Chamber and committees

Despite the muttering from some quarters, we have plenty to learn on such issues from small European countries that have a population of 5 million and are independent, and we seek to do that. The member rightly points out that Scotland continues to lead in emissions reductions across the UK. The reduction that I mentioned earlier—of 51.3 per cent over the period—is higher than that in any other nation of the UK. We do not rest on that laurel but, in the constitutional settlement that we have, we do not have the powers that we need to make some of the choices that we would like to make as a country. The UK Government continues to hold the key policy levers for some policy areas on a net zero future, including critical areas such as Acorn, which I mentioned several times earlier.

The member rightly points to the importance of, among other things, tackling carbon emissions in the transport sector. I can point to many areas of activity; indeed, she herself pointed to the abolition of peak fares on trains. The Scottish Government recognises that the transport sector needs to do much more, and to do it in a fair way.

The emissions statistics that the member referred to point to the fact that the car remains the single largest contributor to transport emissions in Scotland. Indeed, it accounts for 5 megatonnes of emissions from domestic transport, including international aviation and shipping.

Those are areas that I am sure that future ministers, and the Parliament as a whole, will want to work together on. We need to invest—and we are investing—in our public transport system.

Climate innovation and entrepreneurship are not just good for the planet; as other members have talked about, the economic opportunities are enormous, and we want to help Scottish businesses innovate at home and export their solutions to the rest of the world.

We are pleased that we have been able to invest in projects such as the one at Crofthead farm via our Scottish industrial energy transformation fund, and we note the continued entrepreneurial development beyond the initial innovation. Our enterprise agencies provide Scottish businesses with specialist advice, funding and knowledge exchange opportunities to drive up productivity and innovation through net zero initiatives.

Our green industrial strategy seeks to ensure that Scotland secures the enormous economic opportunity that the transition presents in areas such as offshore wind, carbon capture, utilisation and storage, and hydrogen. To support that, we are enabling manufacturing to grow and transition through our £75 million investment in the National Manufacturing Institute Scotland.

We are also investing up to £500 million over five years to support a highly productive offshore wind economy and to leverage additional private investment in the infrastructure and manufacturing facilities that are critical to growing the sector. We are also supporting improvements to electricity generation and network asset management, including network charging and access arrangements that will encourage the deployment and viability of renewables projects in Scotland.

As I know that the member appreciates, net zero offers huge economic opportunities for Scotland. The changes that are needed will put money into people’s pockets, improve health and wellbeing and protect our planet for future generations. Net zero is a moral imperative and an opportunity to support future economic development.

Workers must be at the heart of a just transition. Our approach will maximise benefits of climate action and minimise impacts for workers and communities. Our next climate change plan will outline the costs and benefits of policies, supported by just transition plans, and our national adaptation plan is driving our response to climate impacts.

As we have seen in other parts of Europe, the helpful thing about many heat networks is the move that has been made from “burning stuff”, as the member put it, to other forms of power. My officials are working jointly with the UK Government to commission guidance that will look at the issue of waste heat. We are also looking at how to ensure that the heat in buildings bill incentivises renewably powered heat networks in the future.

Scotland has 1.5 million hectares of woodland, which covers 19 per cent of our country. The age structure of the forest estate and of the trees that are concerned means that the carbon sink that I referred to earlier will reduce over the 15 years to come. We need to plant more woodland, and we are planting more trees. Scotland is far more effective at planting trees than other nations of the UK. I think that 75 per cent of the tree planting that is presently going on in the UK is happening in Scotland. We are proud of that record and we will continue to work on it.

As I indicated, we are pleased that the UK Government has made commitments in that area. As the Climate Change Committee has said, Acorn is essential to our reaching net zero. It is also essential to the economy of the north-east, Grangemouth and Scotland as a whole. We are pleased that we took the lead in that area and that the UK Government is following it, but we need a timeline from the UK Government as to when that investment will come.

I will tell the member what he has missed. Apart from missing concepts such as decency and manners, the member has missed out the great issue facing our world today: the need to get to net zero, which he seems to have overlooked. He seems to think—and this will be my parting word to him—that we can somehow get through the next 50 years without attempting to get to net zero. That is what he has missed.

The member will not be too surprised to hear that I do not entirely accept the premises of his question. However, to try to answer it, I will say that the Scottish Government remains fully committed to delivering net zero by 2045, and our next climate change plan will set out an approach to delivering on Scotland’s net zero target in a way that is just and fair for everyone but is also ambitious, as the member rightly points out that it needs to be.

The forthcoming climate change plan, which will cover 2026 to 2040, will set out a comprehensive overview and approach not just to mitigating existing climate change but to tackling the underlying problems that we have to fix by 2045.