Chamber and committees

So are the LNG tanks and other things planned already?

That would be helpful.

My main questions are about heat in buildings. The Scottish Government estimates that £1.4 billion of investment is needed in heat networks by 2027. Can you update us on the level of spending that has been awarded via the Scottish heat network fund so far, cabinet secretary? How likely is it that the commitment to spend £300 million by March 2026 will be met?

Can you tell us whether it is rural authorities that have been struggling, or is it urban authorities?

Will the cabinet secretary give way?

I will give way to Michelle Thomson.

I will come back later in my speech to the commitment on hydrogen and to how much the Scottish Government is cutting that.

Regarding nuclear, the costs have gone up, but so has the cost for offshore wind. We can see from the contract for difference round 6 that the price for wind has increased quite dramatically.

The most recent Scottish National Party budget was undoubtedly anti-growth, with cuts being made to vital industries—

Let us look at the budget that Michelle Thomson is asking me about.

If we look at the Scottish Parliament information centre report, which is available for all members to see, and we look at the resource and capital budget together, we can actually see a 2.8 per cent real increase. It is where this Government has chosen to make political decisions that we see the cuts coming though.

All those areas contribute to achieving greener economic growth, and all of them have been cut, which shows that the priorities of this Government lie not in the wellbeing and prosperity of the Scottish people but in ensuring the wellbeing of its coalition party in Government.

Being from the north-east, I know how important the oil and gas industry is to the economic wellbeing of the whole of Scotland. The whole industry wants to be greener and wants to transition but to do so in a way that protects jobs, communities and the economy of the north-east.

However, the SNP-Green Government is driving energy businesses away, just at the very time that we need it to invest in our energy transition.

Does Michelle Thomson support the Rosebank development? That is oil and gas that we desperately need.

Does the cabinet secretary agree that cutting the just transition fund by 75 per cent is detrimental to reaching net zero?

I hear “nonsense” from the cabinet secretary, but today’s issue of The Press and Journal reported that “Big names” are due to join the

“North Sea exodus this year”,

with Apache, ExxonMobil and Dana Petroleum tipped as exit candidates. That is bad news for not just the north-east economy but the Scottish economy. This Government is making those companies feel as welcome as a hole in a lifeboat.

That is demonstrated by the letter from the chief executive of Ithaca to the First Minister, in which he spoke about the £8 billion investment in Rosebank and the contribution to the “whole Scottish economy”, as well as his disappointment that no Scottish minister welcomed the jobs that would be supported. He went on to say:

“Without support for oil and gas, our human capital and supply chain will be lost to the booming energy sector opportunities overseas thereby slowing down the energy transition”,

which is a point that Fergus Ewing has made.

So much for the new deal for business—and it is telling that no one from the energy industry was invited on to the group. The SNP is turning its back on the north-east again and again and showing that it simply cannot be trusted.

We also know how important nuclear power is to the green agenda, by creating energy in a clean and sustainable way. Nuclear energy currently provides around 15 per cent of the UK’s energy needs, but that proportion has fallen since the 1990s, when it was closer to 25 per cent. We must be much more open to discussing with the industry the place of nuclear alongside renewable energy to meet our energy needs. We are all agreed that we need to be less reliant on oil and gas, but the Scottish Government has ruled out a key source of energy that could contribute to that picture. We believe that that is a short-sighted decision that will adversely affect the ability of Scotland to take its place as a leader within the UK in clean and low carbon energy production. Renewables are great, but they are not enough to meet our changing energy needs.

Of course, when we look at green economic growth, we must also consider many of the fantastic smaller-scale businesses that have grown up in the sector. Green growth is now a key driver in our economy, and we should do more to support it.

In particular, I will mention the social enterprises that currently work throughout Scotland, contributing to our economy and providing employment and community services, as well as contributing to the green agenda. Such businesses have grown up while we have known about the need for us to be more environmentally aware, and they provide valuable services, including upcycling projects, services that collect garden waste and deal with compost, and those that provide wood and timber. We are also seeing more and more community energy production through smaller-scale wind power and hydropower schemes. I am sure that the cabinet secretary will join me in paying tribute to those businesses across Scotland and will recognise that we can do much more to support them.

We welcome the Scottish Government’s commitment to publish papers such as the green industrial strategy. Although I am sure that we will not agree with everything that the Government says, I welcome the debate and the focus on such important issues relating to our economy. We want more to be done—more investment and more understanding of how businesses that currently work in the energy sector want to adapt and change. We should not demonise particular sectors. Instead, we should work with them to move towards a greener future.

We want the Scottish Government to adopt green hydrogen as a fuel source, to be an early adopter of the technology and to move quickly to secure investment in that area, which is why it was disappointing to hear the cabinet secretary confirm at the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee’s meeting yesterday that the remaining 90 per cent of the promised green hydrogen fund will not be available in the coming financial year. We want there to be investment in the expanding offshore wind sector and in the onshore wind sector, in partnership with local communities. We also want there to be support for our oil and gas sector, which is a key ally as we move towards greener energy provision in Scotland.

There are so many aspects to our green economy and to green economic growth that it is difficult to cover them all in the time that I have. We must go further and do more. The Green-SNP coalition Government is failing to deliver on its priorities and targets. It has cut vital budgets and is spending money on vanity projects instead of focusing on what really matters. It is isolating key partners, such as the oil and gas sector and house builders, while shutting others out completely, such as those involved in nuclear and green hydrogen. When it comes to green energy, Scotland has so much potential, but, with the SNP and the Greens in Government, that potential could well be squandered.

I move amendment S6M-11945.2, to leave out from “is deeply” to end and insert:

“notes that the recent Scottish Budget for 2024-25 is anti-growth and will damage Scotland’s ability to create a thriving green economy by stymying investment, cutting enterprise funding, and by placing a higher tax burden on Scotland compared to the rest of the UK; further notes that the education system is not aligned with the opportunities that the green economy offers; believes that the Scottish Government’s opposition to new oil and gas exploration licences will damage the economy of the north east, and that the Scottish National Party administration’s inability to deliver economic growth has hindered the development of green jobs and a just transition, and calls on the Scottish Government to back the 93,000 oil and gas sector jobs and ensure that they are not abandoned, to end its opposition to nuclear and to ensure that the financial costs of the transition to net zero do not disproportionately fall upon individuals, families and communities.”