Chamber and committees

I offer my condolences to everyone who has lost loved ones and been affected by the devastating impact of storm Babet.

Unless we act, extreme weather events such as last week’s storm will become more frequent and severe, and we will continue to mourn victims of climate change around the world. However, the Scottish Government has already admitted to breaching its statutory climate duties and has already missed four of its five most recent emissions targets. Can the minister assure my constituents in the North East Scotland region that her Government will meet its next emissions reduction target?

Only two communities have applied for the right to buy neglected land since 2018, and both were unsuccessful. Proving that land has been neglected is very difficult. Communities are being blocked by overly bureaucratic processes, so what changes will the Scottish Government make to the right to buy in its upcoming land reform bill?

The offshore training passport was due to be launched by the end of this month but, with just two days to go, we are hearing reports that progress has stalled. Does the minister believe that the passport will go live in the next two days? If not, why not?

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish its final energy strategy and just transition plan. (S6O-02559)

When the Scottish Government published its draft strategy, the Scottish Trades Union Congress said that workers had “little faith” in the Government’s plan. In the light of the STUC’s submission to the Government’s consultation, will the minister set out precisely what policy changes have been incorporated into the final strategy since then?

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. I was not able to connect. I would have voted yes.

When you say that there is a little bit more work to be done to avoid that taking place again, what kind of work are you envisioning? What kind of improvements or changes do you see as necessary?

Good morning, minister. Following on the theme of scrutiny of instruments, I want to ask a question about information sharing. The committee has recently considered and reported instruments that have been linked to UK-wide changes, such as instruments relating to public sector pension schemes following the McCloud judgment and council tax reductions following UK-wide changes to universal credit. What processes are in place to monitor changes in the UK Parliament, and what processes are there to work with the UK Government to share information in those sorts of examples?

Thank you for those answers. I would be interested to hear a little more about your specific monitoring processes. Do you have to wait for the UK Government to notify you of when things are being laid, or do you have channels through which you can monitor and follow the progress of work before you receive the formal notification? Is there anything that you feel can be done to improve those processes so that we can avoid the rushed changes that we have seen in the past?

I apologise to you, Presiding Officer, and to members for being late to the start of the debate.

Although there have been points of consensus in today’s debate, I find it hard to believe that, overall, it is anything more than an annual box-ticking exercise for the Scottish Government. I do not doubt the cabinet secretary’s concern about the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss—she has always spoken with passion on this subject—and today’s motion rightly calls out the UK Government’s unilateral reversal of its net zero policies.

Yet where is the acknowledgement of the Scottish Government’s mistakes, the missed targets, the underspends and the reckless pursuit of private finance initiatives? That is the crux of the problem with this Government—not its targets but its submission to vested interests. Crises of the scale that we are facing require Government-backed, industrial-scale change of the kind that this Government has repeatedly cowered away from.

Take the Scottish Government’s approach to funding nature restoration. Last week, Parliament heard how the Government consistently promoted the use of private finance initiatives that are based on an uncritical acceptance of the so-called funding gap identified by the banker-led Green Finance Institute, an organisation whose credibility is now under significant doubt. Rather than hearing the Government acknowledge that the way in which it accepted those now discredited figures was irresponsible, Parliament instead heard it deny, deflect and double down.

It is clear that the Government is not serious about protecting our nature for generations to come. Rather, its priority is to outsource responsibility to meet our—rightly—ambitious net zero targets. Nowhere is that clearer than in the Government’s response to our energy transition.

The Scottish Government regularly pleads powerlessness, but when it comes to areas where it could be doing more, it readily shirks its responsibility. Let us take the offshore training passport as just one example. The passport would provide a route to alignment and recognition of training standards across energy industries, to make it easier for workers to do what Governments repeatedly tell them to do—to transition away from oil and gas into renewables. The passport has the support of workers, their trade unions, the industry, OPITO—the offshore petroleum industry training organisation—and, supposedly, this Government. The Government is quick to claim credit for the passport, with frequent references to the funding that it has provided.

However, when I asked the minister in 2022 to provide regular updates in Parliament on the progress of that publicly funded work, I was told that she did not consider it appropriate or necessary, given that it is an industry-led process. Now we are four days away from the promised launch of the already six-month-delayed passport and what news? The Global Wind Organisation, GWO, is reportedly still creating barriers to the passport, with offshore trade unions urging the Government to intervene. Our energy transition is too important and the need for co-operation is too great to allow barriers to transition to go unchecked. The Scottish Government cannot be content to be silent partners in our transition. Ministers must find their voice and bring all parties back round the table for the sake of offshore workers, the north-east economy and our planet.

For too long, we have allowed our precious environment to be degraded for short-term private profit. That is acutely apparent in the way in which successive Governments have allowed our land to be amassed, in ever greater concentration, in the hands of so few. Let us take Trump International Golf Links in Aberdeenshire. The site has long faced opposition from local residents who are concerned about the environmental impact of the development, but the Scottish Government’s proposals for land reform would do little to address those concerns.

My proposal for land justice would empower people to challenge existing holdings that are not working for our communities, and it would make sites such as Trump International Golf Links, which is more than 500 hectares, subject to a public interest test. In contrast, the Scottish Government’s proposals for land reform are far too timid. They will apply only to land of more than 3,000 hectares—that is almost six times the size of Trump International Golf Links—and they will not apply to existing holdings such as his. The consultation on my proposal closes at midnight tonight, and I urge all members to highlight it to their constituents, whatever their views.

We can tackle the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss only if we recognise the failings of the capitalist economic system that brought us here. The short-sighted pursuit of limitless profit has led to carbon-intensive practices, the proliferation of single-use plastics, the destruction of biodiversity-rich habitats and the pollution of our environment. If our transition is truly to be just, the Government must now shift its ideology away from the pursuit of private finance initiatives and towards community wealth building, so that, as we restore nature and meet our climate targets, it is the people of Scotland, not multinational corporations, who see the benefits.