Public bodies could play a much bigger role in supporting community schemes by using power purchase agreements in the national framework agreement for best supply of electricity, but, in written answers to me, the cabinet secretary has confirmed that no such agreements are in place. What is the Scottish Government doing to support public bodies and community groups that wish to create micro hydro or other renewable schemes and generate income from them?

The programme for government serves as a reminder of all the things that have not happened or that have got worse over the past 16 years. Before today, we were briefed that the programme for government would take action on climate change, so we responded positively to the story at the weekend that the First Minister was planning a round-table meeting with party leaders to work together to tackle the climate crisis. Today, however, the First Minister said that other parties are “abdicating their responsibilities” on climate change. That is a bit rich, given that, just prior to recess, the Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Net Zero and Just Transition informed Parliament that Scotland missed the 2021 greenhouse gas emission reduction target.

We urgently need the Scottish Government to make much more progress on delivery. Audit Scotland and the UK Climate Change Committee have highlighted the lack of progress on delivering on climate targets for homes and buildings, transport and land, so we need action.

I want to respond to the First Minister’s point. On oil and gas, the Scottish National Party has been all over the place. In January, the Scottish Government’s “Draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan” confirmed that the Government was

“consulting on whether ... there should be a presumption against new exploration for oil and gas.”

When Labour set out our ambitious proposals to sprint to clean energy and deliver the climate leadership that we urgently need with our green prosperity plan, the Minister for Energy and the Environment accused us of turnin aff the taps. In the wake of the UK Government announcement at the end of July on oil and gas licences, the First Minister said that the UK Government was not taking climate change seriously. He said:

“The Scottish Government continues to believe in an accelerated Just Transition. Our future is not in unlimited extraction of oil & gas.”

This week, the energy minister called for a “nuanced approach” on oil and gas licences. That is all over the place, but it is just one example of the lack of bold climate leadership and, critically, the lack of the delivery that we urgently need from the Government.

If we add in the cost of living crisis—

No, but that was well timed, minister.

If we add in the cost of living crisis and last year’s shocking £133 million underspend on retrofitting, it is absolutely clear that the Scottish Government has lost all credibility when it comes to being a leader in tackling climate change, particularly during that crisis. Although the First Minister talked in his statement about tackling poverty, the Government is not doing the heavy lifting to ensure that, across the country, we have investment to deliver the affordable warm homes that people urgently need. The Scottish Government estimates that, this year, nearly 1 million households—technically, 980,000 households—which is 39 per cent of Scotland’s households, will be in fuel poverty.

We urgently need action, but today we heard about nothing that will begin to tackle the challenge. It does not need to be like this.

The whole point is that the approach needs to be practical and it needs to tackle the cost of living crisis. The problem that we have is that the two Governments are not talking to each other and are falling out when it suits them, but they are not delivering the policy.

A comment was made earlier about community energy. I strongly support that approach, but local government has been absolutely cash-strapped for 16 years, and it is critical in delivering the projects that Patrick Harvie is talking about. If we want to see community heat and power networks and to deliver co-operative opportunities in Scotland, we need to work with our councils, and they need to have in place the planners and the people to do risk assessments.

Crucially, we need to join up the work, which is not happening. It is practical, and we know that it works when it happens in other countries, but it is not happening here. As Anas Sarwar said, we urgently need to change what is happening. Businesses in particular urgently need action, because they are committed to investing in innovative low-carbon technologies but are not getting the support from the Scottish Government or the UK Government. Although I very much welcome the announcement of a green industrial strategy, businesses have been waiting for far too long. We need to see plans for the infrastructure that urgently needs to be built, and we need the Government to use its powers in relation to green manufacturing, support for supply chains, and training and upskilling for those who have vital experience.

As Anas Sarwar said, Labour offers a credible alternative. We led the way when we were in power. With our green prosperity plan, we would cut energy bills by up to £1,400 a year. There would be joined-up thinking and bold and radical action. The plan would also save businesses across the UK £53 billion in their energy bills up to 2030. In Scotland, we urgently need more jobs in clean power. Our plans would create 50,000 jobs, and there would be a further 17,000 jobs for plumbers, installers and construction workers to upgrade our homes and buildings.

To implement Patrick Harvie’s aspirations, we need to do the heavy lifting. We need to be bold and radical, and our workers and communities need to benefit from a just transition through locally owned heat and power networks. The SNP has given up on the public sector, but we would establish GB Energy—a publicly owned energy company that would generate energy, work to unlock our green energy potential, create jobs across Scotland and the UK and get critical supply chains in place. We urgently need joined-up thinking in order to tackle our climate crisis and transform people’s lives.

I am interested in hearing from the Deputy First Minister. I have been consulting on my proposed member’s bill on wellbeing and sustainable development. We know from Wales that its Future Generations Commissioner has made a huge difference, so I hope that the Scottish Government will support my bill.

