Chamber and committees

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.

First, I recognise the efforts that Ben Macpherson has made as the constituency MSP in raising the issue with the Government and others. Scottish Water remains committed to delivering the investment through its PFI partner. I understand that the delays relate to the PFI company’s difficulty in procuring a suitable supplier in the busy United Kingdom marketplace. He will know that the PFI system was the creation not of this Government but of previous ones. I understand that Scottish Water has confirmed to the Seafield stakeholder group that the procurement strategy has been revisited accordingly. I am sure that Ben Macpherson will continue to raise those issues assiduously with future ministers.

Ensuring a just transition for Scotland’s oil and gas sector is at the heart of our green industrial strategy. Those supply chains and workers will deliver net zero and unlock growth.

We are supporting businesses, including through our £500 million 10-year just transition fund. Our investment of up to £500 million over five years in offshore wind will leverage private investment and anchor Scotland’s supply chain. A just transition depends on United Kingdom Government action across reserved areas, including providing clarity on the fiscal and regulatory regimes for oil and gas, as well as support for the Acorn carbon capture and storage project.

As Jackie Dunbar rightly points out, both Governments have a role in that regard. I am pleased that, even in the minutes before I got to my feet, there was again discussion in Westminster about the Acorn project and a commitment to some part of that. However, timescales and funding for the whole project need to be allocated if we are to have confidence that it will go ahead. Clearly, both Governments have a role to play and, as I have indicated, we in the Scottish Government have not been shy to play ours.

As I indicated, we have not been waiting for a plan to take action—important as a plan undoubtedly is. I have mentioned the £500 million investment over 10 years and the many actions that the Government is taking.

Douglas Lumsden is right to point to the real anxiety that exists about ensuring that the north-east has the economic future and just transition that it deserves. The reason why I also pointed to the UK Government is that, for instance, the policy on the energy profits levy is continually raised by the industry in the north-east as something that is making life more difficult. That is why we raise it with the UK Government.

I strongly concur with the member and agree with what he says about the essential nature of reaching net zero, and not only to save our planet—as if that were a small consideration—because doing so is also essential for our businesses, as the cost of adaptation to and coping with climate change will become increasingly expensive if we do not tackle the problem as we go. I very warmly concur with what the member has just said.

As I said, some of the plans are dependent on something that is happening in another sphere—that is, on the United Kingdom Government’s interaction with the courts. We must wait for some of the information from that. However, as I indicated previously, that fact does not keep us from action. For instance, we have allocated £125 million to the economy of Aberdeen and the north-east of Scotland; on top of that, we have allocated £75 million to the just transition capital fund for the north-east and Moray. As a Government, we are committed to putting in real resources and effort to ensuring that the transition is a truly just one.

The member is quite right that social justice and environmental justice must go hand in hand. Indeed, as the years go by, we will see that they are, to some extent, the same thing.

On the member’s first question, the Government has taken some time to come forward with the proposed heat in buildings bill because, first, our consultation received a large number of responses that we wanted to give due account to and, secondly, we want to get it right to ensure that we introduce a bill that will help decarbonise Scotland but which does not make people poorer.