Chamber and committees

I have taken part in debates on COP26 and COP27, looking back and looking forward. After COP26, it looked as though 1.5 might still be alive: more than 100 countries signed a pledge to halt and reverse deforestation; at least 40 countries agreed to stop using coal; and leaders signed a pledge to cut methane emissions by 30 per cent by 2030.??I guess that there was some hope. We could look at the positives.

However, I have to be honest: these COP events look to me like junkets for world leaders and for people like Susan Aitken, and they do not appear to change anything. After COP27, I am not filled with hope.

No.

As the Climate Change Committee notes, while the summit restated the global commitment to tackling climate change in the face of the current energy crisis, global emissions remain at record high levels and the world is on track to warming well in excess of 2°C. I cannot see that much has been achieved by Nicola Sturgeon attending either event, and even less was achieved by a delegation from Glasgow City Council flying to Egypt.

I will take the intervention.

I am sure that Ms Aitken had a wonderful time, but I do not see that she has achieved very much.

This debate should have been held tomorrow, because that is when we will hear from the Climate Change Committee on how Scotland is actually doing. We can be fairly certain that it will not be a glowing report.

Although there has been progress in decarbonising our electricity supply, there has been precious little progress in decarbonising industry, transport—which, as we have already heard, is the biggest emitter—and buildings.

I will talk about transport. The SNP Scottish Government has a rather lofty ambition to cut car mileage by 20 per cent by 2030, which is just over seven years away. That target was introduced in its climate change plan update of 2020.

After setting such a target, if there is to be any hope of reaching it, some pretty unpopular things will have to be done, such as hitting people hard in the pocket. I presume that that is why the SNP has not come up with any policies to trigger a change from gas-guzzling private vehicles.

You will note, Presiding Officer, that the target is just for cars, not for vans and certainly not for lorries. Thankfully, we have the UK Government leading on efforts to decarbonise lorries, with Glasgow firm Hydrogen Vehicle Systems being awarded £30 million to develop technology that could lead to lorries running on hydrogen.

It is pretty obvious that, if we want people to ditch their cars, we will need to provide an alternative, unless we want a nation of hermits. That might appeal to the Greens, but, in the real world, that should mean creating a comprehensive, joined-up and cheap public transport system of the kind that we can only dream of.

The fair fares review is nowhere to be seen. When it appears, there will be thousands of words of Government waffle. However, I can tell whichever minister here wants to listen that that can be boiled down to just two: lower fares. Maybe another two words could be added: for all.

Lower fares for all might get people on to buses and trains, but it will take more than lower fares. Having routes that connect communities—rural and urban—is vital, but we have too many public transport deserts. We should be helping councils to use the powers that they now have to organise bus services; we should be looking at train routes, too, and dualling tracks such as the East Kilbride line; we should be using technology to have multimode smart cards; and we should be treating ferries as buses and offering free travel to under-22s who live on the islands.

I return to the 2030 car target. There is no point in banning the sale of diesel and petrol cars if the infrastructure to replace them is not there. We are a long way off having the number of electric vehicle chargers that are required to produce a sea change.

According to ChargePlace Scotland, there are 2,400 chargers in Scotland. However, the target is to have 30,000 by 2030, which means that we must install about 400 a month. Last month, we managed eight—not 800; eight. Of course, in addition to that, we know that many of those that have been installed do not work.

There is much more to do with buses, too, and our ageing ferries are gas guzzlers and there is no sign of decarbonising the fleet any time soon.

The Climate Change Committee’s report, which will be published tomorrow, will make for interesting reading, as did its UK-wide report, which was published this month. That talks about how targets are still not matched by actions. We should not be patting ourselves on the back, because the world is still not acting fast enough on climate change, and I am afraid that that includes Scotland.

I completely agree with Fergus Ewing’s excellent point. I have had discussions with people at Glasgow airport, for example, who want to have quite a big solar farm but who are frustrated by the planning system, which has been mentioned by Paul McLennan. We need to unblock such things.

Hydrogen, too, would benefit from additional investment and ambition. Many of the skills requirements for the hydrogen industry align with existing skills in our oil and gas industry. Given funding for projects such as the £9.4 million hydrogen storage facility in Glasgow, ground-breaking schemes could easily be established across the country. Hydrogen is part of the future.

I will say something about the importance of education and skills in renewables. Organisations such as Skills Development Scotland have raised concerns that labour force demand within the industry will not be met, due to market uncertainty. Recruitment of and investment in our graduates continues to be stagnant. Across the UK, we have a green energy skills gap of 200,000 people. Those things cannot be solved by energy companies on their own. The Government must take steps to ensure that young people have the skills for those jobs.

Finally, I will mention small and medium-sized enterprises. Much of the revenue that is generated by the renewables sector comes from large firms. A recent report from the Royal Bank of Scotland details a £22 billion economic boost by 2030 if we meet our net zero targets, and it says that SMEs could cater for 53 per cent of that but that the number of people who work in renewables to deliver infrastructure would have to more than double in order for that to be achieved.

There are lots of opportunities in the sector. That is something that we can all get behind.

I am aware of the work of the zero-emission truck task force, and I look forward to seeing action as a result of it.

I have been speaking to representatives of the Scottish Wholesale Association, which fell just short of the minimum entry criteria for the Department for Transport’s recently closed zero-emission road freight demonstrator programme. That could have kick started the deployment of long-haul zero-emission hydrogen lorries in Scotland. Would the minister consider investing in the consortium’s heavy goods vehicle trial proposal, which could help decarbonise Scotland’s food and drink supply chain?

Yes, I will, because I noticed a motion from Fergus Ewing earlier on this very subject.

I congratulate Paul McLennan on securing this debate and bringing the issue to the chamber. The Scottish Renewables and Fraser of Allander Institute report certainly presents our renewable energy sector in a positive light. The sector and its supply chain generate £2.5 billion of gross value added and £5.6 billion of economic growth, and they support more than 27,000 jobs, 16,000 of which come from our onshore and offshore wind sector.

However, more must be done to extend investment and job creation outside wind. We must ensure that Scotland has a wide portfolio in the renewables sector. If we continue to put all our renewables eggs in one basket, we will never be fully energy secure. With onshore wind alone generating £2.5 billion, Scotland’s existing wind energy investments should be used to drive investment in other renewable technologies.

Industry experts are in agreement. Jason Higgs, energy transition leader for PwC, said:

“Scotland is facing a continuous rise in the demand for electricity which must be met with a huge increase in low carbon energy generation, new ways of working and a more efficient whole system approach”.

There are, for example, great opportunities in solar. Scotland’s solar industry is now fully subsidy free, with installation companies thriving. Solar Energy Scotland has said that, if the Scottish Government was to set a 2030 deployment ambition of 4GW to 6GW of solar energy capacity, the industry could support nearly 9,000 jobs.

To ask the Scottish Government how it is assisting delivery firms to decarbonise heavy goods vehicles. (S6O-01594)

Okay. That is fair enough.

I will ask one more question about transport. The report says that the commission thinks that there should be

“an overhaul of regional and local public transport provision and infrastructure”.

Did you go into any detail on that? What did you mean by that?

I read the section in the report that focuses on the rural parts of Scotland and how poorly served they are in many respects. The report mentions ferry services. Obviously, you have been out to an island. It cannot all be about money, can it? Do you have any thoughts about how we might restructure the transport system? That is a big question, of course.