 I thank the cabinet secretary and members for allowing us to get through all of the questions that were lodged. We now move on to the next item of business, which is a debate on motion 1293 in the name of Michael Matheson on a net zero nation. I urge members who want to contribute to this debate to press the request to speak buttons now or press R in the chat function if they are joining us remotely. I call on Michael Matheson to speak to it and move the motion for around 11 minutes, cabinet secretary. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Today's debate is an area of parliamentary consensus. We need to tackle the climate and nature emergencies in a way that is both fair and just. The actions that we must take now will transform our society and our economy beyond anything that we have seen since the industrial revolution. I would like to set out how we will go about through our recent programme for government in helping to support the step changes that will be necessary on that journey. Scotland has achieved much in responding to the climate crisis so far. We have halved our greenhouse gas emissions and set some of the most ambitious, legally binding targets in the world. Alongside our plan to get to net zero in a way that is fair to all. The progress that we have made does not take away from the scale of the challenge that remains or the opportunities for our economic prosperity on route. Members will be aware of the recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, described as, and I quote, code red for humanity. Transformational change requires us to do things differently. That is why we must confront the twin climate and nature emergencies in a way that captures the opportunities to deliver a fairer greener Scotland. In doing so, we need to decarbonise our homes and our buildings, our energy, transport and industry at an unprecedented scale and pace. I will give way to Mr Rennie. I thank the minister for giving way. Since he has admitted new members into his government in recent weeks, has he changed his policy on supporting the expansion of Heathrow airport? As you are well aware, the decision to expand Heathrow airport is a matter for the UK Government and decisions for the UK Government, as the member is well aware and has been repeated to him on many occasions. As Heathrow demand accounts for around 20 per cent of our emissions, at least 1 million Scottish homes will need to move to a net zero-heating system by 2030. That is why we will allocate at least £1.8 billion over this Parliament to support the accelerated deployment of heat and energy efficiency measures in homes and buildings across Scotland. Our draft heat and building strategy acknowledges that there are tensions between reducing emissions and ending fuel poverty. Many zero-emission heating systems are more costly to install and to run than higher emission alternatives. That is why we are committed to supporting those least able to pay in this transition, while also protecting those most vulnerable to any increase in costs. This year we have increased funding for our energy efficiency and fuel poverty schemes, allocating a record £50 million for warmer homes Scotland to incentivise the uptake of zero-carbon heating, benefitting communities not served by the gas grid. Why the social housing net zero fund will invest at least £100 million over the next five years to support social housing landlords to contribute towards our heat decarbonisation and fuel poverty objectives? We will soon publish our final heat and building strategy and will establish a new dedicated national public energy agency to provide leadership and co-ordinated approach to delivering at pace and scale that is required in decarbonising domestic and non-domestic premises. Another crucial priority is our energy transition. The planet and future generations demand that we transition from fossil fuels to renewables and low-carbon energy, but we must do that in a way that is fair and just. We cannot consider our journey to net zero without touching on the North Sea, which, as discussed in this chamber last week, will continue to provide an important level of domestic energy. More crucially, the infrastructure, the skills and the expertise of the sector will be a crucial asset in the transition. We are making progress in helping to make sure that Scotland reduces its reliance on fossil fuels. Last year, 96 per cent of gross electricity consumption came from renewable sources. That is alongside our ambition to increase offshore wind capacity up to 11 gigawatts by 2030, enough to power 8 million homes. Work has also begun to develop a refreshed energy strategy with our reaffirmed commitment to a just transition for all regions of Scotland. Our just energy transition plans will also be an integral part of our refreshed energy strategy, which will take a whole systems approach to energy, providing a road map to 2030 and a vision to 2045. Driving forward our green transport revolution, our STPR2 process, the strategic transport projects review, will be publishing its phase 2 recommendations for formal consultation by the end of this year. The final STPR2 report will make recommendations for the Scottish Government's future transport investment priorities over the next two decades. Importantly, STPR2 includes a climate compatibility assessment, which will allow us to clearly understand the impacts of infrastructure investment options on climate change. I will give way to Mr Kerr. Liam Kerr, you are grateful. Just very briefly, does the cabinet secretary have any idea of the timescale for STPR2, because it clearly is very important that we know what is coming? I have just mentioned that phase 2 will be published by the end of this year for consultation, so it is on time, as was set out earlier in this year. We also know that the pandemic has led to fundamental shifts in travel behaviours. We want to ensure that people continue to make sustainable travel choices seen during the course of the pandemic. People return to public transport use and our economic recovery does not overtly return to road-based travel. That will require us to maximise efforts to decarbonise the sector and also change our travel behaviour, making more sustainable choices. That is why our commitment to reduce car kilometres by 20 per cent by 2030 is world leading. I need to make a bit further progress. Scotland's nature and marine economy is another vital element to secure a net zero future, with nature-based solutions accounting for around 30 per cent of the emissions reductions that are needed. Halting nature decline means that we need to invest in the protection and restoration of our natural environment now. That is why, over the course of this pandemic, we are committing at least £500 million to our natural economy, including £22 million for the restoration of degraded peatlands in this financial year alone. Another investment includes £100 million to increase forestry planting, £30 million to expand Scotland's natural forests and land and £20 million to increase nursery stocks. We will publish a biodiversity strategy within a year of the UN biodiversity conference caught 15 next month and introduce a new natural environment bill in year 3 of this pandemic. We are also committed to stepping up our protection of Scotland's marine environment. Some 37 per cent of Scottish waters are already designated as marine protected areas. We will now begin the process of designating 10 per cent overseas as highly protected marine areas, aiming to complete this by 2026. A healthy, resilient marine environment is critical to supporting a healthy blue economy and to achieve our net zero ambitions. At the heart of our efforts is a defining mission to achieve a just transition, one that maximises the economic, social and environmental opportunities and leaves no one behind. It is essential that we support the transformation of industries, help businesses to adapt and to innovate and support communities to ensure that they are cleaner, safer and more accessible. That is not an easy task but one that is crucial for us to do and will have rewards for us in the future. The response to the Just Transition Commission and our national Just Transition planning framework, published alongside the PFG, sets out our long-term vision and approach to this. That includes a skills guarantee for workers in carbon intensive sectors and new support for participatory budgets to deliver climate action. We have also announced a new remit for the Just Transition Commission and confirmed that Professor Jim Seeker will continue to chair it. The new commission will shift to a delivery focus, supporting and scrutinising the production and delivery of Scottish Government-led transition plans. As a further demonstration of our commitment, we are working with partners, communities and other stakeholders to take forward a 10-year £500 million Just Transition fund for the north-east and Moray. That will support Scotland's energy transition, creating jobs and maximising the region's economic potential in becoming a centre of excellence. As a calls for further and faster action gather pace and we look towards Glasgow hosting the COP26 in just under 50 days, COP26 is the world's best if not its last chance to make sure that we deliver on the Paris agreement. We will play our part in helping to support the aims of achieving an agreement in Glasgow. We will do so by making sure that we target support to those in the global south by doubling our climate justice fund in helping to support those who have contributed at least to climate change but are impacted the most. The Government will not shy away from taking on the challenges of dealing with climate change and natural loss, as set out in our priorities within the programme for government. Delivering a Just Transition fund in a fairer and greener society will benefit us all and one that we are all determined to play a part in delivering in becoming a net zero nation. I move the motion in my name. I start with a point of consensus. The cabinet secretary is absolutely right to demand that we note the IPCC report and its conclusions. However, although the SNP talks a good game, its record rarely matches its