Meeting of the Parliament 06 March 2024 [Draft]
It is safe to say that the debate has not panned out quite as Douglas Lumsden and Douglas Ross intended. I assume that Jeremy Hunt and Rishi Sunak are now safely on the circulation list for the Scottish Conservatives’ media grid and, indeed, Holyrood’s Business Bulletin.
Notwithstanding the exquisite schadenfreude of watching the proposers of today’s motion hoist by their own petard over windfall taxes, I start, as is customary, by thanking Douglas Lumsden for allowing this brief debate. Of course, it is just the latest of many such debates this session to focus on the oil and gas sector, our future energy needs and how Scotland and the wider UK can make the just transition to a decarbonised energy system.
The motion rightly acknowledges the vital role that oil and gas play in Scotland’s energy mix, as well as the jobs and economic benefit that it supports. It will continue to play that role going forward, but our reliance on oil and gas needs to come down for environmental and economic reasons. The OBR, which has been mentioned in the debate, concluded last year that the UK is
“one of the most gas-dependent economies in Europe”,
with 78 per cent of our energy needs being met through fossil fuels. That dependence has left us more exposed to fuel price shocks such as the one that followed Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, causing hardship and damage to households and businesses across the country. The UK Parliament’s Environmental Audit Committee recently concluded:
“Accelerating the transition away from fossil fuels will enhance the UK’s energy security and ... also help to protect households from volatile fossil fuel prices permanently”.
Talking about the costs of action ignores the even greater financial costs of inaction or inadequate action. Whatever the sound and fury of this short debate, the transition is inevitable. The North Sea basin is winding down. That is a matter of geology, not policy or politics. For all the grandstanding, as Chris Stark told a meeting of party leaders in Bute house recently—