Official Report search · Parliament Workbench

Chamber

Meeting of the Parliament 06 January 2026

06 Jan 2026 · S6 · Meeting of the Parliament

Item of business

Anaerobic Digestion (Transition to Net Zero)

Martin, Gillian SNP Aberdeenshire East Watch on SPTV

Absolutely. We are talking about organic material, and there is a cost to producers in dealing with any effluent that is associated with food production, so it is better for it to perhaps be used as a feedstock. I absolutely take that point.

There are barriers to anaerobic digestion schemes, some of which have been mentioned. The UK Government’s green gas support scheme has incentivised larger-scale anaerobic digestion plants, which is a positive step. Those larger anaerobic digestion plants will have access to feed into the gas grid, which is hugely welcome. In Scotland, there are a lot of resources that could be suitable for processing in plants that operate on a smaller scale and that are located in rural locations, on farms and at distilleries. However, we know that it is difficult for farms to justify the investment in the required plants. We have to look beyond large-scale anaerobic digestion plants and see how we can get a little more movement on smaller ones.

I recently met representatives of ADBA in my constituency, although in a ministerial capacity, when it invited me to the headquarters of BrewDog, which I know very well, as it is in Ellon in my constituency. BrewDog has an anaerobic digestion plant that uses a lot of the water, effluent and waste from the brewing production there. I also met local farmers who came along to talk to me about how they want more of their colleagues to take on the mantle and use small anaerobic digesters. They wanted to spread the message that it is a good idea for farmers to do that, and they highlighted some of the barriers.

Maurice Golden mentioned a barrier relating to the categorisation of waste. I am open to looking at that, as the regulations have been in place for quite a while and we do not want them to stand in the way of innovation or to have unintended consequences. I am therefore happy to talk to the regulator about whether we can do any recalibration or recategorisation of waste to ensure that unnecessary red tape is not having a negative impact.