 Welcome to the first meeting of session 6 and of the net zero energy and transport committee. I am Fiona Hyslop, MSP for Llythgo. As the oldest member of the committee, I have the pleasure of convening this meeting for the first two items of business. I would like to take this opportunity to welcome all members, and I look forward to working with the committee. Before we move to the first item on the agenda, I would like to remind everyone present to switch mobile phones to silent. The first item on our agenda is declaration of interests, and this is an opportunity for us to declare any interests that are relevant to the work of the committee. First, I declare that I do not have any interests to declare for the purposes of the committee. I am now going to introduce each of our members to make their declaration. I should add that the members of the committee are Natalie Don, Jackie Dunbar, Liam Kerr, Monica Lennon, Dean Lockhart and Mark Ruskell. I will ask every member in division alphabetical order to declare any interests. If you can wait until I call your name, that allows broadcast to unmute your mic so we can proceed. The first member of the committee that I would invite to declare interests is Natalie Don. I would like to declare that I am still a councillor with Renfrewshire Council, so just in case any of the issues that we are discussing cross over with that, I just wanted to make that, put that on record, thanks. Thank you, Natalie. Any other interests? Sorry, no, that is all my interests, thank you. Can I now call on Jackie Dunbar? Good morning. My interest is nearly the same as Natalie's. I am still a serving councillor for Aberdeen City Council, and I thought that I would declare that interest just in case it coincides with anything that we are going to be discussing in this committee. That is all my interests. Thank you very much, Jackie. Can I call on Liam Kerr? Thank you, convener. I do not believe that I have any particular interests to declare, although, going forward, members and viewers may be interested to know that I have a very small shareholding in a community hydroelectric project in Aberdeen. Thank you very much, Liam. Can we now move on to Monica Lennon? Good morning. No relevant interests to declare. Thank you, Monica. Can we now move on to Dean Lockhart? Thanks, Fiona. Good morning. I have a minority shareholding in a smart meter company based in England, otherwise nothing to declare. Thank you very much, Dean. Finally, can we move on to Mark Ruskell? Thanks, convener. Nothing to declare. Thank you very much, Mark. We now move on to agenda item 2, which is the task of choosing a convener. The procedure is explained in the choice of the convener paper, too. The Parliament has agreed that only members of the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party are eligible for nomination as convener of this committee. I would like to nominate Dean Lockhart as convener of this committee. Is everyone agreed that we choose Dean Lockhart as convener? As I see nothing in the chat bar to disagree, can I congratulate Dean Lockhart on his appointment? I look forward to working with you and the other members of the committee. Can I now pass over to Dean Lockhart as convener? Thank you very much to other members of the committee. It is a great privilege to become convener of this committee. We have tremendously important work ahead of us, and I look forward to working with all the members, the clerks to the committee, Spice and everyone else who will be engaged with the committee's work going forward. The next agenda item is item number 3, which is the choice of a deputy convener. The Parliament has agreed that only members of the Scottish National Party are eligible for nomination as deputy convener of this committee. On that basis, I invite a nomination for the post of deputy convener. Thank you, convener. I would like to make a nomination if I may. I would like to nominate Fiona Hyslop, MSP for the post of deputy convener, please. Thank you very much, Liam. Is the committee agreed that Fiona Hyslop will be the deputy convener of the committee? Fantastic. I see no comments, so let me congratulate Fiona. Many congratulations to Fiona on becoming deputy convener of the committee, and I very much look forward to working with you from today onwards on the work that we have ahead in the committee. Thank you, Fiona. The next item on the committee agenda is item 4, decision on taking business in private. The committee is now asked to consider taking item 6 of the agenda, which is the consideration of our approach to developing a work programme to take that agenda item in private. Are members agreed? That is agreed. The next item on the agenda is agenda item 5, consideration of session 5, legacy reports. The committee is invited to consider a number of legacy reports prepared by relevant committees in the past session of Parliament. They outline the committee's main work and identify potential challenges that we face in the current committee in the next session or in this coming session. Legacy reports have been identified from three former committees of Parliament, which are relevant to this committee. Those are the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee, the Economy, Energy and Fair Work Committee and the Rural Committee and Connectivity Committee, all of which covered areas that are now relevant to the work of this committee. The