Hansard

This is an important debate. SAF is important because one of our key climate emissions in Scotland is air travel. It makes up 4.5 per cent of our total emissions, with transport at 16 per cent. How we power our planes is absolutely vital going forward. Although short-journey flights could be powered by electricity, SAF is an absolutely key part of our long-term solution, so the requirement to have increasing amounts of SAF to fuel our planes is vital.

I thank the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee, its clerks and the witnesses who gave important evidence to the committee. The fact that the committee is happy for legislative consent to be given to the relevant provisions in the bill is significant. I watched the committee’s evidence sessions, and it interrogated the issues that were raised by witnesses very effectively.

If we do not produce sustainable aviation fuel in the UK, we will have to import it. That would be a massive missed opportunity in terms of jobs and our economy, but having to import low-carbon sustainable aviation fuel would also be an energy security issue for our aviation sector. I believe that we need not only to agree to the LCM today—agreeing to it is important for giving confidence and clarity to the sector—but to support the opportunity to produce SAF in Scotland.

As the convener of the committee said, the recommendations included in project willow could enable investment, which would mean having highly skilled high-quality jobs in Grangemouth, lowering our carbon emissions and enabling a supply of SAF in Scotland that could be transported to our key airports.

Last year’s commitment by the UK Labour Government to invest £200 million was vital in supporting progress at Grangemouth to deliver innovative low-carbon outputs and jobs. As the committee discussed, it is vital that we develop innovative production methods for the use of biogenic CO₂ and green hydrogen, for example—it is critical that we use our low-carbon electricity in Scotland to deliver green hydrogen—and for the use of Scotland’s timber and wood waste as a sustainable feedstock for second-generation bioethanol, which can then be used for fuel blending for SAF.

Unite said that we could deliver those ambitions by the early 2030s, but it is absolutely clear that we need to give investors the confidence to invest now. Other countries across the world are investing in the technology to be able to produce SAF, so we need to produce it, too. This an opportunity to lower our carbon emissions, which, as we regularly discuss, are deeply damaging, create high-quality jobs, deliver energy security for our aviation sector and allow Scotland to lead the way in delivering innovative SAF production.

Agreeing to the LCM is important, but I hope that the Government uses this opportunity to keep working with the UK Government, bring potential investors together and update Parliament. The issue is not going away, and it would be useful to keep it on the Parliament’s agenda. It is a huge opportunity that we cannot afford to miss out on.