Chamber and committees

The Government will publish its hydrogen policy in the next few weeks, and a lot of that information will be in there.

Various aspects of the hydrogen debate are being considered around Scotland. For instance, we have talked about CCS and the Acorn project, which has a hydrogen element to it. In Grangemouth in particular, people are looking at how to produce hydrogen.

From my conversations, I think that there is a general acceptance that we must raise awareness. If you are a business, particularly in today’s environment with rising energy costs and all the other challenges, including labour shortages, you are probably not thinking about your just transition plan or your net zero plan. How do we raise awareness and say to businesses that this is not only in their interests but represents a new economic opportunity? There are lots of opportunities for new companies to start up in certain areas. In my area, the small private business that goes around homes putting in air-source heat pumps is overwhelmed with work. I keep thinking to myself that there must be an opportunity there, either for that business to expand significantly or for new businesses, so we must capitalise on economic opportunities.

Yes, I have met all those organisations, and I will continue meet them.

That is an interesting question. I spoke earlier about the challenges that we will face in the years ahead, and that sort of question gets to the heart of it, because the just transition is about not leaving communities behind. There are different situations around Scotland, so as we make the economic transition, we must be careful to work out through what lens we are looking at the just transition. There is no easy answer to that, because the just transition will ensure that we reach our net zero targets, reduce our emissions and carbon footprint, and play a role in the global effort to save humankind. However, locally, as we do that, we must take into account what that means for each individual community and indeed for households, and we cannot leave people behind. We have got to balance all that, and it is not easy.

Yes.

When we put out the call for bids for projects under the fund, each application was considered on its merits, and Scottish Government officials liaised with local authority officials and local Scottish Enterprise offices to decide which projects would be worth supporting. We have to support emerging new technologies in some cases to find out what contribution they can make. I do not think that anything is being pre-empted; I think that there is just straightforward funding of innovative technology.

As I said before, we want, for the benefit of other parts of Scotland, to roll out the successes, discoveries and innovations that the fund has enabled in north-east Scotland. It is a great place to have a laboratory to support and trial different technologies for the just transition because of the presence of the oil and gas and fossil fuel sectors, which have to transition.

As you can imagine, ministers have been looking closely at that issue, and more support has been brought forward to help low-income households to deal with their energy bills and tackle fuel poverty through implementing home energy efficiency measures. We are extremely concerned about the impact of rising energy prices on fuel poverty and on widening inequalities in the country. I am happy to ensure that the committee gets some follow-up information on that, as a lot of work has been taking place on the issue.

As I said before, the just transition will have failed if, in a few years’ time, we find ourselves living in an energy-rich country in which people cannot afford to pay their fuel bills and might die because of fuel poverty. You could not make it up. It is a horrendous situation, and it shows that our energy policy has failed—of course, the energy market and energy regulation are issues that are reserved to the UK Government. As an energy-rich country, we should not be in a position in which people are facing fuel poverty. We have to get this issue right, and I imagine that the refreshed energy strategy that the Government will publish shortly will address some of those issues.

The UK Government is about to take a decision on the role that hydrogen will play. I cannot remember the exact timescale for that; it might be in the next year or so. That will have to guide us in Scotland because it will relate to the regulation. That will have a big influence on where hydrogen could be used in the economy. We are waiting for that because it is to do with the regulatory side.

As I mentioned, in the private sector, SGN is doing an exercise on what hydrogen will mean for the gas networks and what potential there could be for domestic use. That is a potential route for the use of hydrogen.

We can also see the hydrogen buses that are being deployed and creating jobs in Aberdeen. Therefore, transport has a big role to play. There is also an exercise going on in Scotland to do with how we can use hydrogen in heavy goods vehicles and other trucks.

That was in a statement that was issued on the potential of hydrogen. We can send that to the committee. It was published a while back.

I am sorry—could you ask that question again?

That depends on how you deliver the just transition. I know where you are trying to go with this, in pointing out that I am the MSP for Moray and the minister. The just transition is different things to different people, and what matters is the outcomes. If we have more equality, good jobs and prosperity—those are the outcomes that we want. As the just transition minister, I cannot say to a community: “This is what the just transition means to you.” That is why we co-design. Whether it is about roads in one part of Scotland or another, we must listen to communities about what the just transition means to them. It might mean a new road or it might not mean a new road—it might mean something else. We have to listen to communities. That is the whole purpose of co-design.