It’s hard not to feel distraught at recent events in Ukraine.

Putin’s invasion was an unprovoked attack on a democratic country and we must show solidarity with the Ukrainian people (and the many Russians who oppose this war) in whatever way we can.

The UK Government was far too slow to cut ties and announce sanctions on Russia and the Putin-linked oligarchs who had bought influence and power here for years.

One of the first actions taken by a European government was the axing of NordStream2 by Germany – a decision taken by my Green colleague, their Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck.

NordStream2 was an £8.3billion project to supply Germany with Russian gas via the Baltic Sea. It would have covered a massive 70 per cent of Germany’s natural gas consumption. Its cancellation will hit Russia hard.

Fossil fuels account for 50 per cent of all of Russia’s exports. The German government was honest with its citizens, acknowledging that this will drive up already surging gas prices, but that it was an essential step to protect freedom and democracy.

Here in Scotland there are serious lessons to be learnt. Not only should we be urgently phasing out fossil fuels to prevent catastrophic climate change, but we also need to think about security and independence of energy supply. Relying on other countries or on unstable globally traded commodities like gas is high-risk.

Fortunately there’s an alternative being progressed by Green MSPs within the Scottish Government.

We need to invest heavily in locally generated renewable energy and in energy-efficiency measures which result in needing far less energy to keep them warm in the first place.

That way we’ll protect people from eyewatering bills caused by global market shocks or the actions of hostile states like Russia.

Of the many steps the Scottish Government has taken in the last few months, one of the most significant was the announcement of 17 new leases for offshore wind farms.

These will produce over 12 times the energy of all our current offshore wind farms, as well as create thousands of jobs.

Green minister Patrick Harvie announced in February a £300 million fund for Heat Networks.

These allow homes and other buildings to save energy and tackle fuel poverty by sharing the heat generated by a renewable source nearby.

It’ll take some time for the full benefits of these schemes to be realised, but we’re seeing more than ever that clean and locally generated energy can’t come quickly enough.