First Minister in Paris

Nicola Sturgeon attends Climate Change summit in Paris representing Scotland.

Nicola Sturgeon arrived in France yesterday to join the COP 2015.

The First Minister will represent Scotland at the UN global climate change summit in Paris. She will be joined by Minister for Climate Change Dr McLeod.

Barack Obama, Vladimir Putin, and David Cameron are among the world leaders speaking. 

The First Minister will attend meetings and speaking engagements this week not only to promote Scotland's track record on climate change, but also to support the UN's work towards a legally binding global climate change deal. 

Nicola Sturgeon said: 

"Scotland punches well above its weight in the international effort to tackle climate change. Our world-leading targets set the benchmark the international community needs to match in the years ahead if we are to stand a good chance of limiting global warming to less than two degrees Celsius.

It is no exaggeration to say that our future, and that of generations to come, depends on a successful outcome and so the stakes could not be higher. We must ensure that this summit delivers the step-change needed in the international fight against climate change.

Scotland offers a message and model for climate action and in the countdown to these negotiations the Scottish Government has been promoting Scotland’s actions on climate change to the international community.

Scotland is well on track to meet our long term targets ahead of schedule and at the Conference of Parties we will continue to press the international community to look to Scotland and follow our leadership and progress in tackling climate change and moving towards a low carbon economy.

While Scotland has already set out ambitious targets to cut emissions, we are also pioneering a specific climate justice approach, which puts people and human rights at the heart of our action on climate change and in supporting fair and sustainable global development. We already support 11 projects in Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania and Zambia which help some of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people- particularly women and children - adapt to the impact of climate change. I want to see that continue and – during the summit - the Scottish Government will be championing climate justice as a global priority"