rhetoric. Take the setting of legal emissions targets missed three years in a row. Interestingly, when I asked the minister what sanction or penalty is applied and to whom for a breach of the statutory target, I was told that ministers must bring forward as soon as reasonably practical after such a target outcome has been reported additional policies and proposals to compensate. That is reassuring. Furthermore, the climate emergency response group noted that over two thirds of Scotland's key climate policies are not on track, with a tenth of those not met in any meaningful way. Scottish Conservative speakers will examine specific areas more fully over this afternoon, so I will briefly highlight three. First, transport. In 2018, transport accounted for 36 per cent of total greenhouse gas emissions produced in Scotland. Since the 1990 baseline, such emissions have fallen by just 0.5 per cent. Private cars are the largest single source of transport emissions, accounting for 39 per cent of transport emissions. It is not good enough to demand that we all drive electric vehicles unless the Government can answer the issue of recharge points and range anxiety. The climate change committee suggests that we will need an estimated 30,000 charge points in Scotland by 2030. There are currently only 2,558 public charge points, and we will all be getting emails from constituents, I am sure, informing us of the numbers of those that do not work. Transport Scotland reports that we need more than 4,000 new public charging stations each year over the next decade to meet an expected rise in demand. That is before we even get into the digital connectivity in rural areas that will be required. The Scottish Government instead sets the target of reducing the distance travelled by car by 20 per cent by 2030, but it does not say where it got that figure from or how it will be achieved. Interestingly, the cabinet secretary did not in his contribution, refusing, I think, two interventions that were no doubt to clarify that. Perhaps he will do that in closing. The underlying research on that remains unpublished. Given that the distance travelled by car has increased by 5.16 billion kilometres since 1999, Transport Scotland predicts that we will continue to grow into the mid 2030s. One wonders if this will be another missed target. Willi Rennie? Hamilton proposed over the weekend that the public should be given the opportunity to test out electric vehicles, perhaps over the course of the weekend, funded by the Government. Would that be something that the Conservatives would support? I think that it is a very interesting idea. I did see Alex Cole-Hamilton flyring that. I think that the key issue is going to be this range anxiety, which goes towards my point about chargers. Of course, the other thing about transport that we have to get over is that decarbonisation of transport needs to even overcome ministerial disapproval. In response to British Airways flying from London to Glasgow on sustainable aviation fuel, Patrick Harvie ffumes take the train and tax aviation fuel. Of course, if he ever decides to take the train out of central belt cities, he will have to drive his ministerial car on Sunday. Perhaps he will come to Fraserborough, or Peterhead, further from the British Rail Network than any other towns, and suggest that they should take the train, or generally tell rural dwellers of Scotland that they have to take the non-existent bus services. The Government has got to start thinking about what it is saying, not just spouting warm words and sound bites. One of the biggest challenges in reducing carbon dioxide emissions will be the management of energy consumption in our homes. The Climate Change Committee reports that domestic energy accounts for a fifth of carbon dioxide emissions. The Scottish Government's solution, as we have just heard, tells people to convert their homes from a fossil fuel boiler to a zero-emission system. According to an answer from Patrick Harvie last week, the average cost of this is £12,000, which might be possible on a ministerial salary but is far beyond the reach of most people. I asked the new minister what plans the Government has to increase consumer awareness of heat pumps and whether it has a roll-out strategy for those. I was told that the draft heat and building strategy that the cabinet secretary mentioned from last February, committed to developing and implementing a bespoke public engagement strategy for heat and buildings to help people to learn about their benefits. When might that happen? We just don't know. I am grateful to the member for giving way, and he is emphasising the need to decarbonise at domestic premises. He has recognised that one of the most effective ways in which to decarbonise the use of domestic heating is through using hydrogen in the natural gas network. Given that his party at Westminster controls the decision-making around when that will be possible, I advise the chamber when the UK Government will give consent to decarbonising the natural gas system and turning it into a hydrogen-based system that can then be deployed in domestic premises. The UK Government has published just last month a hydrogen strategy. When the cabinet secretary shouts at me from a sedentary position, I might ask, when will the Scottish Government publish a hydrogen strategy? In terms of decarbonisation, the cabinet secretary trumpeted in his contribution that he will provide £1.8 billion to decarbonise 1 million homes by 2030. I did some figures on that. That means £1,800 per household. Data currently suggests that the best and most affordable way to decarbonise homes is heat pumps, by which air source heat pumps are the cheapest at between £5,000 and £8,000. The pledge is only a partial subsidy, meaning that homeowners will again need to incur significant costs to help to deliver the Government's targets. I am aware that I am coming to the end of my time, so I said last week that one of the biggest issues is demand. Until we address the demand for energy, we cannot answer the supply. The move to net zero emissions will require significant and wide-ranging demand reduction. Over half of Scotland's total energy consumption is heat, followed by transport at about a quarter in electricity at just over a fifth. The UK gets about three courses of its total energy from fossil fuels. We know from the debate last week that there will still be a significant need by 2050. Yesterday morning, gas provided slightly over half of Britain's electricity, and we are reading daily reports of how wholesale prices for gas have surged by 250 per cent since January. Of course, there are global causes underlying that, such as the European gas stocks being low in declining supplies from Russia. If we reduce production faster than demand, we will be at the mercy of events globally and will offshore our responsibilities from not having got time and expose ourselves to significantly less environmentally sound sources. Those are the principles that underline my amendment, which I move in my name. We are quite tight for time as a result of the statement that is slightly overrunning, but I now call Monica Lennon to speak to a move amendment 1, 2, 9, 3.3, around six minutes. I am pleased to be opening the debate on behalf of Scottish Labour. In his motion, the cabinet secretary asked Parliament to agree that the Scottish Government must do everything in its power to tackle the escalating climate and nature emergencies and deliver a just transition for all. On those benches, we wholeheartedly share those ambitions. When the Scottish Government declared a climate emergency back in 2019, the then climate change secretary stated that the evidence is irrefutable, the science is clear and people have been clear. The people do indeed expect action. That is why, in the chamber last week, I argued that climate inaction is a single biggest threat to our planet. While we support the intent behind the Government motion, we want to see bolder and faster action. An area in which I believe that consensus exists is on the ambition for a public energy company. The Scottish Government previously committed to that. There is a democratic mandate and, over the summer, a range of colleagues, including myself and Lorna Slater, were pressing the Government for an answer on a date for that project. That is an area in which I hope that we can have constructive discussion today. It is disappointing that it appears to have been taken off the table by ministers. Today, Scottish Labour wants to bring it back to life. We are asking Parliament to agree that the Scottish Government acts with urgency to introduce plans for a publicly owned, not-for-profit energy company. We believe that that could be a game changer with multiple benefits that could accelerate Scotland's journey towards net zero while addressing the affordability of household bills. We can all see that the market-led model of energy transition is failing. It is failing customers, workers and businesses here in Scotland. To help build a net zero nation, we must recognise that the state has a huge role to play. A Scottish national energy company that is not-for-profit and asset owning could remove profiteering from the picture and deliver affordable energy to customers. It could facilitate a quicker transition to renewable energy. It could pioneer new ways of delivering heating to households through methods such as district heating and ground source heat pumps. Importantly, it could also help to create those high-skill green jobs that we badly need. The Just Transition Commission told us that a publicly owned energy company should be established at pace with a broad remit. Colleagues, this could be revolutionary for Scotland and there is precedent for this elsewhere. We can look to Denmark and Austria, a company that went from producing 15 per cent of its energy from renewables in 2009 to producing 85 per cent of its energy from renewables 10 years later. Although the Parliament was swithering about declaring a climate emergency, Austria is, with way ahead, running with its big ideas, doing better. We can catch up, certainly. I thank the member for giving way. She mentions Denmark. Will she accept that there are public energy