Màiri McAllan

Màiri Louise McAllan (born 14 February 1993) is a Scottish politician serving as Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy since 2024. She previously served as Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Net Zero and Just Transition from 2023 to 2024 and Minister for Environment, Biodiversity and Land Reform from 2021 to 2023. A member of the Scottish National Party (SNP), she has been the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Clydesdale since 2021. McAllan is a former corporate solicitor, who also served as a special advisor to First Minister Nicola Sturgeon prior to her election to the Scottish Parliament.

Early life
McAllan grew up and was educated in Biggar, South Lanarkshire, then studied Scots law at the University of Glasgow, also spending time at the University of Ghent in Belgium.

Her father Ian is also a politician who has served as a local councillor for South Lanarkshire's Clydesdale East ward (which covers Biggar) since 2017.

Before entering politics, McAllan co-founded human rights organisation RebLaw Scotland, which aims to use the law as a tool in the fight for social justice and held its first conference in 2017, worked as a corporate lawyer specialising in energy and natural resources and was a voluntary director of East Ayrshire's Women's Aid.

Political career
She stood unsuccessfully in Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale at the 2017 United Kingdom general election, where she came second to Conservative incumbent David Mundell.

McAllan served as a special advisor in the Scottish Government on environmental matters. First to then Environment Secretary Roseanna Cunningham and then to then First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.

On 6 May 2021 she was elected as Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Clydesdale.

On 19 May 2021, McAllan was appointed to the new government as Minister for Environment, Biodiversity and Land Reform. During her time as Environment Minister McAllan was responsible for scrapping the Scottish Governments' net zero target of 75% emission reduction by 2030, instead reverting to the UK target of 2045.

In December 2023 she controversially defended her government's record by stating "more often than not world leaders are approaching the Scottish Government" asking how they had "managed to lead the way so successfully on a number of fronts". In a subsequent Freedom of Information request made by the Daily Mail, the government were unable to provide the names of the world leaders as it did not retain such data.

Personal life
In February 2024, she and her husband Iain announced that she is pregnant with her first child. She plans to take maternity leave in the summer. She intends to return to her role as a government minister in March 2025.