Meeting of the Parliament 20 January 2016
With a bolder Parliament, Scotland can make this change—and make it a better change for everyone.
I move,
That the Parliament considers that recent North Sea job losses and dramatic oil price fluctuations demonstrate a compelling reason to plan the transition away from Scotland’s current over-reliance on fossil fuels; notes the STUC’s comments to the Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee that “we have to be planning for the North Sea to have a shorter lifespan than previously thought”; further notes the ambitious goals set out in the Paris climate change agreement and the warning issued by the Governor of the Bank of England that economic reliance on fossil fuels represents a risk to financial stability; believes that the Scottish Government knows that the scale of employment previously supported by North Sea oil and gas extraction cannot be sustained, but that it has failed to produce a plan for transition; recognises that transition can ensure that a managed decline in fossil fuels captures the skills, experience and dynamism of energy workers and can generate many more new jobs in sustainable industries; considers failure to plan such a transition to be reckless, and calls on the Scottish Government to collaborate with workers, trade unions, industry and other governments to build a just transition to a secure sustainable economy for workers of today and the future.