companies in Denmark at a municipal level, many companies that are owned by the people that are supplying heat to local communities? That may well be a model for Scotland, not just one energy company but multiple. I'm glad that Mark Ruskell pointed that out. I was going to talk about local energy co-operatives later on and what we can do at a local level. Today, it's not about saying prescriptively, this is what a public energy company should be, but what we're trying to do is at least have the debate and ask the Scottish Government to bring those proposals back on the table, because I think we've all got good ideas to contribute. We need to catch up the potential benefits of such a company. We are cited in common wheels report powering our ambitions, tackling fuel poverty and social inequality, assisting with achieving national emission reduction targets, development and deployment of new renewable and low-carbon energy supplies, supporting local energy co-operatives and many more benefits. Is it ambitious? Yes. Is it achievable? Absolutely. Commenting this week on the escalating gas crisis, I was struck by remarks from Dr Craig Diel, head of policy at common wheel. He said, quote, someone has to re-nationalise energy. If Scotland doesn't, one of Boris's more sensible successors will. It's a use it or lose it situation for the Scottish Government. Use the powers that they have to create a national energy company, focusing first on heat where powers are fully devolved or those powers will be used elsewhere. We believe that plans for an asset owning, not-for-profit public energy company, should be brought forward without delay. Remember, colleagues, over a third of social housing tenants live in fuel poverty. Scotland is an energy rich nation, but it is to our shame that so many households must choose between heating their homes and eating them. The wholesale gas crisis is hugely worrying. We know that bills are rising. Too many children are hungry. Too many homes will be freezing this winter. It is absolutely the wrong thing to do for the UK Government to cut universal credit. I was going to talk about a local visit, but I took the intervention from Mark Ruskell. Briefly, if I can point to the great work that North Asia Council are doing under the leadership of Labour's Joe Cullinane, their impressive plans for a second solar wind farm are really exciting and ambitious. There are lots of good local examples when resources are available to local councils. The vote tonight should not be the last opportunity to debate and discuss what a publicly owned, not-for-profit asset owning national energy company should and could do. I ask colleagues to support the Labour amendment tonight, because we need to choose climate action that is transformative, and on that basis I move the amendment in my name. There is no better source of greenhouse gas emissions more than a third. Heathrow is already the single biggest producer of emissions in the UK. A third runway would go directly against our green ambitions. Scotland flights from Heathrow alone would release 600,000 tonnes of emissions into the environment. That coalition Government has a contract to support the building of that third runway. When the First Minister stood in this Parliament and declared a climate emergency, we were told that difficult decisions would have to be made, that everything would have to be under review, everything seems to accept that contract. However, with the Greens in government, I now expect that to change, and it needs to change before COP26. Achieving sustainability will require the acceleration of other work, including the opening of new railway lines and stations, establishing a network of well maintained rapid chargers for electric vehicles and additional support to rapidly increase active travel. All new public sector vehicles should be electric. There should be longer government-backed interest-free loans to enable people to buy electric vehicles. We also support a scheme to enable everyone to try an electric car for a weekend funded by the Government. There is deep frustration in the agricultural sector about the dithering that has gone on for some years now about the introduction to the new farm support scheme. By 2032, there has to be a 31 per cent cut in agricultural climate emissions. That is only 11 years away. The coalition Government has set up new working groups and consultations and debates on farm support, but that has been happening for years with little progress. There are tensions between forestry and productive land, between biodiversity and energy crops and between domestic production and off-shoring. Decisions on all those are difficult, but delaying them will not make it any easier. The longer the Government delays, the harder it will be for farmers to deliver that 31 per cent by 2032. With energy prices ready to blow household budgets or energy companies apart, we face a crisis. The conditions for the price rise are understandable with the economy surging after the lockdown and gas production spluttering to catch up, but the consequences of that cannot be tolerated. It shows why we must accelerate our sustainable energy generation so that we can have the security of supply that we desperately need. All Governments have been far too sluggish on the transition to renewables. Our plan for this transition to demand less from fossil fuels means exploiting every technology from decarbonising home heating. I want a million heat pumps in Scotland to hydrogen and electric for transport to wind and to wave. The Scottish Government talk big but often fail to deliver. Take the state-owned energy company. For years I have been asking questions about the last failure, our power. It wasted £10 million of Government funds and it appears to have learned very little since. I suspect that the Government now had wished that it agreed to my request for an inquiry. From Heathrow to transport to agriculture, this Government talks a good game but often fails to deliver. I now move to the open debate and I call Fiona Hyslop to be followed by Graeme Simpson up to four minutes please, Ms Hyslop. This is a very general debate but during this parliamentary session we must focus in depth in each and every element of the climate change and biodiversity crisis. Clearly the three key major priorities are heat and housing, decarbonisation of transport and biodiversity. In this short speech I want to briefly touch on skills, innovation, nature and transition. We have already heard about the need for ambition and leadership but we also need precision of policy and pace of delivery and I have some initial suggestions to make. On skills I recommend three specific steps. I visited Westlothian College on Monday who are ready, willing and able to gear up at scale training for new building standards and retrofitting skills in areas of a growing population. We need the Government to ensure that the Scottish Funding Council can be equally agile in funding colleges to scale up quickly. It is not just industry, the Government and its agencies will have to have the volume and skill base needed for mass marine renewable licenses and consensus at scale. Thirdly, I am yet to be convinced that there is sufficient co-ordination in delivering a skills passport so energy workers in carbon do not end up having to pay and repeat payment to have dual fuel training. A renewable skills guarantee for carbon workers is welcome but if it is just a safety net and not a comprehensive co-ordinated and immediate exercise it won't be enough. I have a short period of time to make my remarks. On innovation, we need to create the space, the demand and where we need the support to incentivise domestically based and preferably owned renewable manufacturing companies. I recently visited Invinity energy systems in Bathgate, in my constituency, which is the only UK producer of long-life binadium storage batteries for renewables that is supplying the EMET project in ED in Orkney and providing storage capacity for a mass solar farm in Australia and is an alternative to lithium batteries, which as many know have issues. That company is not Scottish owned but it is expanding and using highly skilled Scottish engineering talent. If we want innovation, we can't preclude by size and the cabinet secretary should review and increase the size by which small innovative companies can secure marine licenses so they can grow rather than just play safe and require large monopolies of capital to underwrite control and benefit from the economic opportunities of renewables. I welcome the £500 million investment in our natural economy with £150 million for woodland creation and £250 million for peatland restoration. Of course, more action is needed at all levels to halt the loss of biodiversity and the current ecological situation cannot and must not be left in the shadows of the net zero drive. That is why I welcome the proposals for the natural environment bill, which will contain statutory targets aimed at preventing any further extinctions of wildlife and halting declines by 2030, driving progress in restoring Scotland's natural environment by 2045. Finally, on transition, oil was discovered first in my West Lothian constituency. It was shale oil and you can still see the red shale bings as you come into Edinburgh. We then transition to coal, then car making with British Leyland, then semiconductors and when they all closed the UK Government cited HMRC in Bathgate before they were removed over 1,000 jobs to Edinburgh recently. We know from harsh experience that transition must be proactively managed if communities and people are not to be damaged. That is why, above all, we must make sure that this shift to renewables is a just transition. Yes, with ambition and leadership, but also with precision of policy and pace of delivery, Scotland can do just that so that we can have a bathgate once more. I now call Graham Simpson to be followed by Eleanor Whitham up to four minutes, please, Mr Simpson. