Chamber and committees

Good morning, minister. Before I come to my main questions, I will ask about hydrogen. I think that you have talked about 5GW of potential production and 300,000 potential jobs. Where will hydrogen be used? Will you give us some detail on where it can be used in business and domestic settings?

Are you meeting the Federation of Small Businesses and chambers of commerce? Are they raising with you any concerns about the approach that is being taken? What is their opinion?

I will go back to what we talked about before. My colleague Graham Simpson talked about the transport side and Fiona Hyslop asked you about your role in Government. You talked about mainstreaming just transition in Government and bilateral meetings with colleagues. As the just transition minister, do you see any conflict or contradiction between meeting Scotland’s climate change targets around decarbonising and delivering on manifesto commitments such as road improvements, road upgrades and work on the A9 and A96 roads, which you will be very aware of as the MSP for Moray? Do you see a contradiction between wanting to decarbonise and meeting those commitments?

I am very interested in the potential of hydrogen.

Therefore, meeting climate change targets is not, as far as you are aware or concerned, a reason to not go ahead with those projects.

Your point about the Acorn project has been made previously by your colleagues. It sounds as though there will be a shortage not of jobs but of people.

Do you, as a former Minister for Further Education, Higher Education and Science, think that the education system as a whole, from schooling through to further and higher education, is geared up enough to ensure that young people go on pathways to new emerging technologies and other sectors? Are you confident that we will be able to deliver at least part of what we need through the right education system that is ready to provide that supply of people?

That is helpful—thank you.

That is the production of hydrogen, but where will it be used? For example, can it be used in domestic boilers for heating? What would it require to do that?

We might want to keep an eye on that.

I think that we are all agreed, or we all understand, the need for just transition around energy, because of the impact on key areas of the energy sector from the changes and how the sector might shift in Scotland. However, we have mentioned other sectors such as housing and agriculture. I am a partner in a farming business, and I can see the changes that are already being made. In housing, we need to build more houses and we need to provide more homes for people. In agriculture, we have spent many years incorporating environmental issues in farming practices, but we now see food prices increasing and pressure on supply. How will those perhaps conflicting interests impact on the work to deliver a just transition and on your work and recommendations?

The issue of who has inherited trees is probably less of a concern in places such as Orkney and Shetland, where I am from. I am sure that the local sectors would welcome a visit, because those are important issues. I am also interested in a freedom of information request to find out about that unparliamentary language, so that we get a good honest appraisal of your thoughts. [Laughter.] However, I will leave it there for now. Thank you.