Aberdeen environmental campaigner Guy Ingerson yesterday launched a bid to become co-leader of the Scottish Green Party with an attack on fossil fuels.
Mr Ingerson, who campaigned against Torry incinerator plans, announced his candidacy for the position which replaces the posts of party co-conveners currently held by Patrick Harvie MSP and Maggie Chapman.
Under a restructuring of the party, the co-conveners are to be replaced by two co-leaders, one of whom must be a woman.
As well as Mr Ingerson, Project Engineer Lorna Slater and Graham Kerr of North Lanarkshire have declared their candidacy.
Mr Harvie and Ms Chapman have yet to declare their intentions, but are expected to stand.
Green Party members will then elect who should co-lead the party.
Mr Ingerson, who is co-convener of the Aberdeen Greens, said: “There has never been a more exciting time to be in Green politics than right now.
“We’ve seen how well Green parties can do across Europe and it is my ambition to emulate that success here in Scotland.
“I got into Green politics during the height of the oil price crash in 2015.
“Like many others in the north-east, I suffered and as a result I have seen the need for us to change our economic future.
“Fossil fuels are destroying our planet and they are damaging the lives of ordinary working people too.”
Mr Ingerson has also campaigned to rewild parts of Aberdeen and for better bus services in the city.
He claimed the collapse of Labour and the SNP’s failure to make suitably progressive environment and LGBTI rights legislation offered opportunities for the Greens under new leadership.
Nominations for the Scottish Green Party’s internal elections close on June 28 with voting opening on July 3 and closing on July 26.
All party members can put themselves forward and vote.