NICOLA STURGEON has refused to commit the Scottish government to a ban on North Sea oil and gas exploration despite suggestions Boris Johnson’s Tory administration are considering such a move. 

The First Minister was forced to defend her government’s environmental record in Holyrood today after claims that ministers were undermining efforts to tackle the climate emergency. 

Scottish Greens challenged Ms Sturgeon to commit to the ban but she refused, despite concerns about Scotland’s environmental credentials ahead of the UN’s climate summit in Glasgow this year.

Green co-leader Patrick Harvie said it was embarrassing that the SNP was being outflanked by the Tories in “standing up for the fossil fuel industry.”

He said: “We don’t have time for governments to be putting this off. We need to act like our future depends on it.”

Ms Sturgeon said that any move towards renewable energy must be a just transition, with many powers reserved to Westminster.