The co-leader of the Scottish Greens spoke to The Scotsman ahead of his party’s conference in Inverness
Published 23rd Oct 2026, 16:33 BST
The SNP is losing support to the Greens because of its stance on the climate crisis and the North Sea, the co-leader of the Scottish Greens has insisted.
Ross Greer said the youngest voters “really strongly support us” but added his party is also “making a lot of progress” with middle-aged and older voters.
It came as he said giving the go-ahead to the controversial Rosebank oil field would be “the height of irresponsibility”.
He said the move would show the UK Labour government “just doesn't care” about the future of the country’s children.
The Scottish Greens are gathering for their conference in Inverness this weekend, just days after UK ministers approved the Jackdaw gas field in the North Sea.
Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh insisted this was compatible with the UK’s climate obligations, but Mr Greer dismissed this.
"The public aren't stupid,” he told The Scotsman. “The notion that a new gas field is compatible with tackling the climate emergency is just farcical, isn't it?”
He added: "The only people this is a win for are the shareholders in the company operating it. It's going to make a small number of people obscenely wealthy, and it's going to take us further back rather than moving forward when it comes to tackling the climate emergency and doing the things that will actually cut people's bills."
Mr Greer criticised the shift within the SNP over the North Sea, with the party softening its position on new drilling under John Swinney.
"Huge numbers of SNP voters, particularly those who voted SNP over the last decade, were voting for a party that they thought took the climate emergency seriously,” he said. "But over the course of the last two years, we've clearly seen that shift away from that."
He said “a lot of attention” had been given to the fact the SNP lost the Aberdeen South by-election to the Conservatives in June.
"There's much less attention given to the fact that a month before that, the SNP lost seats to the Greens in Glasgow and Edinburgh,” he said.
"And I can tell you from knocking on doors there and elsewhere in the country, a lot of it was because particularly - but not exclusively - younger voters, just didn't believe the SNP was taking the climate crisis, and therefore their future, the future of young people in particular in this country - they just didn't believe the SNP was taking it seriously any more.”
Mr Greer added: "We're seeing this growth in Green support across the country. It's coming from people who are now old enough to vote. As you would kind of expect, you wouldn't be hugely surprised, the youngest voters really strongly support us.
"The Greens won outright with voters under the age of 35 by quite a margin. The SNP came second but quite far behind us, everybody else much further behind. But we are making a lot of progress with what you might call middle-aged and older people as well.
"A lot of our voters are people who spent most of the last decade voting SNP, particularly because of Nicola Sturgeon, and they really feel that without Nicola it's the Greens who are continuing to fly that flag for that more progressive Scotland, some people would say a socialist Scotland.
"I don't think Nicola would identify as a socialist. I certainly would.
"But if you are somebody of a left-wing, a progressive position, it's clearly the Greens who are the only ones left really advancing that particular cause.”
You can listen to the full interview with Ross Greer on The Steamie podcast, or watch on YouTube