Chamber and committees

I am grateful for that, and strongly agree. Mr Stark rightly talked about a fair transition. Lord Deben also brought that up earlier, when he said that the transition must be fair. I will press that with my final questions.

What does a fair transition mean, specifically in the context of the oil and gas workforce? How would you expect to see the Scottish Government ensuring that there is a fair workforce transition for the oil and gas workforce in particular? What would you expect to see it doing right now to ensure that that is delivered?

I have two or three questions on the back of what I thought was a very interesting line of questioning from my colleague Fiona Hyslop. Your report puts a figure on investment. It says:

“Low carbon investment must scale up to £50 billion each year”.

It then says:

“In time, these savings cancel out the investment costs entirely”.

Later in the report, it says:

“Now is an ideal time for the UK to invest.”

As we have heard, you have said that private investment is the key. The question that arises from Ms Hyslop’s line of questioning is: how much of the £50 billion will come from Scotland and the taxpayer, and how much will come from private investment? Is private investment part of the £50 billion, or is the private investment on top of £50 billion of public investment?

I want to pick up very briefly on Lord Deben’s response to Monica Lennon that the justification for new exploration and production must be strong. Given that demand for oil and gas-related products in the UK seems to show no sign of changing dramatically, might the impact on UK security of supply, sourcing location decisions and the fair transition that you have rightly referenced not provide that justification?

I will press you on that, because it is a good point. Your modelling shows that there are savings to be made in surface transport and energy but that there will be costs to homes and industry. I think that you suggested, in an earlier answer, that we should prioritise buildings. Do you take a view on how the costs could or should be addressed and mitigated? Who is going to pay for the costs in relation to buildings that you rightly flag?

I do not believe that I have any particular interests to declare. However, members and viewers might be interested to know that I have a small shareholding in a community hydroelectric project in Aberdeen.

I nominate Fiona Hyslop.

Fiona Hyslop was chosen as deputy convener

Congratulations on your new position, convener.

My colleagues have set out some really interesting and full thoughts. The deputy convener talked about implementation. I have given that quite a lot of thought. When I was on the Public Audit and Post-legislative Scrutiny Committee in the previous parliamentary session, the issue of targets and delivery was one of the things that I found most disconcerting, because I am not convinced that the two things marry. I think that the cabinet secretary would acknowledge that point. In the debate that we had a couple of weeks ago, the cabinet secretary and I agreed that it is all very well putting targets in place, but we have to deliver on them, and the time for delivery is very short. Last week, following a ministerial statement, I asked about the sanctions—what happens if targets are missed—and I am not sure that the cabinet secretary was in a position to give me an answer at the time. I am interested in knowing what targets we have, what we are doing to get them implemented and whether we will get delivery.

Yesterday, I had a very interesting meeting with CalMac Ferries, just to familiarise myself with the operation. I know NorthLink Ferries very well, but I am much less familiar with the CalMac operation. The RECC report on that area and its legacy report are, of course, comprehensive, and I know that work is being done on the structure of our ferries operation in the future. Given that, I cannot see beyond doing something on that. We really need to drill down into that area, particularly with our environmental focus. I do not know that much about shipping, but I have it in my mind that we will not want to see the emissions that will come from an ageing fleet. Ferries are an interesting issue that the committee should explore.

The other thing that is in my mind for us to look at, if there is time for us to do so, is the issue of a public energy company. I recall that the announcement on that was a significant time ago. Perhaps that goes back to my targets and delivery piece. I am not sure that much has come on the proposed public energy company. I stand to be corrected, but I am not sure whether it exists at the moment. That is very important. There are social and economic implications of that. I would find it rather concerning if that was not being delivered. It might be right for the committee to look into that.

I would be interested in those areas, if there is time to cover all of that. Those are my top three areas. I hope that that is useful.