Hansard

Thank you, Presiding Officer; I am happy to accept any apology for that comment. I also thank you for your recognition that working from home, where we can do so, remains the default. I am happy to take part in the debate on those terms. I am grateful to Colin Smyth for bringing the debate before Parliament.

The impact of job losses to date has been significant and devastating for many people, and many more people live with uncertainty about what lies ahead. Economic change is always disruptive, whatever the cause, and we want to minimise the harm that results. We need to plan properly and use the powerful role of the state to support people and communities, instead of abandoning them to market forces. The urgent need for a just transition plan for aviation should be clear, and that need existed before Covid. There is a tragically long track record of talk about transition, but without action.

The Greens have made the case for a just transition in relation to open-cast coal, Longannet, Grangemouth, Hunterston, Mossmorran and the whole fossil fuel industry. Transition is needed where current economic or industrial patterns are unsustainable and have to change, but it is also important to be clear about what transition means and what we are transitioning to. What does “Sustainable Aviation Beyond COVID”, which is the title of the motion, mean? Fundamentally, it must involve a recognition that, before Covid, aviation growth went too far. I draw members’ attention to the Aviation Environment Federation and Transform Scotland briefing, which sets out clearly that

“Transport is the biggest problem for tackling climate change, and aviation is the most polluting form of transport.”

It says that

“Transport is now Scotland’s largest source of climate emissions ... and one where there has been no progress since 1990”

and that, although the aviation industry has set itself a theoretical target of net zero,

“there is ... no policy mechanism for holding it to account to deliver this.”

There is no rational basis for having confidence that the target can be met with pre-Covid aviation levels. Put simply, if we want to cut aviation emissions—which we must—we need fewer flights than the pre-Covid norm.

The Scottish Government has had long-standing support for new routes; regular motions come from Government back benchers to celebrate growing flight numbers at airports; and, when the airport passenger duty commitment was shelved on the grounds of climate change, the Scottish Government continued with other policies that were designed to achieve aviation growth. Then came the 2019 election and the Channel 4 climate debate, in which the First Minister made a personal acknowledgment of the need to fly less. That was a first. It clearly did not mean the collapse in aviation that Covid brought about—no one predicted that back in November last year—but it was a recognition that the pre-Covid level of aviation needed to be reduced.

For unexpected reasons, we find ourselves once again seeing immense harm being caused because we had no transition plan in place for an industry that needed to contract. Such a plan would clearly have struggled to cope with the events of this year, but it would have given us a stronger starting point. Colin Smyth is absolutely right that what we have seen in recent months is very far from a just transition, but we should not aim to rebuild aviation without such a transition plan.

We do not yet have any policies in place to support investment in new sustainable jobs in communities that have relied on aviation, or to limit the regrowth of aviation to a sustainable level below pre-Covid levels. We do not even have a sense from the Scottish Government of what that safe level should be, and we cannot afford to let that question drift.

Jet fuel consumption in Europe crashed to 5 per cent of 2019 levels by April. Now, it is back to more than 30 per cent. In China, it has returned to more than 60 per cent. It is not only reasonable but urgent to ask how far that figure should go. The latest research suggests that, due to radiative forcing, the climate impact of aviation is about three times that of the emissions alone. The Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 recognised that and called for an appropriate multiplier to be set, but the Scottish Government set that multiplier at 1—in other words, parity.

On Covid testing at airports, I am happy for the quarantine system to be kept under continual review. Testing might well have a role to play, but we must focus on the need to control the virus and aim to achieve the greatest public health benefit.

Other aviation issues, such as flight path reviews, have also been impacted by Covid. A clear plan from Government and the industry to manage demand would take the threat of flight path expansion off the table for hundreds of thousands of people who live around Edinburgh airport and others. It would also allow a proper consultation to take place to accommodate any technical changes that are needed for flight paths, instead of using modernisation as an excuse to push through increased capacity.

None of the other parties is yet willing to acknowledge in the debate the fundamental reality that there must be limits to aviation. A return to business as usual and pre-Covid aviation levels would be unacceptable. That is why I cannot support the motion or the Government and Conservative amendments.

I move amendment S5M-22711.2, to leave out from “in continuing” to end and insert:

“and on the industry’s workforce; recognises the role of aviation, and in particular its importance to Scotland’s remote and islands’ communities, but accepts that pre-COVID aviation levels are unsustainable; notes that, after previously supporting policies designed to increase aviation growth, the First Minister publicly stated in November 2019 that flying less is part of her personal response to the climate emergency; expresses concern at the risk of further widespread job losses in aviation and in connected sectors in the absence of a just transition plan for the industry; believes that such a plan must include measures to ensure that the regrowth of aviation is kept below pre-COVID levels, and to invest in new sustainable jobs with a focus on communities, which have been heavily reliant on the aviation industry; calls on the Scottish Government to work with the environment movement to establish safe and sustainable levels of aviation that are consistent with the necessary reduction in greenhouse gas emissions; believes that the quarantine system for international travel must be designed around public health objectives, and urges the Scottish Government to examine the approach to quarantine being used by countries showing the greatest success at controlling COVID infection rates.”