Sovereignty

Economic Necessity? David Barratt’s Climate Justice Claim Doesn’t Add Up ift.tt/IxdtFc9 Opinion By Laurie Moffat • 30 October 2026 • 5 min read • 968 words David Barratt MSP says overseas climate spending is an “economic necessity” for Scottish households. He offered no evidence that it lowers a single Scottish bill. Families who have watched jobs go at Grangemouth and Mossmorran deserve better than slogans. On Tuesday 27 October, David Barratt, the SNP MSP for Cowdenbeath, stood up in Holyrood and told Scotland that sending money overseas for “climate justice” is “not simply a moral obligation but an economic necessity”. Helping communities abroad, he said, “is also an investment in our own resilience”. It is a bold claim. It is also one he never backed up. He cited food imports, but not one figure in his speech showed how a pound spent abroad saves a pound for a family in Cowdenbeath. The claim with no evidence behind it Mr Barratt’s case ran like this: the UK imports around 40 per cent of its food, climate change threatens growers abroad, failed harvests push up prices, so funding projects overseas protects Scottish household budgets. The first part is true. Defra’s own figures put UK home production at 62 per cent of all food in 2023, meaning roughly 40 per cent comes from abroad. The debate heard that the Climate Justice Fund was trebled to £36 million last session, with more than £10 million on loss and damage. How much has that knocked off a weekly shop in Fife? Nobody said. Calling something an “economic necessity” without a single number to prove it is not economics. It is a slogan. Key Takeaway: David Barratt called overseas climate spending an “economic necessity” for Scottish households but offered no evidence that it lowers a single Scottish bill. Since 2025 Scotland has lost its only oil refinery at Grangemouth, and Fife has lost the Mossmorran ethylene plant. That is where Scotland’s resilience is being lost, and where it must be rebuilt. A rounding error against the world Scotland’s net emissions were 39.6 million tonnes in 2023, according to the Scottish Government. Global emissions that year were about 53 billion tonnes, according to the EU’s EDGAR database. Scotland’s share is about 0.07 per cent. The money side is just as lopsided. The UN Environment Programme estimates that developing countries need between $215 billion and $387 billion a year for adaptation alone. Against that, £36 million over five years is a rounding error. It cannot move world food prices, so it cannot be sold to Scottish taxpayers as a cost-of-living measure. The question he could not answer The most revealing moment came when Labour’s Paul Sweeney asked him whether domestic producers face costs that competitors abroad do not, and how the coming carbon border adjustment mechanism would affect them. Mr Barratt’s reply: “I will be perfectly honest and say that I am not entirely familiar with that aspect, but I am happy to look into it.” Honest, at least. But a member of Holyrood’s Climate Action Committee who wants to make the economic case for climate spending should know how climate policy loads costs onto the producers in his own region. Fife’s bills, Fife’s jobs Look at what has happened across the Forth and on Mr Barratt’s doorstep. Scotland’s only oil refinery, at Grangemouth, stopped processing crude on 29 April 2025, with 430 jobs lost. Scotland now imports all its transport fuels. In Fife, ExxonMobil shut the Fife Ethylene Plant at Mossmorran on 2 February 2026, with about 400 jobs at risk. As a councillor, Mr Barratt put forward a motion recording “deep regret” at that closure and calling for support for workers. Good. But you cannot express deep regret at Mossmorran’s closure and then tell Holyrood that money sent overseas is what protects Fife households. Food security starts on Scottish farms Scotland grew 1.93 million tonnes of barley in 2025, keeps 1.65 million cattle and planted 13,400 hectares of seed potatoes. Across the UK we produce more barley, lamb and milk than we consume. What decides prices and security for those farms is close to home: fuel, fertiliser and electricity costs, the support farmers get and how we protect prime farmland. Those are levers Scotland can pull. Sneers are not arguments Mr Barratt told MSPs that the debate was “probably quite triggering for those who are on the right”. When Patrick Harvie remarked on people who accept that the climate has always changed but resist migration, Mr Barratt agreed and added: “There is probably a depressing crossover with flat earthers as well.” Scots worried about bills and public spending are not flat earthers. They are asking a fair question: what does this spending do for us? They deserve an answer, not a jibe. The amended motion rightly called for transparency in how this money is spent. That is the least taxpayers are owed. Real leadership Mr Barratt said that “where we lead, others will follow”. Real leadership for Scotland is cheap, plentiful energy; secure jobs in energy, fishing and farming; and a sovereign wealth fund built from Scotland’s own resources, as Norway did. Sovereignty backs an all-energy approach. Our members agreed at Congress in Perth that Jackdaw, Rosebank, Cambo and other capped Scottish fields should be brought into production, so Scotland uses its own gas instead of importing it. Read our energy and resources policy. And it means a fair tax system: our economy and tax policy sets out a Land Value Tax so Scotland’s land works for everyone, not a few. Scotland first Generosity is not an economic strategy, and overseas spending is not the route to Scotland’s resilience. Mr Barratt’s speech was strong on feeling and weak on evidence. Families who have watched jobs go at Grangemouth and Mossmorran deserve better than that. Independence, outside both Westminster and Brussels, means decisions for Scotland made by Scots, with Scotland’s resources put to work for the people who live here. SOVEREIGNTY • SCOTLAND Stand with Sovereignty Join our movement for a truly independent Scotland outside both the United Kingdom and the European Union. Join Sovereignty →DonateNewsletter Sign-Up Promoted by Sovereignty (PP12666), Schoolhouse, Hamnavoe, Burra, Shetland ZE2 9LA.