Meeting of the Parliament 01 May 2025
I will address that in my closing comments.
In presenting its advice on the seventh carbon budget to the UK Government, the UK Climate Change Committee wrote that hydrogen has
“an important role within the electricity supply sector as a ... long-term storable energy that can be dispatched when needed and as a feedstock for synthetic fuels. However, we see no role for hydrogen in buildings heating and only a very niche, if any, role in surface transport.”
I urge the Scottish Government to listen to the UK CCC, which is its own adviser and source of expert advice on climate action, to understand and accept its position, and ensure that our approach to the development of hydrogen focuses on the most efficient use of what could be an important part of our energy system and economy.
I move amendment S6M-17399.2, to leave out from “be a leading” to end and insert:
“play a leading role in developing a green hydrogen industry, both to help decarbonise challenging sectors of the economy, and for export; recognises that hydrogen produced from fossil fuels not only produces greenhouse gas emissions but also risks undermining confidence in the future of the green hydrogen sector; further recognises that the use of green hydrogen needs to be prioritised in areas that are hard to decarbonise in other ways, and that its use for domestic heating can never achieve the efficiency of other clean heat sources, and therefore regrets that the First Minister described hydrogen for domestic heating as ‘the path that we must take’, in February 2025; recognises that the UK Climate Change Committee sees ‘no role for hydrogen in buildings heating and only a very niche, if any, role in surface transport’, and urges the Scottish Government to accept that the value of green hydrogen will be in areas such as hard-to-decarbonise industrial sectors and energy storage.”
15:38Motions, questions or amendments mentioned by their reference code.