ECO-SOCIALIST solutions to the climate crisis will be vital in the run-up to the COP26 conference, a Labour MSP has said, calling for a worker-led Green New Deal with international solidarity at its heart.

Mercedes Villalba called on the Westminster and devolved governments to urgently address the climate emergency. 

Ms Villalba, who represents North East Scotland at Holyrood, said that class inequality continued to blight Britain and smothered the potential of many people across the globe. 

Activists nationwide must now mobilise ahead of the United Nations summit to ensure that this opportunity is not wasted, she said. 

The MSP insisted that Scottish Labour is committed to encouraging the development of transport that is more sustainable and publicly owned, as well as ending fuel poverty.

Ms Villalba said: “These issues are not remote or distant from the people I represent.

“Issues of climate justice are international issues and thus require international solutions. We must not allow those at COP26 to forget it. 

“Internationalism and the principles of international solidarity are essential if we are to succeed in tackling inequality and environmental breakdown.” 

Ms Villalba was speaking at a meeting organised by the COP26 Coalition, Momentum, The World Transformed, Labour for a Green New Deal and the Peace and Justice Project. 

Others at the event included former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and MP Rebecca Long Bailey.

Ms Villalba said that she planned to push the SNP government to take the environment seriously through rewilding and reforming land ownership. 

She said: “At the moment, enormous swathes of rural Scotland are exploited as playgrounds for the rich.

“I’m committed to eco-socialism. I believe an alliance of civil society, environmental activists and the labour movement can implement the measures needed to avert ecological disaster. 

“After all, the cause of Labour is the cause of the earth.”