Chamber and committees

The COVID-19 pandemic is far from over, and continuing to support the country through the crisis is our priority. However, we now have an opportunity to deliver a sustainable and green recovery from the pandemic. This means ensuring economic, social and environmental wellbeing, while responding to the twin challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss.

This year’s Programme for Government sets out the key elements of a green recovery as part of Scotland’s Green New Deal including: investing in a green recovery and mobilising private finance; skills and training for green jobs; supporting local economies and community wealth building; investing in our future resilience; transitioning industry and energy towards net-zero; protecting and restoring Scotland’s land and natural economy and transforming how we heat our homes and buildings.

Some of the commitments we have made in our Programme for Government include:

• £1.6 billion invested over the next Parliament in heat and energy efficiency in our homes and buildings
• £500 million over 5 years for large scale, transformational active travel infrastructure projects
• £100 million to a new Green Jobs Fund over the next five years to support businesses which provide sustainable and/or low carbon products and services to develop, grow and create jobs.
• £60 million to support the industrial manufacturing sector including the £34 million Scottish Industrial Energy Transformation Fund and a £26 million Manufacturing Low Carbon Infrastructure Challenge Fund

Central to our green recovery will be heat decarbonisation and energy efficiency. That is why our Programme for Government includes transformational investment in decarbonising our homes and buildings and why we have reprioritised the Heat Transition Deal, including; £50 million Green Recovery Fund through our Low Carbon Infrastructure Transition Programme (LCITP), with a focus on heat decarbonisation, local energy systems and demonstrator projects; £20 million to decarbonise heating in social housing; £2 million capital investment for remote and off grid communities through our flagship Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES) programmes; and targeted support to enable affordable housing to meet zero carbon housing standards.

Our Programme for Government also includes additional funding for domestic energy efficiency, bringing total spending in 2020-21 to £162 million. In total, by the end of 2021, we will have allocated over £1 billion since 2009 to tackling fuel poverty and improving energy efficiency.

A combined Heat Decarbonisation Policy Statement and updated Energy Efficient Scotland Routemap will be published in December alongside the updated Climate Change Plan. These documents will further detail our increased ambition to meet our net zero targets and remove poor energy efficiency as a driver of fuel poverty. In addition our Fuel Poverty Strategy based on the new ambitious statutory targets set in the Fuel Poverty (Scotland) Act will be published early next year.