Seòmar agus comataidhean

That is useful, Lorna. I have had a few conversations with public sector bodies in the past few months, and I know that a number of them are questioning whether they need large office spaces. We talk a lot about the cost of carbon reduction, and I wonder whether there are savings to be made there or whether there is a particular trend of working out the assets that organisations have and perhaps thinking about their service delivery in a different way.

Yes, but what about someone who is involved in a regional land use partnership? Can all those land managers and stakeholders use it right now? Could it help to inform decisions about what farmers are doing in riparian habitat management or nitrogen application on a catchment scale?

George Tarvit and Mark Williams want to come in, and I see that John Wincott has something to say.

Thanks for that comprehensive answer. Does Mark McRitchie have anything to add to that?

I will ask about a couple of areas that have not been covered yet and, perhaps, a few wrap-up questions from last week’s evidence.

I will ask first about transport, which we have not talked about. Many public sector bodies are now considering the provision of office accommodation, transport and a different work-life balance post pandemic. What impact is that having?

Related to that and to the climate target is the Government’s target for a 20 per cent reduction in vehicle mileage. How do we reduce that mileage?

For essential travel, how are we progressing with the procurement of electric vehicles and decarbonising the travel that is required?

I do not know who to direct that to, but I see that Lorna Jarvie is nodding her head.

So it is not just about a single yearly budget conversation; it is more about a transformative change in organisations.

I welcome the balance sheet. It is a world first. The committee in the previous session spent a lot of time looking at the impact of nitrogen on climate change, air quality and water quality, so it is great to see that step coming through the Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets) (Scotland) Act 2019 and into law.

I want to ask about the application of the regulations. I understand that it is early days and that this is a world-leading approach, but how will the balance sheet and the action plan that is associated with it be used by regional land use partnerships and river basin management plans in the practical management of nitrogen? Previously in Scotland, we have had nitrate vulnerable zones, so there have been attempts to manage nitrogen in areas where we have particular problems in relation to air pollution and water pollution. How will this approach change the way in which practical land managers at regional and local levels go about their work? How will it inform their work and the options that are available to them?

Thank you.

I am sorry, convener, but I have one more question, and I think that George Tarvit wanted to come in.

I thank the committee for securing the debate. Our homes are central to the zero-carbon vision of the future, but they also tell us stories about our past.

A number of years ago, when we started retrofitting our family home, we first discovered the hearth for the Victorian coal range. Then, the more that we progressed with uncovering the layers of the building, the more we could see its history and how the changing needs for more living space, for better sanitation and for electrification had shaped the way in which the house had been retrofitted many times over many decades, first by councils and latterly by private owners. The drive for decarbonisation is really just the latest form of modernisation, although it will probably be the most transformational since the arrival of electricity in our homes.

The aim of decarbonising Scotland’s 2.5 million homes when only 11 per cent of them currently have renewable or low-emission heating systems in place points to the scale of the challenge. Meanwhile, soaring electricity and gas prices, reflecting Westminster’s energy and taxation policies, are fuelling a cost-of-living crisis, with more than 30 per cent of households estimated to be in fuel poverty. We need to ensure that the delivery of energy-efficient housing prioritises fuel-poor homes, especially in our rural and island communities, in a way that leaves no one behind.

Programmes of Government grants and loans, energy supplier and landlord obligations, fuel pricing and regulation and area-based schemes will be critical to the delivery of the strategy. Local and community action also has a crucial role to play, and the local heat and energy efficiency strategy pilots have shown just how important the role of councils and communities will be in driving the strategy forward.

The development of the national public energy agency and the national infrastructure company, in the coming years, will be a groundbreaking step towards ensuring that councils are well equipped to take, and are leading on, the action that is required to decarbonise our homes. Local stakeholders must also be part of all stages of the design and delivery of area-based schemes and strategies, and councils must be allocated sufficient funding to deliver, too.

As we have heard today, there are real intricacies involved in delivering retrofitting plans on the ground, especially around the need to ensure that local installers and tradespeople are geared up to respond. The CITB has estimated that we need to train roughly 10 per cent of the current size of our workforce in energy efficiency by 2028 in order to deliver the vision for decarbonisation, and there is an immediate need to strengthen the skills of the existing workforce to fill labour gaps and to deliver at the pace and scale that are required.

The minister spoke earlier about certainty. I say to Miles Briggs that certainty is important for business because it drives investment, establishes the long-term trajectory and creates the market that, I think, will create jobs.

Of course, there are complexities around tenure, rurality and housing type, as we have heard. From examples of models of collective purchase and of heat as a service, we can learn how to simplify and accelerate the pace of retrofitting.

I am glad that the Scottish Government has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Danish Government, because there is much to learn from the international experience, but there is also much to learn from our communities. I am a big fan of the work that the HEAT Project does in Blairgowrie, working with individual householders on their retrofitting options and how they can get the grants and loans to deliver that in a cost-effective way.

The commitment to retrofit 1 million homes by 2030 is ambitious and complicated, but that should not stand in the way of action. It is our responsibility to deliver that vision in response to the climate emergency, to tackle increasing rates of fuel poverty and to improve our health and wellbeing. That is our commitment to people and planet.