The Scottish Government is "bailing out" Theresa May by supporting a third runway at Heathrow Airport, Patrick Harvie has said.

The co-convener of the Scottish Greens accused the SNP of "surrendering" on its commitment to climate justice by supporting a policy that would lead to "a massive increase in emissions".

Speaking at First Minister's Questions on Thursday, he also criticised job creation estimates attached to the Heathrow expansion as "about as believable as the job projection figures for Donald Trump's golf course".

Nicola Sturgeon defended her government's "strong record" on meeting climate change targets and said the decision on Heathrow was a matter for UK ministers.

It comes after Scottish economy secretary Keith Brown welcomed the UK Government's approval of a third runway on Tuesday, saying it would bring "significant benefits" to Scotland.

The Scottish Government has previously said the Heathrow expansion would create an estimated 16,000 jobs north of the border.

Harvie said the Scottish Government's commitment to climate justice seemingly "doesn't apply to people living under the flight paths at Heathrow".

He said: "A third runway would cause a quarter of a million extra flights a year, a massive increase to emissions, the single biggest threat to the whole of the UK meeting its climate change targets.

"It would leave thousands of people's homes too noisy and too polluted to live in, and unknown tens of thousands more left suffering the damaging health effects.

"I can only imagine the outrage, and I would join it, from the Scottish Government and from their colleagues at Westminster if the UK Government was to inflict this kind of damage on so many lives in Glasgow or in Inverness or in Dundee in exchange for alleged economic self-interest."

He added: "Yet they will now troop through the voting lobbies to bail out a Tory Prime Minister who stood for election saying no ifs, no buts, no third runway.

"What is the point of a principle like climate justice when it is surrendered so easily?"

Former Conservative leader David Cameron spoke out against a third runway on a number of occasions in the run-up to the 2010 general election, and the coalition agreement between his party and the Liberal Democrats in 2010 restated this opposition.

Harvie also described Heathrow's estimate of 180,000 UK jobs created by the project as "pie in the sky" and "about as believable as the job projection figures for Donald Trump's golf course".

Referring to the presence of lobbyists from Heathrow Airport at the SNP's recent conference, he added: "We're not surely going to fall for this are we?

"What were the Heathrow bosses putting in the drinks at SNP conference?"

The First Minister responded: "The decision on another runway in London, whether that's at Heathrow or anywhere else, is a decision for the UK Government, not the Scottish Government.

"But in welcoming the announcement that was made this week, we recognise there are many hurdles still to be overcome."

She said Scottish ministers had looked "very carefully" at the best option for Scotland in terms of the economy and connectivity.

Sturgeon added: "On the economy there's the potential for significant construction spend in Scotland and thousands of jobs.

"In the nearer term there is potential for a supply chain hub at Prestwick, which is extremely important in terms of economic impact and jobs, a £10m route development fund, a reduction starting in January in passenger charges that will make service between Scotland and Heathrow much more viable and a new marketing campaign as well.

"These are the reasons on which our decision was based."

The First Minister said Scotland had a "strong record" on meeting climate change targets and had shown "global leadership" by including aviation emissions in reduction targets.

She added: "These will always be difficult decisions to strike, and difficult balances to strike, but meeting our climate-change targets but also ensuring we have the infrastructure to enable our economy to grow and support jobs - these are not mutually-exclusive objectives."