Chamber and committees

How much funding are you hoping for from the UK Government? What is the ask there?

The trunk ones.

Yes, absolutely, convener.

I thank the cabinet secretary for providing advance sight of her statement.

Only this devolved Government could have a climate change plan monitoring report when it does not have a climate change plan, after it was forced to ditch it. From the update, we see that only 16 of the 43 indicators are on track, but this devolved Government shamelessly claims to be world leading. You could not make it up—that is more pathetic spin from this out-of-touch Government. I do not think that world leaders will be calling to ask it for advice. The Government needs a reality check.

We need a commonsense, affordable transition that takes households with us, not a transition that will make families poorer and widen inequalities. Our rural communities are paying the price for this Government’s folly of putting all its eggs into one renewables basket, with hundreds of battery storage sites, substations and monster pylons scarring our countryside.

Is that just the price that our rural communities have to pay for net zero? The energy strategy and just transition plan is years late. Will the cabinet secretary confirm whether it will be issued before the summer recess, or does she have no idea?

Now that countries such as Denmark have come to realise that nuclear has a part to play in clean, green power, will the Government get its head out of the sand and drop its ban on nuclear power?

Will the member give way?

Will the member take an intervention?

Does Stephen Kerr agree that the motion does not illustrate the SNP’s obsession with Europe; rather, it simply highlights its obsession with independence? The SNP will use any topic to further the cause of independence, whether it be Brexit, the pandemic, the war in Ukraine or even the policies of Nigel Farage. It will use anything to try to get its way, but it never will.

I am all for the jobs of tomorrow, but we need to protect the jobs of today. We have seen 2,500 jobs being lost in the past year—that is down to policies from both the Scottish and UK Governments. Labour’s windfall tax will cost the north-east 10,000 jobs, as the front page of The Press and Journal last week made clear.

That is an emergency for the north-east. I ask members to imagine, for a minute, a Grangemouth closing every week from now until 2030. Can anyone in the chamber truly appreciate what impact that will have? That is not happening just in one town in Aberdeenshire, like Grangemouth—it will be happening to every town and village in Aberdeenshire. Entire livelihoods will be destroyed by the eco-zealotry of Gillian Martin, John Swinney and Keir Starmer.

They are taking oil and gas workers for fools. What a disgusting organisation the SNP is.

To say to my constituents—[Interruption.]

In June last year, we had a debate in the chamber on oil and gas. Almost a year later, the sector is in a worse state, thanks to the policies of this devolved Scottish National Party Government and an inept Labour Government in Westminster. Both have abandoned the north-east, both have betrayed the oil and gas sector and both are accountable for the loss of jobs, livelihoods and industry in our once-thriving north-east.

It is a disgrace to see how the sector has been sold out, and the Scottish Conservatives remain the only party that is standing up for the industry and those who work in it. The oil and gas sector currently supports more than 83,000 jobs in Scotland, and supports the Scottish economy to the tune of £14 billion—we should be doing everything that we can to protect it. In 2022, 78 per cent of Scotland’s energy needs were met from oil and gas. We need a balanced energy provision. We cannot rely only on oil and gas, renewables or nuclear—we need a proper energy mix.

The Scottish Conservatives want to protect the oil and gas sector, and the vast majority of Scots agree with us. In a recent poll, 84 per cent of people supported the continuation of oil and gas exploration and drilling. The public understand that in order to continue to provide the energy that we need while increasing our renewables sector, there is a process that we have to go through in a reasonable, timely and well-thought-out way. We need to work with the industry and not against it, ensuring that the oil and gas sector is at the centre of our discussions on how we meet our energy needs, move to net zero and ensure that jobs are retained in the north-east.

Last week, we heard the devastating news that Harbour Energy is shedding another 250 jobs. Two and a half thousand jobs have now been lost—2,500 livelihoods lost—in the North Sea in the past year, and the SNP Government’s reaction has been pitiful. When it looked like 200 jobs would go at Ferguson Marine, it nationalised the yard. When Grangemouth refinery announced closure, it set up project willow to look at how jobs could be saved, but in Aberdeen, it did nothing.

We need action to save North Sea jobs as a matter of urgency, so I call on the Scottish Government to grab the bull by the horns and convene an emergency summit with United Kingdom and Scottish Governments, local MPs and MSPs, local authorities, trade organisations, trade unions, third sector organisations, chambers of commerce, development boards and even Great British Energy. This is an emergency for the north-east. There can be no further dither and delay—something needs to be done.

Confidence among people who work in the sector is being lost, and businesses are failing as a result. The situation is not getting better. Even the Acting Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy said this week that more businesses might follow. I agree with her, unless the policies of the Labour and SNP Governments change and they both end their thoughtless, baseless and evidence-lacking approach to energy production in Scotland, now and in future.

The SNP has a presumption against new oil and gas. It is against the UK Government issuing new licences. It is against Rosebank and Cambo, and it has refused to consider nuclear energy. That is left-wing nonsense. Where are all the jobs that have been promised? Where are all the renewables and green-energy jobs? Perhaps the cabinet secretary would like to tell us now how many new jobs have been brought to the north-east in the past year, because we know how many have been lost.

We still have no energy strategy, and we have no direction from this Government—it is net zero on ideas. Will the energy strategy be published in this parliamentary session?

I ask the cabinet secretary: where is the plan? Has it been kicked into the long grass, delayed until after next year’s election? Why does the Government not start being straight with the people of the north-east and tell them when it will be delivered?