clerks paper for this item draws attention to the most relevant items in those legacy reports. Under this item of business, we are invited simply to formally note those reports and further agree to consider their contents as part of our work programme going forward. I will take that read by members. As part of this agenda item, and as this is our last item of business today before we go into private session, I would like to take this opportunity for all members to have a brief discussion of the key points arising from those legacy reports from the relevant committees and for members to highlight briefly any particular areas following within the committee's remit that it considers important that the committee looks at in inquiries or in investigations going forward. With that in mind, let me start with the deputy convener to get the deputy convener's views of some of the important priorities and topics that the committee should look at going forward. I look forward to working with everybody in this committee. I think that there is a big challenge ahead of us. Clearly, the import of the subject matters that we are responsible for in the Parliament is huge. I was very impressed with the content of the legacy papers. They are very wide, clearly because of the wider remit of the other committees in the different range, but I think that there are some specific steers that are very important and very strong. I am very keen that the committee hits the ground running. There are a lot of agenda items that are very immediate, some may be more longer term, but I am particularly conscious that, with COP26, we really need to move quickly to understand and get an appreciation of the developments at all levels, particularly in terms of preparation but also in output and outcome and the role of Scotland in that, particularly with young people and working potentially with Italy in terms of what they are doing with the young people strands in particular. In other areas, particularly looking at implementation, I think that the agendas of our previous committees in the last session clearly set out what had to be done, why it had to be done, how it had to be done and in terms of timetables, etc. There is a great deal of scrutiny that has to take place. For me, the main focus needs to be on implementation. I have a particular interest in different energy uses and implementation and innovation. We should be working with our colleagues on the economy committee in terms of jobs and the green recovery. The work of the justice transition commission is really important, and we can move very quickly on that. There are also two other areas that others might touch on as well. Infrastructure is going to be very important, particularly housing, refit and the net zero agenda. How do we make sure that across Scotland our communities are not just in receipt of issues but are actually leading them? I think that there might be something there. Finally, and I am probably taking up everybody else's scope, but I thought that it might be helpful just to do the scoping. I am conscious in terms of membership at the committee that we do not have energy from the Highlands and Islands or the south of Scotland and that it might be appropriate to make sure that, in terms of our engagement, we are looking at the advice from the legacy committees that we are particularly cognisant of the communication engagement work, particularly with those parts of the country. On that, I will end, Dean, if that is not too much for you. I think that it is helpful to set the scene as you just did. I am sure other members will have additional items to bring in. We will continue on alphabetical order to bring members in. That means that we have Natalie Dawn, followed by Jackie Dunbar. Hi, welcome, convener. Thanks for bringing me in. The deputy has it spot on in terms of COP26. We really need to move quickly and know exactly what our aims are. Some of my particular interests tend to be on our green recovery around our climate change and net zero, and specifically in transport and infrastructure. That is going to be really, really key going forward. The drive away from cars and improving public transport is going to be a massive remit for us. I was also interested in what the deputy convener was saying about community empowerment, so that is something that, as a councillor, I have been very much involved in. Those are going to be huge changes to our communities, and it is really, really important that we take in the views of local areas and how things need to be conducted differently in different areas, depending on the make-up. I think that community empowerment is going to be hugely important going forward. Looking at the remit and legacy reports, there are a massive number of things that we are going to be dealing with. It is hard to say that any are more important than others. However, just with the timescale that we are in terms of our climate change and our net zero brief, I think that that is going to be hugely important going forward. Thank you very much, Natalie. You are absolutely right. It is an enormous remit, and that is why, in the next agenda item in private, we will focus on what the immediate priorities might be. I will hand over to Jackie Dunbar. It is a huge remit that we have been given, but it is an exciting one for me as well. I represent an Aberdeen Donside. It is probably no surprise that this was the one committee