Nicola Sturgeon likes nothing more than to lay claim to global firsts. And in April 2019, it was no different when she, rather grandiosely, declared a climate emergency – making her government the first in the world to do so.

And to rapturous applause – what else would you expect – at her party’s spring conference, she pledged that if the UK’s Climate Change Committee, the statutory body established to advise and assess government’s climate-change targets, recommended more urgent action to cut CO2 emissions then her government would act.

She said the country would continue to “lead by example” as she proclaimed that her government’s obligations to the next generation are “the most important we carry”.

But two weeks ago, ironically almost exactly a year on since Glasgow hosted COP26, when the eyes of the world were upon us and Sturgeon was determined to take centre stage as the new Queen of Green, the Climate Change Committee (CCC) gave its withering assessment of the first minister’s promises to go further, faster, and better.

And to paraphrase Greta Thunberg, it’s all been a bit ‘blah, blah, blah’.

In an unusually damning report, the CCC concluded that Sturgeon’s government’s progress in meeting its own ambitious targets on carbon emissions are “in danger of becoming meaningless” as a consequence of its own “magical thinking”.

Scotland’s first minister makes a habit of being asked to be judged on her record. But with successive polls showing no dent in support for her party or for independence, perhaps the most impressive sorcery of all is Sturgeon’s ability to bewitch an electorate into not believing in what is clear for all to see.

Want to see more SNP fails? – Health Matters