Meeting of the Parliament (Virtual) 11 February 2021
I very much agree with Liam McArthur on that point. We have to keep our eye on the ball as far as energy efficiency and renewable heat supplies are concerned.
As he may know, our “Draft Heat in Buildings Strategy: Achieving Net Zero Emissions in Scotland’s Buildings Consultation” was published last week, on 5 February, and it sets out an ambitious programme for Government spending, with £1.6 billion over the next five years and a larger programme of up to £17 billion over the next 10 years—that is the whole-economy cost—to improve energy efficiency and invest in renewable heat in the Scottish economy.
That is an important strand of work to which we are committed. As I said, £1.6 billion will be committed in the next session of Parliament should we be re-elected. In addition, we have set out the £180 million emerging energy technologies fund, which is a separate strand of funding that will help to support the development of hydrogen.
I believe that the two things are complementary. As I am sure Mr McArthur would acknowledge, hydrogen can play a role in decarbonising heat. I welcome his support for developing the hydrogen economy, as outlined in his comments, and I would be happy to work with him. I hope that we can develop this part of our energy system on a bi-partisan basis and that we can all work together to make Scotland a great success internationally in this area. I would be pleased to work with Mr McArthur and other colleagues in that regard.