Chamber and committees

With that in mind, Suzanne Sosna, in terms of what SE is doing just now, how do we maintain that advantage? We are charging ahead, as far as I can see, in offshore wind and onshore wind. As I said this morning, I am a massive green hydrogen fan and I think that we are behind the curve with that. We are probably behind the curve in carbon capture and, potentially, in heat. How do we bring all that into the just transition at pace?

Good morning. My question has changed several times over the past five minutes, while I have been listening to what you have been saying. We understand the opportunities that renewables technologies bring—not just to the north-east but to Scotland.

I am also aware that so much innovation and blue-sky thinking is going on. It is very exciting to watch that innovation. Are the UK and Scottish Governments doing enough to support and develop innovation in order to make sure that we are at the forefront and that we have the commercial success that will, as per my colleague Colin Smyth’s questioning, lead to the increase in jobs? I would rather be looking for people to come into jobs than have too many people. That is for you first, Professor de Leeuw.

I should say that I have an interest in green hydrogen. The talk just now is about the idea of building a pipeline across to Germany, which is obviously hugely exciting, but surely that does not have to be the first step. We have the capability of the deep-water ports at Hunterston, and last week we were up in Aberdeen, seeing what was being done up there. Why are we not focusing on those things as a step towards delivering the marketplace that you have been talking about, before we get to building a pipeline? Surely that would be a much quicker option.

Thank you. I will leave it there, convener.

Good morning to the panel. I want to tease out a few points that were made earlier.

Obviously, there are significant opportunities for Scotland in renewable technologies. We want a green economy, and we are well advanced in things such as onshore and offshore wind energy. We are doing particularly well in those, but maybe we are behind the curve a bit on things such as hydrogen.

On the practicalities of a just transition, we have already heard that the growth of the green economy is not matching the decline in oil and gas jobs. That matching is where we need to be for a just transition. How can we create the sector for people to transition into? Are we supporting innovation enough to ensure that we are creating commercial success that gives confidence to those who want to transition and move into the sector?

Mr Boland, I want to go back what you said about the difference in pay for electrical engineers in the oil and gas sector and those in the renewables sector possibly being as much as £20,000. That is specifically because electrical engineer jobs in the oil and gas sector are very highly paid—they are paid above what we would expect for an electrical engineer. How on earth do we square that circle if we are talking about a just transition? Moving from one sector to another would mean a big drop in salary.

We have talked about delivering innovation. It strikes me that we cannot have people working in the oil and gas sector and in the green energy sector, and that we need an influx of new talent into the sector.

We have talked about STEM ever since I came into the Parliament. There is still a very low STEM uptake among women. To me, that is where the biggest innovation has to happen. We talk about 2045. In that timescale, how can we practically deliver STEM training, innovation and encouragement in schools to deliver our 2045 targets?

Convener, do I have time to bring in Mr Boland?

We talk about offshore wind and floating wind platforms, and we have heard about the potential of green hydrogen for the Scottish economy. I am a big supporter of that, but we are very much behind the curve on it. Developing a green hydrogen economy takes significant investment. From your perspective, where do we need to go with that to get green hydrogen economy technologies, for example, and catch up with where we are with wind?

A good friend of mine came out with the phrase that the only competitive advantage we have is in learning faster than our competitors.