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COP26 presents a unique opportunity to empower and support individuals across Scotland to take collective action towards our net zero target.

In Glasgow, we have awarded £18,000 to support the COP26 Pop Up Climate Café Programme. Our funding will enable Climate Café and Climate Reality to host 18-22 events from 1 to 12 November. These will create informal and welcoming spaces in communities, workplaces and campuses to talk and act on climate. To extend the reach of the cafés, some events will be held virtually.

We have also provided up to £198,000 to Keep Scotland Beautiful to deliver the Scotland’s Climate Festival initiative, which Glasgow communities can apply to. This initiative will support communities across the country to plan and deliver their own local climate festivals. Between 35-40 festivals will be held, as well as a number of virtual online events, launching during COP26 and running to March 2022.

Furthermore, we have allocated almost £950,000 to support children and young people to engage at COP26. This includes funding events and initiatives that will be open to children and young people within Glasgow.

To enable greater access, we have provided around £8,000 funding for a digital platform which will allow the live-streaming of all Scottish Government events at Scotland’s Climate Ambition Zone and at Atlantic Quay. In addition, our fully-funded climate change website – Net Zero Nation – will be open to the general public enabling them to access live-streams of Blue Zone and other online events.

The Scottish Government recognises the important role that co-operative business models play in our economy and there is a significant and increasing interest in co-operative business models in Scotland.

Co-operative Development Scotland (CDS) is the arm of Scottish Enterprise working in partnership with Highlands and Islands Enterprise and South of Scotland Enterprise to support company growth through collaborative, co-operative and employee ownership business models. CDS raises awareness of the value of co-operative and employee ownership models, and provides specialist advice. Its services are integrated to those of Scottish Enterprise (SE), Highlands & Islands Enterprise and Business Gateway.

Scotland for EO is the industry leadership group for employee owned businesses in Scotland, established in 2018 to empower the employee owned sector to direct its own development. Led by industry working in partnership with the public sector, the group champions employee ownership in Scotland and drives industry-wide collaboration and alignment.

Co-operative business models including Trusts, Partnerships and Community Interest Companies have all been eligible for the Covid-19 financial support made available to support businesses impacted by restrictions, including the Strategic Framework Business Fund, Sector Top up Funds and the Business Restart Grant.

The Scottish Government recognises that COP26 is not an end in itself. It is a unique opportunity for meaningful engagement with people, communities, and businesses in Scotland and beyond, with the potential for a powerful lasting legacy.

In collaboration with Scottish Enterprise, the Scottish Government has created Scotland’s Climate Ambition Zone at the Lighthouse in Glasgow. Through a programme of over 60 in-person or hybrid events over the two weeks of COP26, this will showcase the opportunities for future business and investment that are presented by our commitment to delivering a just transition to a net zero economy in Scotland. Net Zero is at the heart of our global capital investment plan, ‘Investing with Purpose’, and our inward investment plan, ‘Shaping Scotland's Economy’. By grasping this opportunity to demonstrate Scotland’s strengths and the economic opportunity presented by a just transition, we will further invigorate the transformation of our economy to address the global climate emergency.

The Scottish Government is also committed to a summit that engages people and communities. We are supporting a range of events to engage the public before, during, and after the conference. This includes a series of pop-up ‘Climate Cafés’ across Glasgow over the two weeks of the conference, which will provide informal spaces for people in Glasgow to get together to learn about climate change and be inspired to act. We also want to ensure a long-term legacy for children and young people. The COP26 Youth Climate Programme includes a range of online and in-person activities that will provide opportunities for children and young people to learn and develop networks and skills. This will deliver a strong positive legacy, enabling younger generations to build on the summit and develop an ongoing dialogue with children and young people across Scotland and internationally, so that they are involved in Scotland’s climate discussions in the longer term.

In addition to delivering a legacy for Scotland, the Scottish Government is committed to supporting the delivery of a global legacy from COP26 by contributing to securing an ambitious and deliverable international deal. The Scottish Government will do everything it can to support the negotiations. One of Scotland’s key objectives during the summit itself is to build a bridge between the UN member states in the negotiating room and the governments of cities, regions and devolved nations like ours. As European Co-Chair of the Under2 Coalition, the Scottish Government will use its platform to encourage devolved, regional and state governments to agree ambitious climate action and push national governments to go further and faster. A successful COP26 deal will give Glasgow lasting legacy as a city that helped power the planet towards net zero.

Electricity generation capacity in Scotland is currently around 16 GW, 12 GW (75%) of which is renewable power. The Scottish electricity system is considered secure, meaning it has enough secure supply capacity to meet peak demand.

The recent energy price crisis, which saw record electricity and gas prices in the UK, was predominately a result of tight gas supplies across the UK and EU. However, we are aware that low levels of electricity generation from renewables (20% reduction compared to the same period last year) contributed to the extent of the crisis as it increased the reliance on gas for power generation.

The Scottish Government believes that onshore wind has a significant role to play in both our future energy mix, and in our net zero ambitions and has launched a consultation on a draft Onshore Wind Policy Statement. This consultation will run until 21 October 2021 and can be accessed at https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781802014990.

