Chamber and committees

I will comment on what Jim Walker and Jackie McCreery said. I cannot understand why, when the farmers want clarity and want to understand the future of their farming enterprises, the proposals from the climate change groups were not initially implemented. That remains a mystery to me.

I am interested in two points. First, are the current measures to reach net zero sufficiently supported? Are farmers sufficiently supported by the Scottish Government to implement them? Secondly, how can the proposals for the tier system in the proposed agriculture bill support Scottish farmers to maintain livestock numbers to meet consumer demand while remaining viable and achieving the net zero targets?

Sorry, Chris. On that point, I do not know whether you were able to follow the earlier session, but we took evidence from Claire Simonetta, who is an upland farmer. She said that it looks as though extensive systems are operating inefficiently, but they are not; they are doing everything that they possibly can.

There are two different ways to calculate emissions—the GWP100 and the GWP*—and they are already doing all of that. We could reach a very different conclusion if we got the calculations correct and the Scottish Government started to speed up support and give farmers the right support. We heard examples of that happening in other countries.

Yes.

I have a supplementary question for Indra on exactly the same train of thought. I would like the CCC’s view of the calculation on the scale of the GHG emissions resulting from commercial forestry plantation on peat soils, which, of course, are part of the upland.

My fellow committee members have covered most of what I was going to cover. I thank the petitioner. I do not support closing the petition at this stage, and I support exploring other avenues that are wider than what the petitioner has set out.

I will pick that up with Denise Walton another day.

This is a broad question. From looking at tier 1 of the framework, how achievable is it to retain high-quality food production to feed the country while ensuring fair work, animal health and equality, protecting the climate, environment and nature, and producing a land management plan and a carbon audit? On tier 1, will the proposal in the framework improve the position of farmers in the food chain?

So, you do not want the largest amount in tier 1.

Thanks.

I am sorry, but can you turn your microphone more towards you and repeat that last bit about the biodiversity intactness index?