EARLIER this month, we saw the world's hottest day on record.

We've seen devastating weather events across the globe, with soaring temperatures, wild tropical storms, and flash floods leaving communities devastated.

These terrifying weather events are our planet's alarm bells.

It's a stark warning of what's to come if we don't take decisive action to protect our planet.

Yet, as our planet sounds the alarms, anti-climate governments like the one in Downing Street are taking us backwards.

The Climate Change Committee's report into the UK Government's Net Zero progress made for extremely depressing reading.

Denouncing a lack of urgency and leadership, the committee's chair, Lord Deben, accused Downing Street of being "too slow to embrace cleaner, cheaper alternatives and too keen to support new production of coal, oil and gas."

This climate vandalism is about to get worse, with a decision on new oil exploration in the Rosebank field imminent.

This field would account for more than 300 million barrels of oil. That's more than 200m tonnes of carbon dioxide.

UK ministers have made their support for the development clear, with the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak saying it would make "absolutely no sense" not to go ahead with the drilling.

What makes "no sense" is to continue with business as usual whilst the planet burns.

And let's be clear, this anti-climate consensus is a cross-party affair in Westminster.

Labour leader Keir Starmer announced this summer that although his party would oppose new licenses, they would not cancel any new ones that the Tories agreed to between now and then.

They have doubled down on nuclear whilst shelving their proposed £28billion renewables investment policy.

They've promised climate action but ditched it before they've even started.

We cannot trust a Westminster Government of either shade to protect our planet.

But there is an alternative. Here in Scotland, we're already taking brave and bold steps towards a greener, fairer future.

The Scottish Government's draft energy policy took a huge green step forward by being the first ever to presume against new fossil fuel developments.

This was a powerful statement of intent that saw Scotland lead the way by being one of the first countries with significant fossil fuel reserves to accept that we must act to keep our planet safe.

This is what action looks like. But it's made far harder when the most important powers lie with a broken Westminster system and a failing Tory government.

How many more wake-up calls and warnings will it take?

With independence, Scotland will have the power to take the decisive climate action required to keep our planet safe. Without it, we're stuck with a climate denying Tory government that use our own resources to pollute the world around us.

I'll never stop fighting for a greener, fairer Scotland – the future of our planet depends on it.