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I think that we can all agree in this debate on one thing, and that is that we need to cut carbon emissions and that whatever target we set to reach net zero, we have to achieve it. I want to focus my remarks today on transport, which is the biggest contributor to carbon emissions. Let me start with active travel, something I'm very keen on. There's no reason why people can't walk or cycle instead of taking the car for many short journeys, but still too many people do, except that when it comes to cycling, many people don't feel safe, so we need to invest more in segregated routes and maintain them. We also need to teach children and adults how to ride safely. The Scottish Government's recent conversion to our own manifesto target of spending 10 per cent of the transport budget on active travel infrastructure is welcome, but they must deliver. Now, motor travel. We need a green recovery from the pandemic, but it can't be car-led. That does not mean that we ignore cars or vans or lorries. So yes, investment in roads is needed because congestion is bad. So projects like the dualling of the entire A96 must go ahead. But ultimately, we'll have to move to zero or lower emission vehicles, be that electric or hydrogen. The infrastructure isn't there yet and it often doesn't work. Someone told me at the weekend that a fast charger near to where I live only works if you stick twigs in it. That's not good enough. On public transport, I'm convinced that people will use it if it gets them where they want to go, it's integrated and has simple low fares. Decarbonising the bus fleet is vital, but the idea that we can replace half the Scottish bus fleet by 2023 is for the birds. Talking to Scottish bus operators this week, it's clear to me that they're on board, but having already met strict Euro 6 targets, they will struggle to do it all again. Aside from the cost, the speed at which utilities move was described to me as cripplingly slow. Also, bus manufacturers will struggle to keep up with demand. Next, trains. We need a mix of technologies in Scotland from electrification of some lines, like to my own hometown of East Kilbride, to using battery trains, hybrid trains and hydrogen, but we may need to keep diesel for a while as we get that right. We also need to work with the UK Government to shift more freight on to trains. We should also, where feasible, open up old lines. I'm not convinced that nationalisation will achieve any of this, and the Scottish Government should say why they believe it will. They haven't so far, but more of that tomorrow. Whenever we can get new ferries, we can only hope, then clearly they should be more fuel efficient, and if we have an aviation sector left after the pandemic, it can be a real catalyst for change. Last week, the SNP Government published a 54-page document on how it will engage with the public on climate change. It was the usual waffle with a nice photo of a father and daughter at an Iron Age fort, a somewhat fluffy introduction from Michael Matheson and the claim throughout that we have in Scotland something described as an open government. I'm not on the wiser either. If we really want to get to net zero, then we need less government speak like that and more government action. Mr Simpson, I now call Elena Whitham to be followed by Katie Clark up to four minutes, please, Ms Whitham. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I've been a climate activist since my teens, and long before it was widely seen as desirable, my husband and I ran an eco shop in Ayrshire called Green People that supplied the area with locally produced organic foods, clothing, reusable menstrual products and refillable staples. I knew back then that supporting our producers to work in sustainable ways is key to dealing with our climate emergency, and the recent Code Red report from the UN and her governmental panel on climate change further underlines this emergency that we are facing. My mum grew up on an Ayrshire dairy farm and today I'm going to use my short time to speak about the huge amount of work that is happening in the dairy sector to address climate change that often goes unnoticed. It is vital that we ensure that our farmers and producers are afforded a just transition that is seen as everybody is important as our move away from oil and gas. Sustainable farming must be at the heart of our rural communities as we seek to deliver the ambitions set out in our plan for government for a fairer, greener Scotland. My constituency of Carrot Cymru Cundun valley has amongst the highest concentration of dairy herds in Scotland, and dairy farmers across the area are coming together to drive forward sustainable farming goals. Prominent milk co-operative first milk is currently facilitating workshops across Ayrshire and Scotland to deliver on its first for milk regenerative farming pledge that over 93 per cent of its members have signed up for. Through extensive research and data analysis, first milk believes that regenerative agriculture presents the best opportunity to meet our collective climate biodiversity obligations in a way that complements how most of their members already farm. Put simply, regenerative agriculture is where food production is also improving the environment. Regenerative farmers typically disturb the soil as little as possible. They never leave it bare. They encourage plant diversity, whilst always maintaining a living root and incorporate livestock into soil cultivation. Prior to the introduction of the pledge, most first milk members already farmed at least some of their land in a way that could be called regenerative. I'll be holding farm workshops. They are capturing the good work already being done, as well as encouraging the adoption of regenerative principles more widely. We all realise now that peatlands offer a huge amount of carbon storage, but what many have failed to realise is that by stripping out some of the modern-day intensive farming methods such as overtilling the soil, we can create conditions that allow a rich biodiverse universe under our fields, which actively draws down a huge amount of carbon. While still allowing crops to flourish up top, healthy soil equals carbon reduction, and we must ensure that carbon calculators such as AgriCalc and Cooled Farm Tool capture that. In a bygone era, we saw bison, caribou and wildebeest graze lands across the globe helping to create rich fertile soils, which unfortunately we have seen depleted and turned into dust bowls all too easily by modern farming methods. By reintroducing a more natural grazing method planting multispecies grazing crops that promote root growth, thus keeping underground organisms thriving, whilst offering the grazing animals a more nutritionally dense feed, and ensuring that grazing paddocks are rotated regularly, and always ensuring that a crop cover farmers will reduce their costs, increase their yield, improve animal and soil health whilst driving down their carbon emissions. The recent establishment of the Agriculture Reform Implementation Oversight Board, easy to say, will continue to have farmers leading our move towards sustainable farming and will drive forward the recommendations of the farmer-led groups from the last Parliament. The group will place farmers and crofters at the heart of future support framework and help Scottish agriculture become more economically and environmentally sustainable. By farming regeneratively, our farmers are part of the climate change solution, while ensuring that they create resilient, sustainable farms that are future-proof for generations to come and continue to feed our nation with our amazing Scottish ladder. I welcome this timely debate about how we move towards a net zero society and the support for a just transition. The minister said that it was a matter of consensus, and indeed many parts of society are already working on how they decarbonise. The concept of a just transition came from the trade union movement, but we all have to accept that there has probably never been a just transition. When there has been economic changes in the past, there has been no just transition and it has been working people and those communities who have suffered. The challenge of delivering a just transition is therefore not an easy one. Employment in Scotland's low-carbon and renewable energy sector actually fell from 23,000 in 2012 to 21,400 in 2019, and that was before Covid. The Scottish Government has promised to deliver 130,000 green jobs by the end of this year, but only so far has it delivered 21,000. A Friends of the Earth report last week showed that North Sea production has increased by 15 per cent since the climate emergency was declared. I do not say these things to make political points but to highlight the scale of the challenge. At the 2019 general election, the Labour manifesto committed to guarantee a job on equivalent terms and conditions to workers in the oil and gas sector who lost their jobs as a result of the move away from the sector. I have called on the use of furlough for oil and gas workers until equivalent alternative employment can be created. I believe that it is this level of ambition that we need to show to ensure that there is decisive action to address the climate challenge. I will take a quick intervention. The committee told the committee the other week that there are significantly fewer jobs in non-oil and gas-related jobs. How does she square that circle? An STUC report has estimated that there could be 350,000 jobs in green policies. We do not have a choice. I suspect that, over the coming weeks, there will be a great deal of debate about the climate emergency. The challenge that this Parliament has is how we deliver on a net zero economy, how we make sure that we create those jobs so that the issue that the member is raising is addressed. I believe that there are a number of ways that we can do that and we need to be more ambitious. One of the ways that I think that we need to be going forward is looking at how we retrofit homes in the way that the Government is speaking about, delivered by councils on a universal basis, that not just addresses the challenge of the climate emergency but also the rising cost of fuel and the cost of living crisis that so many people have got to live with. As has already been said in this debate by Monica Lennon, a publicly owned energy company should be central to our energy strategy. It is