ONE message is clear from COP26: rich or developing countries, post-industrialised or emerging economies, city dwellers or indigenous communities, we are all in this together.

In September, I wrote about the role hydrogen and carbon-capture could play in Scotland’s transition to a green economy; COP26 revealed that bankers and financiers now recognise a green economy is good for the planet and for business. Changing nothing isn’t ‘cheaper’, it’s catastrophic.

Addressing environmental threats is part of our history of activism in the constituency.

‘Re-use’ initiatives were launched 25 years ago by Macmerry-based charity Recycling First, which has received further national recognition from Zero Waste Scotland; our county shopkeepers were also pioneers of going ‘plastic bag free’; and 10 years ago, working alongside local activists, I was a member of Sustaining Dunbar.

Impressive engagement by all ages is now stepping up: East Lothian is ready for a coalition of climate action groups, aiming to be Scotland’s first carbon-neutral region.

In my ‘speech on the beach’ last week, I told climate activists that our county could be a national exemplar of a green wellbeing economy. I’m taking this forward at Holyrood as convenor of a cross-party group in association with the Wellbeing Economy Alliance.

As we mark the Armistice, we can reflect that the better future for which millions died must ensure that the biosphere, and the people who inhabit it, thrive in a land worthy of past sacrifices.

The Holyrood wellbeing group is cross-party, but while COP26 in Glasgow focused world attention on a shared greener future, Westminster Tory MPs were voting to protect one of their own, mired in a sleaze scandal. House of Commons SNP leader Ian Blackford forcefully called out Boris Johnson’s Government for ‘marking its own homework’ on accountability, rather than seeking cross-party consensus on acceptable standards.

Mr Johnson already fears the writing on the wall as our country eyes a different path. An independent, fair, inclusive, green, 21st-century Scotland will be accountable only to the people who live here, not beholden to wealthy vested interests, fiddling while the planet burns.