 Can I remind members of the Covid-related measures that are in place and that face coverings should be worn when moving around the chamber and across the Holyrood campus? The next item of business is a debate on motion 2552, in the name of Liam Kerr, on backing the north-east economy. I would invite those members who wish to speak in the debate to please press the request to speak buttons now. I call on Liam Kerr to speak to and to move the motion up to seven minutes, please, Mr Kerr. Last week, in response to someone called Alex Salmond saying that the SNP Government has been dragged into student politics that would sacrifice and jeopardise the livelihoods of tens of thousands of Scots, an SNP spokeswoman said that we need to get real on the climate emergency. They were both right. Get real means acknowledging that 78 per cent of Scotland's total energy needs and 91 per cent of its heating are met from oil and gas. Obviously, that is fuel, and it is also gas, which heats 24 million UK homes and goes towards making medicines, cosmetics, plastics, cleaning products, clothes, contact lenses. As Gary Smith of the GMB said, gas is a feedstock for the chemical industry, our food supply, our NHS. Patrick Harvey is always keen to remind us that he rides a bike, sometimes even the right way up one-way streets. I ask him what he thinks the tyres are made from or the oil on the chain. Get real means acknowledging that, in all climate change committee scenarios, oil and gas accounts are around half of demand until 2050. We, Scotland, have to get that from somewhere. Much already comes from abroad, from Russia, that famous upholder of regulatory and environmental standards, to whom we paid nearly £4 billion for oil and gas last year. From Qatar, whose £1 billion worth of LNG sold to us has, according to the OGA, more than double the carbon footprint of UK gas. From Norway, which, to ensure that they can still sell us around £11 billion worth of oil and gas, just licensed the extraction in 136 blocks in the Barents Sea and exploration in the Arctic. Conversely, local supply has advantages such as enhancing security of supply, protecting 100,000 jobs, around 65,000 in the north-east region, whilst undertaking a fair and managed transition, avoiding inflicting ever higher imported gas prices on the British consumer, plunging ever more of them into fuel poverty and ensuring that we do not offshore our environmental responsibilities to the global south. Get real means not lodging motions referring to just transition funds that just last week the Cabinet Secretary for Finance could not tell me any details off to such an extent I have had to write to her and not repeatedly saying match that when anyone with the slightest knowledge of the industry knows that the UK Government's £16 billion north-sea transition deal is happening now and aims to create 40,000 high-quality direct and indirect jobs. It means instead of boasting that offshore wind energy would create 28,000 posts by 2020 than delivering fewer than 2,000. Instead of boasting that there have been 21,000 renewable energy jobs created but quietly forgetting that 130,000 were promised, it means fronting up, supporting the sector and working with them to deliver an actual transition. Get real means that when sicker point, postpone cambell and immediately cut 39 rolls in Aberdeen and potentially forfeit 1,000, a party of government does not respond by saying how great it is or Ross Greer stating to Shell, I can't wait till we seize your assets and prosecute your executives or Maggie Chapman comparing the oil and gas industry, one of the most advanced industries in the world and key to our transition to the stone age or claiming that supporting oil and gas makes one hard right and celebrating as tens of thousands face a Christmas fearing for their jobs, their livelihoods and their futures. Arrogance and hubris stalk the green party like the jangling chains of Marley's ghost but like the ghost the people of Scotland will see right through them. Mr Harvey. I'm grateful to the member for giving way and he can quote people out of context all he likes but will he not acknowledge as a matter of fact that political parties of the left, centre and centre right and even lifelong conservatives like John Gummer have already got real and recognised that everlasting expansion of oil and gas extraction is not compatible with a serious response on the climate emergency. Liam Kerr. I'm disappointed that the minister has completely failed to miss my point. Nobody is arguing for unlimited oil and gas. The minister has quite clearly failed to listen just as he failed to listen to the oil and gas industry and indeed most of the environmental industry is telling him something different. Presiding Officer, the responsibility falls of course on more than the SNP's subsidiary. For the latest developments were set off by Nicola Sturgeon's abject failure to back our oil and gas industry. When it suited her it was Scotland's oil and the foundation for her future country and remember right at the start of COP26 Michael Matheson was quoted as saying that an independent Scotland would continue drilling for oil and gas yet as soon as the price fell and Nicola Sturgeon realised