Chamber and committees

On that, it appears that you still have a bit of a challenge ahead of you, but let me move on, as I am conscious of time.

The Verity house agreement, which was signed recently by the Scottish Government and local government, sets out how both parties will work together to deliver shared priorities, including on climate change. What impact, if any, will the new agreement have on the Scottish Government’s existing governance and risk management arrangements?

I will leave it at that.

Okay. Well, as I said in the debate:

“Governments are judged by what they do, not by what they say they do”.—[Official Report, 8 June 2023; c 75.]

I thank the cabinet secretary for giving evidence. It is greatly appreciated that you have done that yourself. I also thank Colin Cook and Kate Hall for joining you.

We will now take a short break to allow for a changeover of witnesses.

Cabinet secretary, I want to explore a couple of areas. First, will you update us on the review of the skills landscape that is being led by James Withers, and on the plans to refresh the climate emergency skills action plan? On the back of that, can you tell us how the two reviews will be joined up?

I would like to explore one other area, which is money. None of what we have discussed will happen unless sufficient investment is available. Government investment will probably be somewhat limited in comparison with the sum that will be needed if we are to succeed with the just transition, which has been described as “eye watering”.

We have also been assured that plenty of private capital is available. However, the calculation was done not just for the UK but on a global basis. How do we know that sufficient capital will be available for Scotland to cover those specific costs?

The assessment has already been made that adequate private capital is available globally, which to me seems a bit odd. Given that private capital is much in demand to finance our existing industries, it seems strange that there would be a massive surplus of capital waiting to come in. However, I realise that that was a global calculation. What is the calculation of the availability of capital in the Scottish and UK markets, for which we do not have to compete with other countries?

Thank you, cabinet secretary.

People with private capital will only come in if there is reasonably managed risk and they get a return on their money. Given the highly speculative nature of some of the initiatives that are under way—we are still dealing with emerging technology, for example—how will we derisk things? Moreover, derisking means not that the risk is eliminated but that it moves somewhere else. Would that entail the Scottish Government taking on additional contingent liabilities?

One of my concerns is that, if we manage to attract the volumes of capital that are needed, people will, obviously, want a return on their capital. That will be one of the most compelling reasons to invest. There is also great pressure on capital at the moment to be absorbed into and grow the economy. Is the market capable of handling both things at the moment?

Given that we already have hydrogen-fuelled planes in the air, where does that fit in?