job creation and decentralisation that goes hand in hand. I would say to the member opposite that he has quoted one particular bit of evidence, but there is a great deal of evidence that green policies create huge numbers of jobs. As we approach COP26, Scotland needs to lead the way. I believe that this Parliament needs to put a very clear message out. I hope on a cross-party basis that we need to be more ambitious, more decisive and faster action. I call on the Scottish Government to heed those calls. I believe that there will be many people in the streets in the coming weeks making that challenge, and we need to live up to what is required for the sake of humanity. I thank the Scottish Government for bringing us forward this important debate. I want to focus on the role of communities and our ambitions to be a net zero nation. A climate, as it is like in Scotland, requires urgent transformational action and must be done in a fair and just way that leaves no one and no community behind. That is a line in the Government motion today. I had a meeting yesterday with the constituent Philip Breville. He is a convener of the Scottish Communities Climate Action Network. He also along with Rosey Harrison leads Elcan in my constituency, and that is the easelden climate action network. Philip was part of the transition town network, which recognised 15 years ago that urgent need to change our way of life. He started to stay in Numbar at that time with others, and I was a trustee at the time. Philip and I have been discussing what a local well-being economy would look like, and he has sent through the following thoughts that I have agreed with. We need a rapid transformation to a well-being economy. Individual well-being is intimately connected to being part of a stronger, empowered community. Covid demonstrated how small-scale community initiatives can spring up rapidly and have the agility, local knowledge and connections to quickly innovate solutions to meet local needs. In the same way, the new well-being economy can be built from bottom up. At a small scale, new ideas and approaches can be quickly prototyped and refined. Through networking, such approaches can be picked up, adapted and replicated to mean about rapid transformation. Will the member take an intervention? That is short of the time. It is only four minutes. Mr Carson, I apologise. I do not need to get through this to get through my four minutes. We have a good understanding of what basic infrastructure each community needs for local well-being economies to emerge. We need to remove barriers to local action and ensure that our communities have access to the resources that they need. Our transition should be based on five key principles. Dignity. Everyone has the right to live in comfort, safety and happiness. Transition has to be included in that. Nature. We need to make sure that that part of it is well restored and safe and natural for all life. Connection. A sense of belonging and institutions that serve the common good. In fairness, justice and all its dimensions at the heart of economic systems. The gap between the richest and poorest is greatly reduced. Really important, participation. On that point, we will take a short intervention. Sorry, Mr Carson. I need to get through this. We have four minutes and I am conscious of the time. In participation, citizens are actively engaged in their communities and locally rooted economies. Real localisation of our economy provides huge opportunities to achieve multiple goals and to provide numerous, meaningful and create livelihoods. Back in 2014, SCAN members distilled the vision of what a real localised future would look like today. What do our communities need to act? Community organisations. The time of experience and skill development staff to engage and link across communities. We have heard about local energy economies. Trusty and knowledgeable energy advisers to provide detailed tailored advice on retrofitting homes. Local food economies. Access to land, workspace for local food processing and distribution. Local enterprise. Accessible and locally appropriate support focused on planning and development of social and community enterprise and community wealth building. Support networks. We need to support our local communities in changing and moving towards transition. Strong links to properly resourced regional and national networks for mutual support and inspirational. Presiding Officer, we have many fantastic people like Philip in our communities working alongside local and national government. Our local communities are key in living and net zero Scotland. Let's support them as best we can in our journey. Thank you. I now call Maurice Golden to be followed by Jackie Dynbar up to four minutes, please, Mr Golden. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. The Reannounced Circular Economy Bill is an opportunity to make serious progress towards net zero. Even if the bill itself is some time away, we must urgently explore the issues it should tackle, such as the growing problem of plastic pollution, which risks exacerbating climate change, weakening ecosystems and damaging economies. Just 2 per cent of the plastic waste collected in Scotland is recycled here. Let's build a new plastic recycling facility to use our waste as a resource while providing green jobs. We can do the same for textiles. Scotland has no significant textile recycling facility, so again let's build it. We should also use more native fibres in our textiles industry. With the right help, our farmers can grow the relevant crops such as nettles and create a vibrant closed loop industry with a smaller environmental footprint. The new textiles innovation fund is a welcome start, hopefully making up lost ground after the SNP's abandonment of Zero Waste Scotland's textile programme to love your clothes campaign. However, in our push for net zero, we must be alert to unintended consequences. The SNP has abruptly ended support for oil and LPG heating systems instead of phasing out support in good order, meaning that those in fuel poverty are likely to suffer, especially those in rural communities where those heating systems are the only realistic option in the short term. The SNP is set to Mr fuel poverty target, having Mr previous one, so I would urge ministers to look again at this. Net zero must not come at the price of pushing people into fuel poverty. I would also urge ministers to consider raising the cap on floating offshore wind innovation projects with the Marine Scotland Intog Plan. From 100 megawatts to 300 megawatts, to ensure that Scottish projects are competitive with those in England and Wales and are not disadvantaged in future contracts for different options. I hope that this point will be dealt with in the minister's closing. Deputy Presiding Officer, this green SNP coalition must work with others and admit it when their plan isn't working. For example, over two thirds of their climate change policies are off track. Emissions targets failed three years running. Failure to meet 11 international biodiversity targets, a recycling rate worse now than five years ago. Instead of a landfill ban, this SNP green coalition is just burning rubbish. Incineration capacity for household waste is skyrocketing towards 2.1 million tonnes a year. Perversely, if recycling increases, there might not actually be enough domestic waste left to burn. This SNP green coalition could end up having to import rubbish to keep the incinerators running, turning Scotland into the waste dump of Europe. If they try to shut incinerators, taxpayers could end up footing the bill. Lornus later has already admitted in a written response that incinerator operators aren't required to fund full decommissioning costs. Deputy Presiding Officer, this coalition is proving worse than woeful on the environment. How are the public supposed to believe that there will be a just transition or that we will even reach net zero at all? I call Jackie Dunbar to be followed by Mark Ruskell. Taking action on climate change is the biggest challenge not only we as a Parliament face but also our children and communities for years to come. We must act now to help to minimise Scotland's contribution to climate change. We must restore as much nature and green space as we can and enhance our climate resilience in a just and fair way. As Glasgow hosts COP26, the spotlight will be on Scotland and we should take this opportunity to highlight the steps that we are taking to achieve net zero. The programme for government outlines our plans for achieving net zero and we must ensure that we take bolder steps to get there. We simply cannot wait any longer. We must act now as there is so much at stake. As a Parliament, we should all be working within our constituencies to bring people along with us on our journey to net zero. Whether that is through the decarbonisation of transport links, as is currently happening by both first bus and stagecoach within my constituency of Aberdeen Donside, to reducing heat loss from properties with the Scottish Government's warmer homes Scotland initiative, or free bus travel for the under 22s. We are also establishing a fair fairs review, a bit of a tongue twister, of the discounts and concessionary schemes which are available on all transport modes, and consider options against a background where the costs of car travel are declining and public transport costs are increasing. Public transport should be affordable and accessible for all and investments in our communities is key to help us to achieve our goals. We also need to be taking steps to reduce our carbon footprint. Encouraging the use of active travel is of great benefit and the Scottish Government are investing 10 per cent of their transport budget in this. In our first 100 days, we have already established 12-month pilot projects to deliver free bikes to school-aged children who cannot afford them. Those pilots will inform how the Scottish Government can roll out the scheme nationally. The Scottish Government has committed to maintaining the cycle repair scheme, ensuring that bikes remain in a road-worthy condition and helping to renovate old bikes to get folk back out on the roads. I probably will not be one of them. I