Seòmar agus comataidhean

In its modelling and assumptions, the Climate Change Committee has made the assumption that the Acorn project will proceed. I am supportive of it proceeding. I think that that is not only a necessity but a massive economic opportunity. The Scottish Government will do all that it can to advocate for funding for the Acorn project at UK Government level, and to provide funding, where we can, to accelerate its development.

The project is long overdue—it should have been up and running. We all know the history of carbon capture and storage in the north-east of Scotland. It has had the rug pulled from under it so many times. The fact that we still have partners who are absolutely committed to the project is testament not only to their tenacity, but to the potential that they see in the technology and all the businesses that are associated with it.

It is pretty obvious that, if CCUS at the scale of Acorn were not to happen, we would have to look to other sectors for further emissions reductions. I would rather not be in that position.

It would have to be. If CCUS does not happen at scale for the UK as a whole, not just Scotland will have to take another look at its climate change plan; every part of the UK would have to take another look, including, possibly, at their targets.

At the moment, energy-from-waste capacity in Scotland allows for the vast majority of waste carriers not to have to use landfill. We were able to go ahead with the effective ban, but some small waste carriers do not have places in the queue and do not have the relevant contracts with energy-from-waste sites. Some of the new energy-from-waste plants have been delayed, which means there is not as much capacity. That is mainly as a result of inflation, and some of it is to do with Brexit. Those plants are due to come online this year and next year. We know that 0.3 megatonnes of emissions are associated with energy from waste.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency has been very helpful with this. As the ban approached, we realised that smaller carriers that did not have contracts with existing energy-from-waste sites were in danger of having no way to deal with their waste other than putting it to landfill. SEPA has granted a temporary allowance for those carriers that have engaged with it to allow them to put waste to landfill, with a phased process once energy-from-waste capacity becomes available. The larger waste carriers have also been very helpful in that. I have had a number of meetings with them in the run-up to the ban. They have helped smaller carriers to consolidate their waste and allowed them to piggyback on their contracts for the tonnage that goes to energy-from-waste sites.

A small amount of waste is still going to landfill, but it will be tapered off. It has been done that way to stop any cliff edge that would have impacted smaller businesses. The emissions that are associated with that are very small. We are on track for all the waste to go to energy-from-waste sites, once the new facilities are up and running. Once that happens, we will have all the capacity in place for all the waste in Scotland to be dealt with and there will be no need for any future planning applications. In fact, they will not be allowed.

It is a capacity issue.

Yes, there are a number of initiatives. I worked very closely on this with Graeme Dey, when he was Minister for Higher and Further Education, and you will have seen the settlement that has been made in the budget for colleges.

We are continuing the programmes to invest in skills for net zero more broadly. We have the support for the Energy Skills Partnership—ESP—which has been instrumental not only in advising Government on what is required, but in the analysis that it has been doing on skills gaps. It is the college sector agency for net zero and energy transition, and it has had a particular focus on energy, zero-carbon transport, engineering, construction and wider science, technology, engineering and mathematics education. There has also been a reform of Scotland’s post-school education skills system, to make it more flexible and adaptive to some of the industry requirements that have been created. We also have the offshore wind skills priorities and action plan. I was delighted to go with the First Minister to the opening of North East Scotland College’s new offshore wind sector skills hub. I think that an area of that was formerly a warehouse that was used for oil and gas facilities.

It was a dairy. There you go. That does not sound as good as my narrative, but, basically, it was full of pigeons and it has now been transformed into the offshore wind skills hub. Crucially, it is not just for school leavers. It is for skilling up young people, but also for upskilling or reskilling people who are already in the workforce, mainly in oil and gas, and to fill in the gaps that they have.

We have the skills and priorities action plan. A couple of weeks ago, I was at Edinburgh College, which is leading on the skills associated with heat decarbonisation—the work is cutting edge and involves partnerships with industry. Indeed, NESCol also has partnerships with industry in welding. We need a tremendous number of welders for the deployment of ScotWind in particular.

Companies are working with colleges, too, and we are helping the colleges to expand. Forth Valley College has been instrumental in assisting in respect of the closure of Grangemouth refinery: we have given substantial pots of money for the college to work with those who are facing redundancy so that they can upskill and reskill, even if it is just about analysing the transferable skills that they already have in order to apply for jobs. A great deal of work is going on at the moment. We have the Energy Transition Zone in Aberdeen, and work is going on with universities, particularly Robert Gordon University and the University of Aberdeen, to make sure that they have the analysis that the Government is getting, and that we are able to respond to their analysis of what they need in their areas to address any skills gaps.

We provide annual funding to the STUC to support just transition capacity. However, I can give you a direct example of what work with the unions has achieved on just transition with regard to Grangemouth. Unite the Union came to us with a jobs guarantee proposal. It wanted to put in place a jobs guarantee for any business that was receiving Government funding as a result of the work that we were doing there. The union sought first refusal for interviews for those who were losing their jobs. That is a potential blueprint for further work, and I am keen to work with the unions on that.

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My officials are engaging with the Scottish Youth Parliament on that.

The domestic climate change resource package in this year’s budget has a further £22 million investment, which includes £6 million to continue the network of community climate action hubs and £1 million to support the Scottish Climate Intelligence Service, which I mentioned. Today, we have reopened the climate engagement fund, which has £275,000 to support activities such as climate festivals. Even if someone is not involved in the great hubs that you have mentioned, a lot more can be done in terms of training and showcasing clean technologies.

It is all about increasing people’s understanding of what action they can take. Analysis shows that the annual fund has supported 24 projects from its launch in 2023 and has reached about 22,000 people since then, and I hope that that will only increase.

I had a call with the climate hubs—Jess Pepper was on that call, too—in which I was able to get feedback on their views on the climate change plan, on accessibility and on the capacity that people have to deal with the issues around climate change locally.