Chamber and committees

Labour wants a clean, green electrified rail network that drives down emissions and gets people out of traffic and pollution and into work. The Scottish Government can and must do more to encourage a society-wide modal shift from road to rail for passengers and freight, to keep pace with the ambitious carbon budgets and emissions reduction targets. We must accelerate the electrification and decarbonisation of Scotland’s railways.

Home heating, agriculture and transport are devolved areas, so we have the power here, in Scotland, to make a change for the better. What we need, whether through climate targets or carbon budgets, is action. My constituents need a Government that will tackle the issue head on—not after the election, not in five years’ time, but right here, right now, before it is too late.

On our current trajectory, the planet is heading for life-threatening temperature increases of 2.6°C to 3.1°C by the end of this century. Climate breakdown is already upon us, and my constituents in the north-east are experiencing it in real time—we have prolonged drought, record wildfires and violent storms. The damage and destruction seem only to increase year on year.

Yet, it is in this context that the Scottish Government chose to pull its heat in buildings bill, scrap its car-kilometre reduction target and ditch its legally binding target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. Why on earth has it done that, and why at a time like this? It was not because the Government had to, and it was not because the reduction could not be done; it was because of the Government’s own inaction, year after year, for 18 long years. That is why we are debating the setting of carbon budgets today. However, with scant detail and without much of a plan from the SNP, the carbon budgets will be cold comfort to those in my region who are at the sharp end of climate change.

Domestic and commercial energy use, including heating, accounts for 20 per cent of Scotland’s emissions. Indeed, the UK spends more money on wasted domestic heating than any other country in western Europe. Inefficient boilers combined with poorly insulated walls and roofs cost us a fortune in energy bills. Meanwhile, some rogue operators are going around cashing in by flogging inappropriate so-called insulating solutions that cause havoc in old buildings and lead to damp, mould and costly repairs. However, there is another way: a national retrofit plan to reduce our reliance on imported gas and create thousands of well-paid, unionised jobs in construction, manufacturing and fitting. Those builders, plumbers and joiners would all be trained and deployed here, in Scotland.

That is not all. The second-largest emitting sector, with almost 20 per cent of Scotland’s emissions, is agriculture. Food production is absolutely essential to our nation and to my region, but it does not have to cost the earth. It is possible to balance the land needs of crops, livestock and wildlife and reap the benefits of all of those by promoting climate and nature-friendly farming, by breaking up land monopolies and by supporting smallholdings, tenant farms and crofts. There can be a farming revolution in which farming enhances nature and we are all better off for it.

There is still more that we can do. The nationalisation of ScotRail in 2022 was our chance to make a real difference for Scotland’s energy transition. However, the SNP Government is missing this opportunity and throwing away a chance to decarbonise transport while creating a reliable, affordable public service.

Is it the Government’s position that work should always be left until the final deadline? It is possible to bring things forward ahead of time.

I am afraid that I do not have time.

Labour wants a clean, green electrified rail network that drives down emissions and gets people out of traffic and pollution and into work. The Scottish Government can and must do more to encourage a society-wide modal shift from road to rail for passengers and freight, to keep pace with the ambitious carbon budgets and emissions reduction targets. We must accelerate the electrification and decarbonisation of Scotland’s railways.

Home heating, agriculture and transport are devolved areas, so we have the power here, in Scotland, to make a change for the better. What we need, whether through climate targets or carbon budgets, is action. My constituents need a Government that will tackle the issue head on—not after the election, not in five years’ time, but right here, right now, before it is too late.

I commend my comrade Katy Clark for introducing Labour’s motion on protecting Scotland’s fire service. Our motion recognises the Fire Brigades Union’s cuts leave scars campaign, which was set up in 2023 in response to a decade of underfunding by this Scottish Government. As a result of those cuts, call handling times have increased, response times have increased and the risk to lives has increased. Unbelievably, the Scottish Government’s response to that has been to support the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service’s latest plans to close 13 stations, permanently withdraw 10 firefighting appliances and no doubt further cut firefighter numbers.

I am proud that Scottish Labour has used our debate time today to highlight this issue. However, is it not pitiful that the Scottish Government has not brought forward the issue in Government time? Instead, the SNP has tabled a wrecking amendment that rewrites our motion and removes any recognition of the damage that its cuts have caused, the danger that further station closures could cause and the responsibility that it has as the governing party to protect our public services. I will not vote for the SNP’s amendment, just as I do not support the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service’s disastrous proposals to downgrade or even close Balmossie fire station in Dundee. I am not the only one who is opposed to it. The council is opposed to it, the firefighters are opposed to it and, most important, the people of the area are opposed to it, because it is dangerous and because it creates an unacceptable risk to people and communities. As one constituent wrote to me,

“We do not elect ministers to be silent functionaries; we elect them to be strong voices, especially when critical public safety issues are on the line.”

I am proud to stand with local firefighters, and I urge all members to join us and vote down the SNP amendment tonight and support Labour’s motion in full.

Thanks to the campaigning efforts of the local community, the sale of Kinloch castle on the Isle of Rum by NatureScot will be subject to a public interest test that will be applied to potential buyers. The Scottish Government’s Kinloch castle study found that the most important aspects of a sale were long-term contribution to the community, as well as to nature, sustainability, culture and the local economy.

Given that study and the tenacity of the people of Rum, does it not make sense to include in the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill a public interest test for the buyers in land transactions?

Invasive non-native species are one of the key drivers of biodiversity loss in Scotland, including through the spread of invasive tree seed to adjoining land such as peatland. Research from the Royal Society of Edinburgh into public subsidies for tree planting and forestry shows that large, dense stands of non-native conifers, such as Sitka spruce, are having an adverse effect on biodiversity. What consideration has the cabinet secretary given to the recommendations in the RSE report to discontinue subsidies for commercial non-native conifer planting?

We have brought in legislation to create boundaries—buffer zones—around clinics to prevent people who are accessing services from being harassed. What consideration has the Government given to establishing some kind of boundaries around residential dwellings to prevent people from being harassed in their homes?

I thought that I heard the cabinet secretary say that the circumstances under which the emergency rent freeze came into force no longer apply, but that came into force because of the cost of living crisis. Is the cabinet secretary saying that the cost of living crisis has now passed?