Meeting of the Parliament 01 May 2025
There is a hierarchy in maximising the lowest-carbon opportunities for hydrogen. I know that there is an argument for using blue hydrogen, which I will reflect on at the end of my contribution. However, most of my focus will be on green hydrogen. Blue hydrogen potentially has a place, but it is CO2 emitting so the carbon capture and storage aspects would need to be pulled together. The solution will be to pursue the most effective low-carbon opportunities, and that is what I will focus on.
Our strategy must address how we intend to use the green hydrogen that we will produce in Scotland. Reference has already been made to transport. We can potentially use green hydrogen for various types of transport. Buses do so already. There are also opportunities in the rail and heavy goods vehicles sectors, but those would need a joined-up approach. We must consider which sectors we can work with, and we need to get the regulations right for private companies. There are huge numbers of opportunities. As I flagged in my response to yesterday’s statement on Grangemouth, sustainable aviation fuel must be part of the mix, too.
Given what is happening at Grangemouth, we should consider the implementation of the project willow report, which highlights the need for action and investment now. We must form links to potential opportunities for using green hydrogen and to sustainable aviation fuel, which takes us back to transport. We must examine the various types of transport and decide where the various fuel types could be used most appropriately as changes emerge over the next couple of decades.
The RWE project at Grangemouth is really important, so we must ensure that its work, together with that on project willow and the Just Transition Commission’s report from two years ago, will be acted on. Our approach should not be to wait until something bad happens but to plan ahead.