that I was wanting to be on. Going forward, I think that Natalie is absolutely right. Consultation is going out there to the public and to other bodies is going to be the key, because whatever we manage to succeed with this committee, we have to bring people with us. It is a huge area that we are going to be tackling on, and if we have not got folk behind us, we are not going to succeed. For me, living with someone who lives near the hadagon, you are probably not surprised to find out that I am going to be very keen on the transport and the road infrastructure. Also, the energy sector is going to be key for many, many people. I have read the legacy reports. I will admit that I am going to go back and reread them two or three times, because they are huge. I am looking forward to working with everybody in the committee and out with the committee going forward. Thanks very much, Jackie. That is fantastic. I will bring in Liam Kerr next. Over to you, Liam. Thank you, convener, and congratulations on your new position. My colleagues have set out some really interesting and full thoughts there. For me, the first thing that struck me was actually a deputy convener talking about implementation. I have given that quite a lot of thought. One of the things that I found most disconcerting when I was on the Public Audit Committee in the last session was the issue of targets and delivery, because I am not convinced that the two things marry. I think that this is a point that the cabinet secretary would acknowledge in the debate that we had a couple of weeks ago. I think that the cabinet secretary and I agreed that it is all very well putting targets in place, but we actually have to deliver on them. The time for delivery is very short indeed. There was a ministerial statement last week where I asked about the sanction. What happens if you miss targets? I am not sure that the cabinet secretary was in a position to give me an answer to that at the time. I think that that would be something that I am quite interested in knowing. What targets have we got? What are we doing to get them implemented? Are we going to get a delivery? The second thing that occurs is that I had a very interesting meeting with CalMac yesterday. Just to familiarise myself with the fares, I obviously know the north link, for example, very well, but I am much less familiar with the CalMac operation. The REC report on the area and the legacy is very comprehensive. I know that there is work going on into the structure of our fares operation going forward. Given that, I cannot see beyond doing something on that, I think that we really need to drill down into the area. Particularly, of course, with our environmental focus. Again, I do not know that much about shipping, but I have in my mind that the emissions that will be coming from an ageing fleet would not be the sort of thing that we want to be seeing going forward. I think that the fares is an interesting area that I think that the committee should explore. Finally, if there is time, the other thing that is in my mind is the public energy company, because I recall that the announcement was a significant time. Perhaps that goes back to my targets and delivery piece. I am not sure that much has come on this public energy company. I stand to be corrected, but I am not sure that it is there at the moment. I think that that is very important. There are social implications of that and economic implications of that. If that is not being delivered, I find that rather concerning. I think that it might be right for the committee to look into that. If there were time to cover all of that, I would be interested in those areas. Conveno, that is my top three, and I hope that that was useful. Yes, Liam. Thank you very much. Very useful. Again, I think that you have just highlighted, like other members did, the wide range of particular topics that we have in front of us. Let me now pass to Monica Lennon. Monica, over to you. Thank you, convener. I congratulate you and Fiona, and I look forward to working with all of the members. There are lots of agreement already. Thanks to colleagues on those legacy committees, there is a lot to read in those reports. Like Jackie, I will go back and read them a number of times. Fiona is right that our focus really needs to be on scrutiny and implementation. We have had a steer on the transport act. For example, there is a lot in that. The climate change plan was discussed already in the chamber since we have come back. We will have a big role to play there. Liam Kerr touched on ferry procurement and future ferries policy. We have obviously got recommendations on that in legacy reports. The deputy convener made the point about the fact that we do not represent all Scotland on the committee, but through our work we will very much aspire to do that. That means that we have to, for example, central Scotland. Ferries is not a big issue for me, but it is a big issue across the country. In terms of how we engage, particularly with younger people, we have got a real opportunity to set a really good example of being quite innovative and getting out there and doing some interesting visits, too. Obviously, when we come back in September, we will know more about programme for government, so that our economy has to be a massive priority. I am also very interested in what the Government is planning to do around incineration. The minister of the cabinet