am not very good at riding a bike. This is a very welcome announcement as we seek to establish an active freeway network in Scotland. Utilising existing local networks and linking major destinations with high-quality safe routes. I am short on time. I have only got the four minutes today. Renewables will pay a key role in our move to net zero, and I welcome the Scottish Government's continued commitment to a green recovery, committing over £9 billion over the parliamentary term to environmental sustainability and the transition to net zero. By summer 2022, the Scottish Government will also establish a new global renewable centre, working with our international development partner countries to exchange knowledge and research in renewable technologies. There is also an ambition to increase the gigawatt output from our offshore wind turbines, enough to power over 8 million homes. I just love seeing them from the beaches of Aberdeen. The first cycle of Scotland leasing is under way with new projects online later this decade. On our move to net zero, we simply cannot leave anyone behind, whether that be our communities themselves or the industries that we work in. Our journey to net zero must be a just one, taking communities with us and engaging with them. I want to focus on my brief comments this afternoon on the global emergency that gets least attention, and that is the nature emergency. It is a real super-tanker of a crisis that first has to be slowed down and then turned around, while all the while climate change is accelerating many of the catastrophic biodiversity declines that we see globally. The full restoration of nature cannot happen overnight. It will require changes that unravel centuries of exploitation and degradation. Traditions will need to be challenged and transitions will need to be just. A clear vision backed up by legally binding targets, resources and new partnerships committed to delivering change on the ground is needed. For years, meaningful action on the nature emergency has been in the too difficult to do box for many governments. Vested interests have resisted change, reforms have been slow or non-existent, agencies have often been too cautious and the status quo has won out time and time again. Change is long overdue, but the agreement with the Green MSPs and the Scottish Government marks a fresh starting point for the regeneration and recovery of nature. Setting those legally binding nature targets will be critical to drive the change further and faster, and they must reach across every area of government policy from agriculture to fisheries, planning and beyond. Ahead of the environment bill that is coming to Parliament, it is critical that the boots on the ground start delivering today. There should be no delay in the action that is needed. The nature restoration fund, secured by the Greens earlier this year in the budget, is already making a big difference and will be dramatically expanded with multi-year funding. The demand is there for projects at a landscape scale that can truly deliver. I visited in the summer RSPB's Inch Marshes on the spay and I was blown away by the diversity of barbed life there, but I was also struck by how reserves like Inch Marshes can be strengthened if they are part of much larger networks of linked habitats across catchments and regions. Regional agist partnerships have a key role here. They need to be rolled out further. Yes, they need to be guided by local decision making, but they also need crystal clear objectives to deliver on national targets for climate and nature. Growing these nature networks will be critical from pollinator superhighways to farm woodland corridors, joining up fragmented habitats and embedding them in the national planning framework. The commitment in the agreement to deliver 10 per cent of the seas as highly protected marine areas, removing all damaging activities, will be very significant, but there remains a wider problem with the inshore that needs to be tackled. Capping activities that damage the seabed within three nautical miles is a step in the right direction, but if the evidence shows that this is not effective, then exclusion of dredging and trawling must be an option going forward. Marine protected areas must also be meaningful. They will not deliver as mere lines on the map unless they come with strong plans for management and enforcement. Aquaculture, too, needs major reform to address the multitude of environmental and animal welfare problems associated with it. The Griggs review that is coming to Parliament soon must deliver reforms that address the concerns that many coastal communities have with the current regulatory and planning framework. There will be a need to apply just transition principles. Conversations, for example, with the scallop dredging sector, need to start now about their future, and farms in the uplands must be supported to deliver changes in what time. The member is shortly going to conclude. The farms in the uplands must be supported to deliver the changes in land use needed to tackle both the climate and nature emergencies, while also keeping people on the land. The Green Scottish Government agreement provides the right vision and the right concrete actions to restore the environment. I look forward to this Government hitting the ground running. I now call on Paul Sweeney, to be followed by Collette Stevenson, who will be the last speaker in the open debate, up to four minutes. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Climate change is the biggest threat that we as a society face. As we all know, the COP26 climate conference will be coming to Glasgow in just six weeks time. We will hopefully act as the catalyst for a new climate agreement, bolder and more ambitious carbon reduction targets, and the ratification of our transition to a future where renewables are at the heart of our energy supply mix. That being said, while we should be heralding a new dawn of renewable technologies with the benefits that they bring, I fear that we have missed the greatest opportunity presented to us in generations. The skills and the industrial base required to capitalise on our natural assets. For years we have watched wind farms appear on the horizon while jobs disappear into the sunset. We see examples of that across the board, with offshore behemoths like the NNG wind farm off the coast of Fife being largely manufactured in Indonesia, while the Harlems and Wolfyard at Methil, just 10 miles away, receives a subcontract for just 15 per cent of the steel jacket foundations needed. The 54 highly complex Siemens-Gamesa turbines themselves will be entirely manufactured abroad. It is a failure of public planning and a tacit acceptance that market forces will continue to dictate our renewables future. It is a mentality that is hardwired into the civil service and all levels of government. That is why there is no industrial strategy that is fit for purpose. There is no plan to combine decarbonisation with opportunity, energy security with financial certainty and untapped potential with economic prosperity. It is tragic to watch skilled workers broken in the face of it. I witnessed it at the Cali Railway Works in Springburn just two years ago, and now Scotland, once the world's largest manufacturer of locomotives, has no domestic capability to build and maintain its own trains. Until we reach a point where we can genuinely say to everyone in this country that they will benefit from our transition to a green economy, we will fail to take them with us. It is why we need that state-owned energy company that the Government promised before scrapping it, and it is why we need to stop offshoring industrial manufacturing and technology contracts for renewables projects in Scotland. That should have been done years ago, but in action, a lack of imagination and an absence of ambition has led us to where we are today. It is that lack of imagination that sees transport Scotland and the Scottish Government in a position where they are about to blindly spend hundreds of millions of pounds reconstructing concrete M8 viaducts that have scarred central Glasgow for 50 years at the expense of new active travel routes in the city. Just think of the message that sends to the world in the year of COP26. The largest infrastructure spend in the city in decades will be the propping up and repairing of a defunct motorway. Why not spend that money on greener alternatives, especially when no new railway lines have been constructed in Glasgow during the last 15 years of this Government? We are now at the absurd point where ScotRail is cutting 300 services a day from its timetable and the Cabinet Secretary is standing scratching his head wondering why more people are using their cars. We need a Government with an ambition that matches the scale of the challenges that we face, a Government that is willing to face down global market forces and say enough, a Government that commits to an industrial strategy that puts workers and communities at its heart, and a Government that provides everyone with the opportunity to benefit from our transition to renewables. The question is, is this Government up to that challenge? Last week, I spoke in the debate on making Scotland a fairer and more equal country. Today's debate ties in with that because it is so important that our transition to net zero leaves no one behind. Climate change provides an opportunity to drive social justice. Good quality zero carbon housing is essential in that endeavour. In addition to funding the building of thousands of new homes, the Scottish Government is stepping up investment in heat decarbonisation and home energy efficiency measures. Those investments should lead to large reductions in fuel poverty in the future. However, we still need to tackle it right now. The Scottish Government's commitment of around £0.5 billion being made available to support people in fuel poverty in the heat transition is therefore very welcome. Of course, transport is the largest source of greenhouse gases in Scotland. To achieve a reduction in car use, we need to ensure that there is good and affordable public transport. The programme for government mentions the continued investment in decarbonising