Meeting of the Parliament 05 March 2026 [Draft]
How do I follow that?
I am grateful for the opportunity to speak in today’s debate on the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee’s report on “Scotland’s Draft Climate Change Plan: 2026-2040”. I thank the committee and its clerks. We are in a defining decade in our fight against climate change, and the report serves as a critical friend as we engage in that fight.
I think that we are also in a defining period politically. In a few months, we could have a Parliament in which there are 15 to 20 Reform MSPs—that is what the polls are showing us—and I have been at hustings with Reform candidates who flatly deny climate change. Kemi Badenoch has not been particularly supportive of the challenge against net zero. The Tories and Reform are hand in hand.
Scotland has set an ambitious target for net zero emissions by 2045. We have all heard that the draft climate change plan outlines policies across sectors such as transport, energy, waste, agriculture and buildings to meet our carbon budgets over the next 15 years. However, ambition alone is not enough; we need delivery. That is important, and I will come on to talk about that.
As we all know, the Scottish Parliament undertook a 120-day review, with our Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee leading the charge. It examined the plan’s governance, monitoring and fiscal aspects, which are important, and we have heard from other committees today. What emerged and what is important is a clear consensus that Scotland needs to regain momentum in our net zero journey. I will touch on the impact of that and why we have not progressed as quickly as we should.
At its core, the report talks about how the final climate change plan will have to prioritise delivery. Concrete policies must be backed by clear targets, timelines, assigned leadership and, where possible, costings. This is not just about Government policies. As we have heard, local authorities and communities have a role, and I will touch on that later in my speech. A robust monitoring system is essential to track progress and flag risks early. We cannot get to two or three years down the line and realise where we are. We must be able to do that monitoring on an annual basis.
The draft plan talks about electrification across the economy, but that brings challenges such as ensuring affordable electricity through collaboration with the UK Government. A number of months ago, I brought the National Energy System Operator to the Parliament, and a number of MSPs went along and spoke at that event. Grid capacity is essential, but we need close collaboration with the UK Government. I come from down in East Lothian, where the eastern green link is being built to export energy down to England. There must be closer collaboration with the UK Government on grid capacity, and I know that the cabinet secretary has been talking about that.
Dependencies on external actors, from Westminster to private industry, heighten risks, as do ambitious assumptions around rapid electric vehicle adoption, which we have had debates about. Ariane Burgess spoke about home heat decarbonisation and emissions technologies.
I turn to other key sectors that are under our remit. In energy supply, the Government’s plan for renewables and grid upgrades is positive, but we all need to do more to scale up. That comes back to how serious the UK Government is about that point, and I know that the cabinet secretary has been dealing with that. The UK Government was behind the curve for a number of years and is now catching up, but that has had an impact on our ability to grow the renewables sector. The UK Government needs to pick up the pace and move more quickly on that.
We need clearer pathways to decarbonise energy from waste. I have an energy from waste plant in my constituency and I met representatives of Viridor to discuss that point. Emissions projections in that area are key as we move forward.