They say that a week is a long time in politics, and the events of the last week have certainly been one of the most difficult I have encountered in my years at Holyrood.

The Bute House Agreement was brought the SNP and Scottish Green parties together to work co-operatively in 2021, and in that spirit, we have delivered much over the last two and a half years. Doubling the Scottish Child Payment, bringing in a rent freeze, removing peak rail fares while making bus fares free for under 22s, growing new renewable energy jobs and supporting warmer cheaper to run homes are just a few examples of early progress.

It was hugely disappointing then that the First Minister Humza Yousaf decided to unilaterally terminate the agreement last week with no warning. It was a reckless, impulsive decision that flew in the face of the trust and good ways of working we had established together.

There have been recent tensions over climate policy between us and the question about how we get Scotland’s climate targets back on track had rightly concerned many of our Green members.

Scotland has the most ambitious climate goal in the UK of ‘net zero by 2045’ and we are broadly on track to meet it, but the ambitious target of a 75 per cent cut in emissions by 2030 has proven very difficult to hit. Although Scotland punches well above its weight in renewable energy production, decades of inaction in areas such as farming, housing and transport have held us back.

Meanwhile the Prime Minister has rolled back on climate action at a time when every government across the UK needed to step up and his Westminster budgets have left the Scottish Government with empty pockets to make major investments in the programmes that can help people make changes.

There are good signs we are turning the corner and my colleague Patrick Harvie’s plan on home heating has been welcomed by experts as the best way to help homes become cheaper and greener to live in. There are also good signs that the proposed changes to agricultural funding will help farmers cut emissions and restore nature. But none of this can make enough of the change needed in the short term to hit the 2030 target.

In response, the government agreed to change the 2030 target but has also brought forward a bigger package of climate action including better funding for public transport. But it was a package that many in our party felt did not meet the scale of the climate emergency and the response that was needed.

Our members agreed a special meeting to discuss progress made under the Bute House Agreement and whether more action could be taken. It’s an important part of our internal democracy that members can hold MSPs to account.

Sadly the First Minister saw this as an opportunity to terminate the agreement, pander to those on the right of his party and fire our Ministers Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater.

This has been hugely disappointing. Lorna was, for example, working to establish a new National Park in Scotland, while Patrick was driving through a new bill on tenants rights.

But as Greens we know that we can continue to make progress for people and the planet wherever we sit in Parliament and a time in opposition will allow us to hold the SNP government to account.