supporting the industry might impact on future job prospects she threw her cabinet secretary under the bus and you turned into deeply damaging comments about Scotland's oil and gas. Then just last week when pressed by Douglas Ross she failed to condemn the shameful appalling comments of her ministerial colleague Patrick Harvey. What a contrast with the leadership shown in Norway. As Dear Drew Mickey of OGUK said look at the statements of support from their Prime Minister. That gives people and companies confidence that that's an area where you can go and invest, where you want to do your oil and gas operations, where the people and the skills will then underpin the energy transition. That last point is key. What will drive net zero is oil and gas companies who have the skills, the money and the business imperative to innovate, invent and transition. For example BP using their workforce to partner with Aberdeen council in the hydrogen hub or as reported today Equinor and Cadent announcing plans for a hydrogen town or SGN's pathway to 100% hydrogen for Scotland's gas networks which they worked on with oil and gas stalwart wood group. The conclusion is clear. We must get real about continuing demand, about how irresponsible and short-sighted it would be to satisfy that demand through imports and that unless the Scottish government starts to support our oil and gas industry and genuinely step up to a fair and managed transition, new production will not go ahead, will import from abroad and up to 100,000 workers in the oil and gas industry and associated industries will be thrown under the bus in favour of virtue signalling. I urge Parliament to vote for our motion today, the SNP to take their spokeswoman's advice to get real, Parliament to back our oil and gas industry and all of us to consign the student politics of the Greens back to the stone age where they belong. Thank you. I now call on Michael Matheson, cabinet secretary, to speak to and to move amendment 2552.3 up to six minutes please, cabinet secretary. Thank you, Deputy Secretary and Officer. The oil and gas industry supports around 70,000 jobs in Scotland and the sector also continues to play an important role, not just in our economy but also in delivering energy security and, crucially, even as we make the transition away from fossil fuels as we must do, the sector will continue to have a vital role in ensuring Scotland's energy security. Of course, we must reduce our reliance on fossil fuels in line with our climate obligations and, in a way, it is fair and just. It is a journey that Scotland is already embarked on and that it needs to exhilarate. We have also been clear that the renewable and low-carbon jobs cannot replace oil and gas jobs immediately, which is why we are committed to quickly ending our contribution to climate change in a way that is just and leaves no one behind. A transition that puts 70,000 workers into unemployment or increases reliance on imports would not be a just one. That is why the Scottish Government is investing in a just transition, not just through our £75 million energy transition fund but also through our continued support for projects such as Acorn and the Scottish Cluster. That is a project that is crucial to meeting our emission reduction targets as well as supporting the transition in the North Sea oil and gas sector. That is why the UK Government's decision not to grant the Scottish Cluster full track 1 status was the wrong decision. One that puts a just transition at risk and at the same time will have a negative impact, potentially, on our environment and our economy. That is why I urge yet again the UK Government to exhilarate the Scottish Cluster to full track 1 status without delay. I will give way to Mr Kerr. I am grateful. I am not entirely disagreeing with an awful lot of what has been said so far, but the cabinet secretary will acknowledge that the selection or not of Acorn was entirely done on an objective criteria that all parties knew about and that we are completely objective. The member will be well aware that the assessment process that the Scottish Cluster went through is that it came through that process very well. The decision not to progress with it was made by the UK Government, despite the fact that there is a good rating during the course of that, which is why the sector and the term that was used to me were flabbergasted by its decision on the issue. The emerging energy transition technology fund that we have set up, which is over the course of the next four years, will invest £180 million in the development of projects that are based on hydrogen and CCUS industries to help to support the development of negative emission technologies in an important role that they can play. Next year, we are also committed to the first £20 million of our £500 million just transition fund to support Murray and the north-east of Scotland to become a centre of excellence for our transition to a net zero economy. I am sorry to interrupt, but I can ask you to resume your seat for a second as a technical hitch here. We understand that Mr Kerr may not have moved his motion, in which case you are moving an amendment to a motion that has not been moved would be a bit complex. I