Scotland railway, including the electrification of East Kilbride line. That major investment will lead to a better service for passengers with longer, greener, quieter trains and help reduce overall transport emissions. The transition to a low-carbon economy will have challenges, but there is also an opportunity for Scotland to lead the way. Although I am biased, I believe that East Kilbride can play an important part in that. Coca-Cola, Euro-Pacific partners, begins production of 100 per cent recycled plastic bottles this month, saving thousands of tonnes of new non-recycled plastic across the country. Excel vending produces reverse vending machines, which will be an extremely useful tool when a deposit return scheme is introduced. TUV, SUD, has experience in the oil and gas sector, but they are now developing new technologies to help build a net zero nation, including working relating to a new domestic gas meter for hydrogen. Those three companies in East Kilbride are not only working to help to reduce waste and cut emissions, but they all pay the real living wage as a minimum. There is a great potential for new green jobs, which deliver fair wages. The Scottish Government's commitment to a green jobs workforce academy will, I hope, encourage more people to train or retrain and reap the benefits of a just transition. I want to briefly mention another initiative as we work to transform Scotland's 20-minute neighbourhoods. I believe that East Kilbride can offer a good example of what we should aspire to. Given that most housing areas have a local square with shops and services to meet residents' daily needs, for example, Greenhill Square has a church, a library, a post office, shops and restaurants, a GP surgery, dentists and pharmacy. There is a regular bus service to the square and across the roads and there are two primary schools and a nursery, so it is not just about roundabouts in East Kilbride, there are also squares as well. In conclusion, local shops and services, good public transport and energy-efficient homes will be invaluable as Scotland becomes a net zero nation. We are delivering lasting action to secure that future and, importantly, we will do it in a fair and just way that leaves no one behind. I now call on Mercedes Villalba to wind up for Labour up to six minutes, please, Ms Villalba. This motion seeks to paint a picture of a Scotland that has not endured 14 years of inaction and broken promises at the hands of this Government. In June, we saw the consequences of this continuing inaction from the Scottish Government. They failed to meet their own target on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and they have allowed emissions from domestic transport to reach worryingly high levels. At this rate, Scotland will struggle to meet its 2045 net zero target without significant intervention. The Scottish Government are also failing to meet their targets on renewable energy. Latest figures show that just 24 per cent of current energy consumption is coming from renewables. With energy bills set to rise for households across Scotland, the Scottish Government's failure to deliver a publicly-owned, not-for-profit energy company is unforgivable. However, it is not too late for the Scottish Government to reconsider. A publicly-owned energy company, which produces as well as supplies local energy, could reduce costs for consumers and direct investment into much-needed green technologies. The motion also rightly recognises the need to deliver a just transition. This is particularly important to the workers and communities that I represent in the north-east. Two weeks ago, I challenged the First Minister at FMQs to consider the introduction of an offshore training passport. Last week, I received a response from the Just Transition Minister, which avoided giving any firm commitment to introducing one. Warm words are not enough. We need practical solutions. One practical solution would be to expand the role of the Energy Skills Alliance, the ESA. The ESA is currently developing an all-energy apprenticeship, which is good for new entrants but does not help the current workforce. This work by the ESA suggests that standardised training for the energy sector is possible. Will the Scottish Government consider tasking the ESA with developing an offshore training passport as part of a wider all-energy training programme for the existing workforce? I am grateful to the member for a given way. I recognise the important points that she is making about the skills transition and the potential role that a skills passport can play in that. I will take away the very points that she has made about the ESA and the potential role that it can play in helping to inform the process and ensure that she gets a detailed response from the Minister responsible for the Just Transition. On transport, the Scottish Government's motion emphasises the needs to reduce car dependency, but their current actions undermine that aim because Scotland's railways are set to face cuts to services below even pre-pandemic levels. Scotland's bus network is still run for private profit, not the needs of passengers, and entire communities are being left facing cuts to routes and without reliable services. On top of that, they are set to spend millions on the M8 motorway just weeks before Glasgow is due to host COP26. The Scottish Government must do everything in its power to tackle the climate and biodiversity emergency. The truth is that they are not. They are missing their energy and renewable targets and are dragging their feet on delivering sustainable transport. Labour is offering constructive solutions, which is why our amendment calls for the creation of a publicly owned energy company. It is also why it outlined a practical solution to help to deliver a Just Transition for offshore oil and gas workers. If the Scottish Government is serious about delivering the urgent action that is needed, it will back the Labour amendment. I am delighted to be closing this debate on behalf of the Scottish Conservatives, as I said last week. The climate emergency is one that we just cannot ignore. When we are waiting today, we must remember that it is against the backdrop of an ever-increasing global population and that rising energy demand, the continued deforestation of a planet, the increasing pollution from burning of coals in countries such as India and China, as well as increasing pollution from discarded waste such as the mountains of plastics that we see in our seas and oceans. We should never forget that this is a global problem and that it requires collaboration on a global scale. The UK Government hosting COP26 in Glasgow is a huge opportunity for Scotland to showcase what can be done by leading by example. Let's start with what the Scottish Government is really good at. Will it lead the world in setting targets? There is absolutely a world-class in generating headlines from these ambitious targets. As Maurice Golden stated at the start of his speech, it is probably the most important statement that can be made. Inaction has become the greatest threat to our net zero efforts. Like Liam Kerr, Maurice cut straight to the chase, highlighting all areas where the SNP Government's talk is not matched by their actions or outcomes. At 2 per cent of our plastics are recycled in Scotland, yet the Scottish Government continues to allow an increase in consideration capacity that is not compatible with a net zero target. The Scottish Government wanted to end landfill by 2021, yet here we are in September 2021 with no sign of an end to landfill and no clear path to it. It is not compatible with a net zero target. Procuring and processing food locally is a great way to reduce the carbon footprint, yet in schools and hospitals we see the greatest percentage of our food procured from abroad, despite the fact that our farmers produce some of the highest quality food in the world. Not compatible with a net zero target. New green jobs. 28,000 Scottish Government told us by 2020, only 1,400 realised today. Renewable energy technology imported along with all the servicing contracts. Why did we not build our wind turbines in Scotland? Paul Sweeney made that point. Why are we not linking up our education sector with the future jobs market? It is ridiculous that we need to import those skills. If I could just finish my list of all your failings, I will let you in, Cabinet Secretary. BiFab and Ferguson Marine had ambitions to build turbines, then the Scottish Government set in and created an almighty mess. Speaking of Ferguson Marine, we must not forget the fiasco that the MV Glenn Sannas and Hulton 802, the great hope for the future of Scotland's ferry fleet, over budget, overdue and a staggering mess. That seems a yard only where the Scottish Government can't even make a short list for a Scottish Government tender. Not compatible with a net zero target. I will give way to the Cabinet Secretary. Just in relation to the member's point about the challenges for the renewable sector and particularly the onshore renewable sector, is the member aware in any shape or form that the biggest negative impact on securing onshore wind jobs in Scotland was caused by the UK Government withdrawing the substrate to the programme? That in itself quite literally cost thousands of jobs across the sector. I wonder if the Cabinet Secretary is aware of the number of wind turbines that are in Scotland, especially in my area. They were all built abroad who had the opportunity to build them in Scotland. As I said, the Scottish Government stepped in to the two companies that could have built wind turbines and completely destroyed them. You are on your right, it is a mess, and it is tempting to say that this SNP Government is all it's seen with these issues, but of course that would require them to successfully build a boat. Net zero requires a transition to clean energy at the fastest, practical and sustainable rate. It will require innovation and I would suggest that the solutions which will ultimately make the step changes we need are yet to be developed. So it is crucial that research and development and innovation is encouraged and supported by Governments. The organisations with the largest R&D budgets, the