This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Nicola Sturgeon has said she will ask for the legal powers to stage a new independence referendum next year as she unveiled a swathe of measures to combat climate heating.

The first minister told MSPs on Tuesday she would ask the UK government for a section 30 order enabling Holyrood to hold a second independence vote once a new Scottish referendum bill is passed.

Over the next year, the Scottish government would also spend £500m to improve the country’s buses, set a new target to decarbonise the Scottish rail network by 2035, and fund a £3bn green new deal package coordinated by a new Scottish investment bank.

Coupled with measures on health inequalities and cutting waste, Sturgeon said her ambitious legislative programme stood in stark contrast to the political and constitutional emergency gripping Westminster. The Brexit crisis meant it seemed inevitable there would be an early general election, she added.

She did not mention polls that indicate the Scottish National party would win more than 50 of Scotland’s 59 Commons seats, but said she wanted to be prepared. “We intend to offer the people of Scotland the choice of a better and more positive future as an independent nation,” she said.

“We will seek agreement to the transfer of power that will put the referendum beyond legal challenge. We have a clear democratic mandate to offer the choice of independence within this term of parliament – and we intend to do so.”

Ian Blackford, the SNP’s Westminster leader, said earlier on Tuesday an election gave his party “a fantastic opportunity” to strengthen the mandate for independence. It would allow Scotland’s voters “to send a very clear message to Westminster that we should be able to determine our own future”, he said.

Speaking in Holyrood as she unveiled the next year’s programme for government, Sturgeon said the carbon emergency would be the centrepiece of its legislation and spending.

She said the programme included:

• Making the Highlands and islands the first “net zero” aviation zone in the world by 2040.

• Producing regulations to make sure all new homes would include renewable or low carbon heat from 2024.

• Consulting on introducing zero-emissions city centres by 2030.

• Helping the oil and gas industry invest in carbon capture and storage.

• Exploring the scope for a hydrogen refuelling network and explore using hydrogen to power trains in remote areas.

Among other measures, Sturgeon said another £20m would be spent on tackling Scotland’s drugs deaths crisis; a fresh initiative to improve mental health for women; reform of Scotland’s defamation laws; new powers for local councils to introduce tourist levies such as bed taxes; and enable new charges for single-use disposable coffee cups.

Sturgeon’s emphasis on tackling the climate crisis was welcomed by environmental campaigners. Glasgow is expected to be the host city for next year’s COP26 global climate summit and Sturgeon wants to show her government is taking leadership on the climate.

Richard Dixon, the director of Friends of the Earth Scotland, said the positive measures Sturgeon unveiled were undermined by the serious contradiction of continuing to support maximum extraction of North Sea oil and gas. North Sea drilling should be phased out quickly, he said.

Carbon capture and hydrogen were “dangerous distractions” since they promoted continued use of fossil fuels, he said. “The climate emergency should signal a radical change of direction, especially when it comes to planning the end of oil and gas extraction from the North Sea.”