genuinely thought I had, but I moved the motion in my name. It is a commitment that we have made in investing in the north-east and in Murray over the course of the next 10 years that we have asked the UK Government to match in order to make sure that we deliver a just transition in the north-east. Scotland also has some of the best offshore wind resources anywhere in Europe. The current estate in Scotland, the current leasing round under Scotland, is an opportunity for us to be the first mover and advantage around floating wind projects anywhere in the world. The Scottish Government is determined to build on that strength, maximising the country's offshore potential, reducing our emissions and creating good green jobs. In 2020, Scotland generated some 940 megawatts of offshore wind alone. The recent announcement that we had of a new manufacturing factory in Nig is a great example of that. A location that is long associated with the oil and gas industry will now be home to the UK's largest steel tower manufacturing factory for offshore wind turbines, creating some 400 new jobs and over 1,000 jobs right across the supply chain. A type of transition that we want to see happening right across Scotland, including within the north-east of Scotland. The North Sea will continue to provide Scotland with an important level of domestic energy and, crucially, the infrastructure skills and expertise of the sector can be a huge asset to helping us to achieve net zero. We believe that that will help Scotland to become a world leader in emerging technologies, such as in CCUS, offshore wind and hydrogen. Of course, the pact, which was agreed in Glasgow recently at COP26, reaffirmed our commitment to achieving the Paris agreement and limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees. That means that it cannot be business as usual. We will need to take bold decisions and courageous decisions in order to do things differently. In the spring, we will also deliver our first just transition plan as part of our refaced energy strategy. Setting out how the economy, the economics and the social impacts of the transition will be managed going forward. Work to encourage and to collaborate with those who will stand the most to be impacted by the transition will be engaged in that process early in the new year. I believe that, by working in partnership with our oil and gas sector and with the wider energy sector in Scotland, we can ensure a prosperous and a sustainable future for this and for future generations for the north-east of Scotland and beyond. I move the amendment in my name. Before I call the next speaker, I remind all members who wish to speak in the debate to ensure that they have pressed the request to speak button. I call Colin Smyth to speak too and to move amendment 2552. We are on borrowed time to stop the climate emergency from becoming a climate catastrophe, but we are also on borrowed time to stop that climate crisis from becoming a jobs crisis. As we have already heard, the oil and gas sector supports around 70,000 jobs in Scotland most in the north-east, 28,000 alone in Aberdeen, 10,000 in Aberdeenshire, but also high-wage jobs across the whole country, including more than 1,000 in my own South Scotland region. The industry is worth £19 billion a year in gross value added, which is 12 per cent of the Scottish economy. Again, the impact is greatest in the north-east, generating £14.6 billion in Aberdeen and more than £4 billion in neighbouring Aberdeenshire. Also, £106 million is generated across the Highlands and Murray, Orkney-Shetland from the sector and £39 million in South Scotland. Oil and gas also continues to account for three quarters of the UK's energy needs, with a quarter going on producing everyday goods from medicines to the raw materials in wind turbine blade manufacturing. Even by 2050, half of our demand will still be met by oil and gas. Turning off the taps prematurely would have a devastating impact on the north-east economy, but also on all our communities. Winding up that production too rapidly would not suppress demand for oil and gas. It would simply result in greater levels of imports, sometimes from regions with less stringent environmental and employment regulations. Gas imports are already at record levels, accounting for over half of UK gas supplies. Do we really want to raise imports of oil from Russia above the already significant value of £3.2 billion? I will give way on that point. Would he agree with me that if we are looking at importing more oil and gas, that having projects such as Cambo come on stream would be a good thing to try to limit the amount that we have to import? Mr Lumson himself will know that Shell is pulled out of Cambo because they have concluded that the economic case was not strong enough. He will also be aware that the IPCC report, commissioned by his own UK Government, concluded that we cannot continue to pursue maximum economic recovery of fossil fuels. It is crucial that we ensure that we have a just transition. I know that Mr Lumson and his party do not understand what it is to go and ask any mining community in my constituency when it comes to a just transition for energy workers. I think that I will try to make some