Chamber and committees

The Climate Justice Fund aims to support communities facing the impacts of climate change under a justice-based approach. The decision to allocate £2m of it to address loss and damage was based on the scale of the need, the lack of funding from others, and the influence the additional funding would have on other governments and organisations to commit funding to address loss and damage.

The £2 million for loss and damage aims to increase ambition and accelerate global action and to influence the global agenda on the issues of loss and damage and climate justice. It has funded the programs outline in the response to question
‎ S6W-13351 on 10 January 2023 .

An additional £5 million on loss and damage was subsequently allocated on the basis that the initial £2m was effectively supporting communities (based on feedback from global stakeholders and evidence from ongoing quarterly monitoring of the programmes) and that a specific allocation on non-economic loss and damage would both support vulnerable communities and bring focus to an area that was under-researched and under-funded. The need for more to be done to both understand and address non-economic losses and damages, in particular as experience by women, was one of the key insights from the Scottish Government hosted October 2022 loss and damage conference as well as from ongoing consultations with our partners.

The £7 million on loss and damage does not meet the scale of the global need. But it does allow the funding of pilot projects that support communities and the building of an evidence base of what works that will strengthen both Scottish Government’s and global partners’ future work. It has also played a role in unlocking funding commitments from other governments and organisations. While Scotland was the first country to commit funding to loss and damage, the global commitments to fund loss and damage have grown to over $300m.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

The Scottish Government drew on data from Wood Mackenzie and other organisations in developing the draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan.

As we committed to in the Bute House Agreement, the Scottish Government is undertaking in-depth analysis work to better understand Scotland’s energy requirements as we transition to net zero, ensuring an approach that supports and protects our energy security and our highly skilled workforce whilst meeting our climate obligations.

This work has already provided evidence which was used to underpin elements of the draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan relating to the oil and gas sector, together with other commercially available data.

The independent report on the analytical work we have commissioned will be published in full, once it is complete and following independent panel review. We expect publication during the consultation period for the draft ESJTP.

The draft budget for rail passenger services for (a) 2023-24 is £458 million, as published in December and remains subject to the Parliamentary approval process.

The following table sets out (b) budget against expenditure and explanations for variances that are included in the published outturn statements within the Scottish Government consolidated accounts each year.

The information that is recorded and available in relation to delays and cause attribution across train operators is published routinely by the rail industry economic and safety regulator, the Office of Rail and Road (ORR), on its data portal.

This can be accessed at: https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/statistics/performance/passenger-rail-performance/ .

There are only five vehicles in the entire SG and wider SG agency fleet which would not comply, zero in Glasgow, two in Aberdeen and three in Edinburgh, out of a total fleet of 197 vehicles.

The draft Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan sets out our vision for the transformation of Scotland’s energy system and includes a route map of milestones and actions to deliver this vision – including actions that the UK Government must take in reserved policy areas. The draft Strategy is out for public consultation until 4 April 2023.

The draft Strategy has been made available to the Climate Change Committee (CCC), but there is no statutory procedure for submitting such plans to the CCC. There is regular official-level engagement with the CCC on key aspects of the draft Strategy.

A response is being prepared to the CCC’s annual progress report and Scottish Ministers will request advice from the CCC on the draft version of the next Climate Change Plan as part of the procedure for finalising climate change plans.

The Outline Business Case will, when fully endorsed, be published on the Transport Scotland website as is normal practice.

Transport Scotland would not routinely publish the other completed areas of work including the development of a concept timetable. However, progress on this project has been and will continue to be shared at regular intervals with key stakeholders.

The Scottish Government’s capital budget increased from £5.8 billion in 2022-23 to £5.9 billion in 2023-24, a rise of £115 million. In my previous response, I explained the process the Scottish Government undertakes when agreeing annual budgets. It considers a whole range of factors, including the phasing of and the delivery arrangements for projects, particularly those which span several years, and this allows resources to be allocated accordingly to meet our commitments and our priorities while delivering a balanced financial position.

As stated in the previous answer to S6W-13831 on 26 January 2023 this work is in its early stages. Initial meetings were held in December 2022.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

The current average daily demand for electricity in Scotland (a 12-month rolling average figure, for the 12 months ending November 2022) is 70.4 GWh. This data is from National Grid Electricity System Operator’s data explorer and is published on Scottish Energy Statistics hub here: Scottish Energy Statistics Hub (shinyapps.io) . This is an average figure, within a minimum-maximum range (for the same period) of between 45-100 GWh.

There are no projections available on the daily demand for electricity in 2030.