Extreme weather is becoming more frequent, and there are disastrous health and economic impacts across the world, so we need to tackle climate change. We need action now, not just warm words.

I clarify that we totally accept that we need to pass the regulations today. However, in the spirit of trying to get us to a better place so that we can have regulations that we can all live with, will the minister meet Opposition spokespeople and those of us who are interested in getting it right to make sure that we can come together to get the right scheme?

Although loss and damage funding is really important, what is the Scottish Government doing to work with the banking and financial sector in Edinburgh, given that the impact of debt on low-income countries can hold them back from mitigating and adapting to climate change?

I confirm that Scottish Labour will support this SSI today, out of necessity. However, I want to speak to it, given the unusual circumstances that we are in. The Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity admitted to the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee that “further regulations” will need to be laid after the summer recess to—again—delay the date on which the deposit return scheme goes live in Scotland. We do not need to have another debate on how we got here—we have had plenty of discussion on that point.

However, I raise the point that, at this moment, MSPs and, more importantly, producers, companies and the industry are still waiting to find out what the next steps will be, despite the hundreds of millions of pounds that has been invested. I was told that the minister was due to meet MSPs from all parties to discuss the DRS, but the minister cancelled that meeting.

I am very keen for us to hear what happens next and what on-going discussions are taking place, because we do not know what action the Scottish Government is now taking, what policy position it has or what it wants to see the United Kingdom Government do around the roll-out of the UK-wide scheme, which we understand is some time off. There has always been a policy position of finding alignment where possible, but we need to know the position so that Parliament has an opportunity to help to shape that alignment.

As I said at the beginning, we will support the SSI out of necessity. It would, however, be helpful to get an assurance from the Government today that the minister in charge of the deposit return scheme will set out the next steps and inform Parliament of its view on UK-wide implementation. What opportunities did the minister, Lorna Slater, take to work with other devolved Governments and the UK Government to design a UK-wide deposit return scheme that works for us, in Scotland, and for other parts of the UK?

It would be helpful if the minister would agree to meet Opposition spokespeople, as that would be a way for us to keep involved on a cross-party basis and know what is happening with next steps in the scheme.

Are we talking about later this year?

Given the cost of living crisis that is hitting both renters and home owners, and the urgent need to decarbonise our homes to meet our climate targets, how many homes will the Scottish Government’s funding help to retrofit this year? What lessons have been learned from last year’s failure to spend the allocated £133 million on refitting our homes to make them energy efficient and affordable to heat?

I am not going to give way, as I will try to stick to the four minutes.

I welcome the point that Mr Burnett made in his opening remarks about community benefits. That is a huge, and much underexplored, opportunity. There is an issue with regard to communities that see huge developments taking place while they personally do not get any benefit from them. There is something that we need to change there, as it must be a frustration in terms of not only the view, but their energy bills.

We have designed a grid that incentivises the building of power closest to dense urban communities, and yet the renewables transition is all about ensuring that we have renewables across the country. That needs to be a fair process. There are other solutions whereby communities can work with developers. In Fintry, for example, we saw a fantastic development where people are, to this day, benefiting from the wind turbines in their area.

I recently went to visit Point and Sandwick Trust in the Western Isles and saw its community-owned wind farm. That trust receives an income of nearly £1 million a year, which has been used to support the community and support local people with their energy bills. There is an opportunity here.

The United Kingdom Climate Change Committee, in its “Delivering a Reliable Decarbonised Power System” report, projected that our UK electricity demand will double from about 300TWh to 600TWh by 2050. We need to work together, and we need to test the system, as colleagues are doing today.

We need political leadership so that we can increase our renewables supply, but we need to acknowledge that the just transition relates to members of the public and local communities. For example, why does our planning system not require developers to have a proportion of the development employing local members of the public or requiring developments that are made in Scotland so that we do not simply import all our wind turbines?

Solar is another big opportunity—we could be seeing much more in solar development. I was interested to see that Highland Council is looking at three solar projects. As I understand it, developments with technology mean that you can now have solar and farming at the same time. There are opportunities, and we need to be ahead of the game. That is why we in Scottish Labour are very keen to ensure that Scotland is a clean energy superpower. We need to create the jobs that I have talked about across the country, and we need to cut people’s bills, in particular in rural communities, because at 35 per cent, fuel poverty is much worse in our rural communities, many of which are off the gas grid and have expensive electricity bills.

We need to turn that around and boost energy security, and play our part in tackling the climate crisis, but we need to do so in such a way that we are working with local communities. I see that in the urban areas as well as the rural areas in my region. We need to boost the capacity of communities to work together and to negotiate with developers. For example, the work that is done by the co-operative movement is actually supporting local communities now.

I would like to hear from the minister about how the Scottish Government can do more to work with communities and fund our councils so that we see more local ownership and sensitivity to local developments. We need to think about how we can make the planning system better to ensure that local communities do not simply see a renewables project installed near them without any real consultation or engagement, but get an actual benefit from it—