secretary has given a commitment on that as well. Transport infrastructure is huge, so we will need to break that down. One of the things that I am quite curious about is how we are looking at the remit of the cabinet secretary for natural energy transport. His job depends on performance across Government and all portfolios. Already, we know that there is some overlap with Mary Goudran's portfolio, but things like 20-minute neighbourhoods will present real opportunities. The cabinet secretary will have the responsibility for that, strategically across Government, but it will dip into lots of other areas. I am just interested to see how that all works. We have got a job to make sure that Government does not work in silos, because we all appreciate the really ambitious targets, but the key is delivery and how we get there. It is likely that it is also interested to get an update on the public energy company. Work is underway with the COSLA to develop a business plan. The role of local government is really important. Others have touched on just transition, green jobs, making sure that we have the right skills, supporting businesses that want to innovate and making sure that communities are not left behind. It will be exciting time and we have a lot of work to do. I look forward to working with everyone. Thanks very much, Monica. I think that you made a number of great points there. That point about the cross portfolio and making sure that we are not just siloed into a particular portfolio is going to be really important, because that net zero ambition cuts across many portfolios. That is the point that has come across from all members. Mark Ruskell, let me bring in his priorities as well. Over to you, Mark. Thank you, Dean. Congratulations to you and all sorts of funeral. I look forward to working with colleagues across the committee. It is really good to hear some early areas of consensus coming out, even in this initial discussion. I served on the previous Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee. It was a very hard-working committee, as you can see by the 119-page legacy report. There were some particular challenges. It is good to see the committee picking up on one of the key recommendations, which is that there should be a dedicated net zero committee. Great step one, we have a net zero committee. I think that bringing together some of the key sectors where we have a real challenge in terms of that just transition into the remit of this committee is really important. That is now mirroring the cabinet secretary's responsibilities. Members have already spoken about some of the challenges around energy. I am interested in the public energy company. We have massive issues around how we scale up delivery, with heat in particular. We have to see an unprecedented increase in effort and installations to meet the targets and deliver the progress that is needed. We have some key points coming up, such as strategic transport projects review, national transport strategy and national planning framework. It is all hugely important alongside the climate change plan in terms of how we build the infrastructure that is going to be future-proof and tackle the climate emergency. All of that makes a lot of sense. As other members have said, there are a number of other cross-cutting areas that we need to be across. I would particularly point to the need to work with the other committees that have responsibility for farming and land use, because that is another key sector where we need to see a transition, but it needs to support farmers and land managers. We need to see cuts in emissions. I am interested in how we might work quite creatively with other committees, whether we could appoint reporters or join inquiries. There is some precedent there, but to get out of that siloed scrutiny, we will have to work very much across the Parliament. There were some challenges in that in the last session. Housing and planning are two other areas where we will need to do some cross-port for the working to get the most out of it. We are looking forward to the discussions ahead. It is the biggest issue, so we need to tackle it. That is great that you sat on one of the predecessor committees, the Environment Committee. Between the members, we covered all of the previous relevant committees. I was on the Economy Committee and I know that other members were on the Rural Affairs Connectivity Committee, so that is great. Working as a team, we can bring that experience to the new committee. I thank all members for their contributions. I think that there are a number of areas of consensus, and I think that we have all identified that it is a very wide remit. I think that just in terms of timing the overarching priority, a number of members highlighted the COP26 conference. Primarily, because of timing, it begins in early November. When we return from recess in early September, we will have that, I believe, as one of the focus topics of inquiry, because we will need to hit the ground running and make sure that we cover that topic in a timely fashion. This session is concluded. That was the public section of the first meeting of the net zero energy and transport committee. Again, I thank members for their contributions. The committee will now go into private session and we will join the teams meeting in private session. That ends this public section of the meeting. Thank you very much, everyone.