[Inaudible.]—questions that we face. In my opening remarks, I said that we have to be clear about our objectives when designing the budget. I am under no illusions about how challenging our climate change plan is. Therefore, we need to design the budget so that it goes hand in glove with the climate change plan, or else it will not be credible. We have to use every penny at our disposal to meet the targets in the plan along with our other objectives—not least, responding to the pandemic.
The issue of green recovery, including the proposals in last year’s programme for government and those in the climate change plan, is right at the heart of this year’s budget. It definitely builds on previous commitments, which is a theme that can be seen running through it. It also lays the foundations for rebuilding, including through the implementation of the climate change plan update.
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I will give specific examples. There are initial allocations for the low-carbon fund, which I mentioned in my opening remarks. There are also complementary investments such as those on active travel, peatlands, biodiversity and skills, all of which we have discussed at length at previous meetings of the committee. On the example of peatlands, last year we announced a landmark £250 million 10-year commitment to supporting restoration, including large-scale multiyear restoration programmes. In this year’s budget you will see that £22 million is included as part of that £250 million target. You will also see a substantial increase in forestry investment. All that aligns with our broader support for business and trying to revitalise the economy, which I have already mentioned. We also see that approach through measures such as our increased funding for enterprise agencies and the development of the green jobs fund. However, alongside that, the budget has been designed hand in glove with our climate change plan.
The timescales for this year’s budget have been really uncertain and challenging. Ordinarily, it would have been delivered in December. Roseanna Cunningham and I meet regularly, as we also did in advance of both the climate change plan update and the budget to ensure that we and our teams of officials were joined up. Unfortunately the timetable meant that the budget went later than expected, otherwise it might have been published on the same day. We therefore try to build our approaches hand in glove, but if there is more that we can do to draw out the way in which that is done or the way in which the budget aligns with the climate change plan, I am up for that.
As I have already said, we cannot meet our climate change ambitions through public money alone. It is increasingly clear that the policies that we have designed will need to draw in additional private investment on top of the public money that is in the budget. That will mean using innovative financing mechanisms, considering regulation and signalling clear pathways for the transition. I have quite regular meetings with businesses and investors about how we can ensure that, as a regulatory environment, Scotland can attract such private investment to ensure that private money is working with public money to meet our ambitions.