progress, Presiding Officer. We know that, if we are to meet our climate targets but also to continue to secure jobs, those targets are demanding a 75 per cent reduction in emissions by 2030 and net zero by 2045. We cannot pursue the maximum recovery of fossil fuels. As I have already noted, it is shared by the international energy agency. We need to have a sensible debate, a balanced discussion on how we can protect jobs and energy security but also ensure that we transition to net zero and, crucially, do so in a just way where no worker is left behind. The way many were left behind recently by both the UK and Scottish Government oil prices fell leading to thousands of job losses. That means that we need to upper game in Scotland to properly translate green energy growth into quality, secure well-paid jobs, something that the Government has so far failed to do. Workers and trade unions are sick and tired of the constant references that we see again in the Government's complacent amendment to the motion promise and jam tomorrow with more talk about opportunities for jobs in the renewable sector. They have heard it all before, frankly. We all remember Alex Salmond's promise in those opportunities. It will be the Saudi Arabia of renewables that he told us. A decade on, from the SNP pledging in the low-carbon economy strategy, annual growth of 4 per cent a year to 130,000 green jobs by 2020. The number directly employed in low-carbon and renewable economy is just 21,400, the lowest since 2014. I will take an intervention on that if I can get the time back. I am very grateful. I can associate myself with an awful lot of his comments, but does he support his colleague Monica Lennon's motion, which effectively turns off the taps prematurely, as he rightly fares? There is nobody proposing in this side to turn off the taps prematurely. However, what we do need to do is to start to learn the lessons of the past, the lessons when it came to the closure of our minds, the lessons most recently when it came to a decade of missed opportunities in securing offshore wind contracts for Scottish manufacturing. What we need is a bold industrial strategy that lays out how domestic manufacturing capacity must evolve to ensure that the growth in domestic renewable energy production actually begins to translate into new jobs in Scotland. That means that both Governments, instead of bikering, are working together. We should not be signing contracts, for example, for offshore wind farms without a proper plan for supply chain manufacturing and ambitious conditions on job creation in Scotland. Something that the UK Government missed recently when it came to its announcement on funding for renewable energy. We cannot repeat those past failures to recognise the manufacturing benefits of renewables by now failing to recognise the job opportunities that are emerging from the tens of billions of pounds of decommissioning work that will be needed in the North Sea in the decades ahead. Scotland's fabrication and decommissioning industries should be supported by requiring a significant proportion of local procurement from oil companies operating in the UK continental shelf region. That is what a proper just transition is supported by a just transition commission with statutory backing. That transition needs to be also a jobs first worker led one, with a relentless focus on securing meaningful, well-paid, unionised jobs that are good for people and good for our planet. That means a partnership approach between Government— Mr Smith, I think that I have given you the time back for your intervention, so if we could bring the remarks to a close, please. No problem at all. That means a partnership approach between Government and those workers most effective. To avoid any technical problems, I am happy to move Labour's amendment in my name, but I also make it clear that we cannot allow workers and communities to be left on the unemployment scrap heap as we transition to a modern low-carbon economy. Our amendment recognises that transition can only be just when workers have a say in their futures, on their livelihood and their crime. Thank you, Mr Smith. You really are quite over time. I am sorry to interrupt the debate, Deputy Presiding Officer, but it is my understanding that there are quite a lot of members across all the political parties who are having great difficulty in being able to access this debate online. Because blue jeans seem to have frozen. I know that that was a problem in the previous question time. Could that be investigated, please? I understand that it is being investigated urgently, the point that Liz Smith makes, and draws our attention to, and that people are being advised to watch proceedings on Scottish Parliament television. A second point. Would it be possible to have a short suspension until it is sorted, because obviously there are some members who would like to participate? I do not know the extent of the technical problem. I think that the whole website is down, and therefore what I would propose is that we perhaps suspend for 10 minutes, and if at that time they have not managed to resolve the whole issue, I am afraid that we would have to move on. I hope that that is a sensible way forward.