in May are going to make for a busy few months in Scottish politics.

While Donald Trump still appears to be in denial of climate change, the next couple of weeks will see the launch at Holyrood of three important plans that could shape the future of our society, if they are ambitious enough.

Scotland's next Climate Change Plan, alongside a new Energy Strategy and a consultation on a fracking ban could allow us to take big steps forward in cutting our carbon emissions while also benefitting communities, creating jobs and tackling fuel poverty.

The word 'ambitious' is key, because at current levels of Scottish Government investment in energy efficiency for example, it will take 25 years for all vulnerable people in Scotland to live in a decent warm home - they can't afford to wait.

The Energy Strategy must build on the success of renewable electricity by setting a new target to ensure half of all our energy needs are clean and green by 2030. This means getting to grips with renewable heating and transport as well as electricity.

There also needs to be support in there to help communities and councils generate their own energy rather than the benefits being hoarded by the big six energy companies.

We need to see Holyrood and council budgets agreed to protect the most vulnerable in the weeks to come. The draft budget produced by the Scottish Government protects some areas of spend such as teacher numbers and the basic pay of care workers, but other frontline services are vulnerable.

While the Council Tax freeze was popular in the early years it’s clear that councils are becoming increasingly squeezed and need more powers to raise revenue to protect frontline services. At first these financial pressures drove sensible savings with councils cutting out waste and inefficiency but now there is nowhere left to cut.

It’s time for the Scottish Government to be bold and use the new tax varying powers at Holyrood to fairly raise more revenue to invest in public services and the economy.

This year will also see laws on new welfare benefit powers introduced and Greens have already been successfully pushing for changes to Universal Credit to make it more flexible.

In some areas housing benefit has not been paid directly to landlords leading some tenants to slip into arrears, it’s important that claimants on tight budgets can choose the payment route that best supports them.

Greens have also secured a commitment from the Scottish Government to extend a programme started in Glasgow to help maximise the income of vulnerable families. The Healthier Wealthier Children project has helped families gain an average of over £1,000 in entitlements that they were missing out on.

Every penny helps and I look forward to this approach benefitting Clackmannanshire families in time.

Advertiser readers can contact me by email on mark.ruskell.msp@parliament.scot or on 0131 348 6469.