Chamber and committees

Daniela, do you want to come in on this point and on what programmes are needed to meet the targets? Do you have any reflections on what you have heard from the other witnesses?

Dr Long, do you have any comments on global implementation? What do you think about the COP15 outcomes?

Let us move on. Forth Ports noted that it is less clear what will be required after 2030. New and emerging technologies, particularly hydrogen, might demand new skills. How confident are you that Scotland’s skills system can put structures in place to identify and respond to those potential and emerging demands for skills in a timely manner? Much of the focus is on apprentices and younger people coming in, perhaps through colleges. To go back to the idea of a just transition, what can we put in place for older workers?

Dominic, you said that the GMB is focusing more on the short term and concerns about people having to pay for their training at a time when we need their labour and skills. What do you suggest is needed here?

I am conscious that it has been a long exchange, so I will hand back to the convener.

I ask, first, Unite and then Dominic Pritchard whether they have any reflections on that in both the short term and the longer term. What does that mean for older workers? Part of what we want to do is to come up with suggestions about what it should look like. Is the SSE model perhaps a good way forward for the Grangemouth area?

That is very helpful. I ask Gordon McGuinness to respond to Dominic Pritchard as to what the solution is for skills development.

I also have another question. We understand that, according to the latest sectoral skills assessment for the energy sector, the workforce is expected to reduce by 2.5 per cent by 2032. What needs to be done to ensure that there are sufficient opportunities in other sectors to offset that reduction? How can we ensure that those new opportunities will be in the form of highly skilled, high-quality jobs?

There are people who are prepared to move and to train, but they cannot get trained, and you know that there will be a shortfall in the future, so how do you join up the dots with what Dominic Pritchard has been saying?

We are hearing about what we do not have. What do we need?

Just transition is clearly a massive area. We will look at the subject more broadly, but we want to focus on Grangemouth as an illustration.

The committee has heard that we already have a fairly developed understanding of the skills that are required for the next five years of the transition. Do you agree with that? How confident are you that Scotland’s skills system will provide the necessary skills to the right extent and at the right time to meet the anticipated demand? I am asking about the short-term—the next five years.

I ask Gordon McGuinness from SDS to respond to that question first.

I can tell. [Laughter.]