WITH the growing turmoil around Brexit, it's easy to forget that we are approaching budget time again at Holyrood.

The weeks ahead will see discussions again between the Greens and the SNP centred around public sector pay, council services, tax and climate change.

I'm proud of the millions of pounds of extra funds Green budget deals have brought into Clackmannanshire Council over the last two years. They have taken many damaging cuts proposals off the table; however, the council is still under a huge amount of pressure, especially given rising demand for social services.

Some public sector workers such as teachers have seen escalating pressure on workload with minimal growth in wages over many years.

The recent march by teachers saw 30,000 take to the streets to argue for a fair pay increase, the largest demonstration in living memory from a single profession.

Councils are constrained by the tools they have to raise cash locally and we need a much wider debate about the balance of local government funding. Most European countries give councils a lot more control in how they raise revenue, it's time we did too and Greens will be looking for progress from the SNP before we do further budget deals.

We can also use Holyrood budgets to transform the way we power transport, homes and businesses in a more efficient climate friendly way.

We are the first generation of people alive who have realised that we are destroying our world, but we are also the last who can do anything about it. The International Panel on Climate Change recently gave us just 12 years to deliver.

After Green pressure in parliament, the First Minister confirmed to me that the Scottish Government will now look again at revising climate targets for this critical next decade.

It's obvious where we can make faster progress that will benefit everyone. I'm delighted for example that Spanish train manufacturer Talgo have selected Longannet as the location for their new manufacturing enterprise.

It's a fitting use for a former coal fired power station site, building the low carbon electric trains for the future. The facility could deliver three times the number of jobs Longannet supported and will now be a hugely important piece of the jigsaw in the Alloa-Dunfermline rail re-opening.

Heating is another area where we can make progress, delivering new jobs along the way. Heating makes up around half of our total energy usage in Scotland and shockingly over 14,000 homes still use coal in open fires as their main source of warmth.

Sweden has made big progress on renewable heating over the years and is set to phase out all fossil fuel from heating in the next two years. Meanwhile in Scotland,we are still funding the installation of oil fired boilers as part of fuel poverty schemes. Lots of renewable energy installers are ready and waiting on a signal from both governments to up the ambition.

It's going to need huge political will to turn the corner on climate change, but jobs, financial and health benefits can also be felt if we are ambitious.