Chamber and committees

Thank you for the question. I will take the last bit first; my colleagues might want to add to my response.

I would expect the questions that you have asked to inform some of the baseline economic analysis that we are doing as part of phase 1 of the just transition plan. What is the lay of the land?

On your wider question about the availability of capital and investment, I suppose that, globally speaking, we recently had the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s sixth assessment report and, among all its dire warnings of climate catastrophe that we are heading for, there was a sort of silver lining with its statement that there is sufficient finance globally to fund the transition. Again, that brings us back to our role, as the Government, of making it very clear that this is the way in which Scotland’s economy and society are going and that we are open to investment of the right kind.

I am conscious that you asked for short answers, convener, but I wonder whether Liam Middleton has anything to add about investment in Scotland. I know that he already works closely with some of the investment bodies.

I will come back to that point—I am writing it down so that I do not forget.

I am committed to co-design. As I said, the energy strategy was developed before my time in the portfolio, but we have a new memorandum of understanding in place between us and the just transition commission, which everyone has welcomed. It speaks to the need for close engagement and early sight of drafts. That is how I expect the plans to be developed.

It is of benefit to us to engage closely with the just transition commission, which has been set up because it brings knowledge across civic society that will make the plans better and more sustainable in the end. Therefore, early sight of drafts and close engagement are important. Your question is in a similar vein to Mr Beattie’s question about communities. It is important that we are able to demonstrate how we have listened and where changes have been made.

It is me.

First, the extent to which the workforce is made up of permanent and agency workers respectively is important. When I was in Grangemouth last week, we discussed the fact that there are an estimated 2,000 full-time equivalent jobs at the cluster, but that it can employ up to 2,000 more contractors, and up to 7,000 at peak times when there is maintenance work to be done. That complicates the picture and presents a challenge that we must rise to.

Earlier, I mentioned the baseline study that we are doing as part of phase 1, which will map the extent to which the workforce is made up of various elements and will clarify the figures that I have just mentioned. Alongside that, we will do another piece of work, which is currently with the future industry board. Liam Middleton might want to say more about that, but it consists of a skills audit. That involves us working with Skills Development Scotland, via the board, to examine existing skills and consider future needs as we make the decarbonisation journey. Those two pieces of work—looking at where we are now in conjunction with the skills audit—will give us a really good picture to enable us to rise to that challenge. Of course, trade unions will be absolutely critical to that process. I do not want anyone to feel that the transition is being done to them; it must happen with them.

Thank you very much, convener. I am pleased to be here for the first time in front of the committee, in my new role as Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Just Transition.

The Government is committed to realising what we see as an exceptional opportunity to deliver a growing green economy. We set that out as one of the primary missions in our prospectus that was published last week. In my section of that prospectus, I set out my commitment to reducing our carbon emissions with the urgency that the climate emergency demands of us, but also to doing so fairly and in a way that takes people, workers and communities with us.

We welcome the inquiry and its specific focus on Grangemouth and the just transition planning that is going on there. The Grangemouth cluster is of significant industrial importance to Scotland and we see it as integral to our future net zero economy and society.

Scotland’s industrial emissions of CO₂ fell by more than 10 million tonnes between the 1990 baseline and 2020. However, the industrial sector today accounts for more than 20 per cent of Scotland’s total greenhouse gas emissions. That is why, in our programme for government, we announced that work is under way on a dedicated and focused Grangemouth just transition plan.

The plan will be place-based, regional and nuanced. It will be different to the other plans that we are setting out and will chart a vision for the cluster to 2045. I was pleased to be able to visit Grangemouth recently. We may get on to discussing that, because I know that the committee also visited there. We are right at the beginning of the process. The work that you have been doing will be helpful in informing much of what we continue to do as we develop the plan.

I will leave it there and we can move to questions.

That is a really good question. It is exactly as you described. Core responsibility for the development of the policy sits with the cabinet secretary with the portfolio responsibility, so Mairi Gougeon will lead on agriculture and land and Neil Gray will lead on energy. However, in the same way as I have a responsibility to ensure that all my colleagues rise to meet the Government’s climate change targets, I have a responsibility to ensure that the just transition work is being done across Government. It used to be that the holder of the finance portfolio was empowered to go across Government and see what everyone was doing in their portfolios. The net zero and just transition portfolio is like that, too.

I am happy to answer that question, although it somewhat strays out of the remit of this evidence session. I appreciate that, although I am not the energy secretary, I have responsibility across Government for the just transition.

We mentioned that there are about 43 or 44 recommendations in the commission’s response to the plan. We are currently considering them, and I will respond to each of them jointly with Neil Gray, the Cabinet Secretary for Wellbeing Economy, Fair Work and Energy. I acknowledge the themes about monitoring and evaluation, engagement and skills. The Scottish Government will actively consider how we can adapt in response to them.

First, we have the public sector stakeholders who are important to Grangemouth. Many of them are already on the Grangemouth future industry board. Other stakeholders are from the industry, and we might come on to talk about the extent to which they ought to be involved in the future industry board. We then have the workers, their trade unions and the communities around the area. Together with the just transition commission and the Scottish Parliament, I see them as being the key stakeholders.

Of course.

Yes, absolutely. That is a really well-made point. I tried to make it earlier when I talked about policy making over the long term.

We need technological advances to assist us over the next 20 or 25 years, and we need the UK Government to make the interventions that it requires to make. The planning that we put in place has to be responsive to that, so I will ensure that, when we present the plan, we are clear about its iterative nature.