Scotland has well established approaches and sources of funding which enable our communities to do things for themselves, as well as to make their voices heard in the planning and delivery of services.

We are targeting similar outcomes to those of the community booster share schemes in England with our Place-Based Investment Programme which is being backed by £325 million of capital funding over 5 years for a variety of place-based investment initiatives, including support for 20-minute neighbourhoods, town centre action, community wealth building and community-led regeneration. We also have our £50 million Vacant and Derelict Land investment programme. These initiatives are complemented by our Empowering Communities Programme which supports community led projects and strategic partnerships, enabling communities to tackle poverty and disadvantage on their own terms. We also provide funding to Development Trusts Association Scotland (DTAS) totalling over £400,000 between 2021 and 2024 to continue their Community Shares Scotland programme.

The Scottish National Investment Bank has been established to invest in Scottish business, projects and communities with the objective of delivering positive environmental and social impacts, and positive financial returns for the people of Scotland. The Bank operates on a commercial basis, providing repayable debt and equity. This investment is available to Third Sector and community organisations for specific commercial projects.

The Scottish Government believes that hosting COP26 will offer important economic opportunities for both Glasgow and Scotland, particularly for Glasgow’s accommodation and hospitality sectors. COP26 also offers potential additional trade and investment opportunities. Scotland has the ideal mix of political, regulatory and commercial factors that will allow investors, entrepreneurs and corporates to start and expand their activities that will help the world meet its climate change targets. We will be using COP26 to accelerate our work on delivering our commitment to Net Zero, as set out in Scotland’s Vision for Trade. Net Zero is at the heart of our global capital investment plan, Investing with Purpose, and our inward investment plan, Shaping Scotland's Economy.

The Scottish Government has not undertaken a separate study of the economic impact of COP26 to date. We are engaging closely with the assessment of the economic benefits of COP26 commissioned by the UK Government, along with Glasgow City Council. This will consider the economic impacts of COP26 to Glasgow, Scotland and the UK.

The Scottish Government will be monitoring the success of our COP26 activities. This includes an evaluation of our programme of over 60 in-person or hybrid events comprising Scotland’s Climate Ambition Zone at the Lighthouse in Glasgow. This two week programme will showcase the opportunities for future business and investment presented by our commitment to delivering a just transition to a net zero economy in Scotland, and will be the start of longer term engagement with business on this issue.

Full electrification of the line between Edinburgh Haymarket and Aberdeen is not an absolute prerequisite for achieving the decarbonisation of Scotland’s railway by 2035. As set out in the answer to question S6W-03041, however, it remains the expectation that the East Coast Main Line between Edinburgh Haymarket and Aberdeen will be fully electrified.

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

Since the launch of the Young Person's Guarantee in November 2020, we have invested an additional £130 million which aims to provide at least 24,000 new and enhanced opportunities to support young people find and sustain employment.

The Guarantee is not a standalone programme and is building on our already significant investment into education, employability and skills. Therefore we are working with partners to produce a rigorous Measurement and Evaluation Framework that will support our understanding of the Guarantee's impact across a range of economic, education and equalities outcomes.

The framework will build upon a range of existing reporting mechanisms, including Skills Development Scotland's (SDS) Participation Measure, which recently reported a record annual participation measure figure , with 92.2% of 16-19 year olds participating in education, training or employment from 1st April 2020 to 31st March 2021. Other sources of information underpinning the framework include the regular reporting of Apprenticeships statistics from SDS and work completed by the Scottish Funding Council on Further/Higher Education provision.

As part of this work, we published the Guarantee's Key Performance Indicators on 28 July 2021 alongside the Implementation Progress Report . We also expect to shortly restart publications of the Local Authority Youth Labour Market Dashboard and Snapshot Participation Measure.

We will be announcing more details on the framework in the coming weeks.

The Scottish Government published a consultation on the Regulation of Electricians on 23 November 2020 which closed on 12 February 2021. An analysis of responses has been undertaken and report published on 23 March 2021. A link to the report, and submitted responses, where consent has been given to publish the response, can be found on the consultation webpage at http://consult.gov.scot/energy-and-climate-change-directorate/a-consultation-on-the-regulation-of-electricians .

The Scottish Government is currently considering its response to the consultation and key stakeholders will be updated in due course.

More widely, working with officials, the Electrical Contractors' Association of Scotland (SELECT) and the National Inspection Council for Electrical Installation Contracting (NICEIC) have introduced a new Single Certificate of Construction designed to help simplify the process of electrical certification in Scotland. The new multi-page document now combines all relevant certificates of construction and electrical installation, confirming that associated building warrant electrical work undertaken is fully compliant with all aspects of Scottish building regulations. Such work aims to improve efficiency and productivity across the industry as well as encourage greater use of certification schemes in Scotland.

All data collected associated with deer culled on National Forests and Land (NFL) is recorded in FLS Wildlife Management System (WMS) database. The following table is derived from this database. This is managed by robust supervision of cullers and checks to match the juvenile GPS data to the adult female GPS data; however there are many factors that may influence the ratio demonstrated in the following below.