ones investing the most in renewable energy, happens to be the oil and gas centre. They have known that for some time that their business model had to change and they have been doing it. For example, Lighthouse BP will more than double its global solar expansion by 2025 in a deal worth $1.8 billion to develop enough solar farms to power the economy. That is the equivalent of 8.4 million homes, turbocharging its capacity to 25 gigawatts by 2025. Oil and gas companies are investing in hybrid engines for aviation in green and blue hydrogen, offshore wind, tidal energy and pumped storage. They are rapidly changing their model. We will require the oil and gas industry going forward, as I think we all agree, because the petrochemical industry is not just about fossil fuel. However, as we witnessed last week, there are those in Government and especially the Greens who want to shut business down. Graham Simpson, quite lightly highlighted the way in which transport is developed, will be significant in tackling climate change. Contrary to what the Greens have said, that road building is not a threat to climate change, it is not about building the roads, it is the problem, it is what we have put on it. In fact, upgrading the south-west infrastructure would have a significant benefit to the environment by taking all the heavy goods vehicles out of towns and villages, ensuring that journeys are much less stock-start and far more economical. What we should be doing is creating an electric hydrogen superhighway that connects the south-west, including the Port of Cairnryan, with the central belt to the north and the rest of the Great Britain to the south. The rail link from Ayrtys Trinwyr is woefully inadequate and is in desperate need of upgrading, but as Liam Kerr pointed out, there is not even a rail link north of Aberdeen to Peterhead in Fraserbury. Development of rural infrastructure is key to not leaving everybody behind. Developing that infrastructure as well as, essentially, options for active travel cycle routes should be part of that plan. The Greens should be the conscience of the Parliament, as they are across Europe. They are the ones who should be leading the critique of the Scottish Government's woeful record in their drive to net zero. Instead, they propose policies that will only have a passing acquaintance with reality and present a risk to a genuinely sustainable green economic recovery. Not content with that, for the small price of a couple of taxpayer-funded ministerial positions, they are content to prop up an SNP Government whose contribution to climate change is mostly hot air. There is so much positive change that the Scottish Government could do to make a significant inroad against the climate change emergency. However, when outcomes are all that matter and while the SNP Government continues to fall short, we will continue to call them out and put forward better alternatives. As JFK once said, leadership and learning are indispensable to each other. With their head-in-the-sand approach, the SNP has shown that they have neither the capability to learn nor to lead. If we are to achieve net zero, that will have to change. It is possible in the time available, although there were so many excellent contributions that I might miss a few of you. Today's debate has reaffirmed the need for transformative action to address the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss. The crises are intrinsically linked. Climate change is a key driver of biodiversity loss, while a thriving natural environment has a vital role in removing carbon from the atmosphere. Both crises stem from stretching the earth's systems beyond their sustainable limits. Some urgency that we attached to tackling the climate change is now also needed to address the biodiversity crisis. Global reports have shown that the health of the planet's ecosystems is deteriorating faster now than at any time in history. Scotland's state of nature reports highlights that 49 per cent of Scotland's species have decreased in abundance over the past 20 years and one in nine species is threatened with extinction. Urgent action is needed. Maurice Golden. I thank the minister for taking an intervention. She makes a valid point about biodiversity loss and the failure of the SNP Government to meet their own targets on that. Will the minister commit to reducing and removing support from the SNP if the SNP Green Coalition also fails to meet biodiversity targets? Biodiversity sits within my portfolio, so you are welcome to hold me accountable in this chamber for our delivery on that matter. Urgent action is needed to address the drivers of biodiversity loss. We need to change the way we use and manage land to stop the damage to nature caused by intensive agriculture, over-exploitation and pollution and reduce waste and excessive consumption. By taking action now, we can transform our country for the better. Protecting and enhancing our natural environment and our biodiversity is vital for our future economic prosperity and our community's wellbeing. So many of the jobs of the future rural economy depend on Scotland's nature being resilient and abundant. Scaling up peatland restoration, sustainable agriculture and tourism, planting more native woodlands, so-called nature-based solutions can make a significant contribution to meeting Scotland's emissions targets. Nature is our ally, an essential ally in helping Scotland cut our emissions and create a low-carbon economy. I'll give way to the member. I thank the minister for giving way. Firstly, I must state that the Scottish Conservatives consider wind power should form part of our future energy generation. That said, in recent months in Dumfries and Galloway, despite 13 wind farm applications being rejected by local communities, nine were then approved by the Scottish Government with only four objections upheld. Those applications received more than 1,900 objections. Mr Carson, could you come to your question, please? Given your comments on community wellbeing, can I ask the minister, are there enough wind farms in Galloway? Yes or no? Minister? Specific applications in a specific area. We do want wind energy to be part of the mix for a sustainable future, absolutely. Carrying on with my speech on biodiversity and the nature recovery, investing in solutions for our nature recovery will create sustainable employment and innovative business opportunities. There are potentially thousands of green jobs and skills opportunities to be developed and realised. These are particularly relevant for remote rural and island communities. It is essential that we are investing in our education and skills systems to ensure that we are well placed to take full advantage of the opportunities that are arising. That is why we are taking forward a route and branch review of land-based education to identify opportunities to promote the excellent career opportunities in our land-based sectors. This review will have a key focus on exploring how we can redress the inequalities seen in these sectors and will especially look at how we can encourage more women to take up those careers. I was very pleased to hear my Conservative colleagues Liam Kerr and Brian Whittle pushing so firmly for climate action and for traffic reduction. Although I want to clarify that we are not demanding that everyone drives electric cars, I am sure that the member will reflect that as traffic reductions of 20 per cent are a key target, merely changing to electric and hydrogen vehicles does nothing to reduce traffic, so investment in active travel, buses and railways are the way to deliver the target. Absolutely. Liam Kerr. Very briefly, the cabinet secretary mentioned STPR2 earlier. Has the remit and criteria of STPR2 changed since the Green Party entered coalition? Minister. No. I also want to thank Monica Lennon for the member's motion and for bringing this up in this debate and also Mercedes Villalba and Willie Rennie for their contributions to this element of the debate. The public sector has a key role in the transition to a net zero affordable and reliable energy system in Scotland and the new public energy agency will help to deliver this by coordinating delivery of investment and supporting national regional and local government delivery of heat decarbonisation and energy efficiency roll-out, working closely with public, private and third party sectors. The member and my Labour colleagues may also be interested that the co-operation agreement explicitly commits to support for alternative ownership models, including co-operatives and social enterprises. Monica Lennon. I'm grateful to the minister and congratulate Lorna Slater on her appointment. Before she became a minister in June, she urged the Scottish Government to get on with delivering a public energy company. The commitment on an agency is a downgrade, I think, it's fair to say. So has the minister's position changed and will she vote for the Labour amendment tonight? Minister. The Scottish Government recognises that there has been a significant change in the wider policy landscape and the energy market in recent months. The climate emergency has been announced, we've set new ambitious net zero targets and the energy market has been hit by multiple supplier failures, rising consumer debt, volatile energy prices, so a different approach is required. Both Monica Lennon and several members mentioned the gas crisis and I want to flag this up because several members mentioned it, which I agree is a consequence of slow action in reducing our society's dependence on fossil fuels, which have a long history of price uncertainty and shocks. We need in Scotland locally generated reliable sources of energy. It is unfortunate that Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May in 2015 ended market support for offshore renewables, such as tidal energy. Tidal energy is predictable, reliable and eternal. Thanks to that stop and support, Scotland is now six years behind where we could have been in building and installing tidal turbines in Scotland. The programme for government commits to investment in marine renewables with the intention of having reliable long-term supply of energy in Scotland. I want to thank both Fiona Hyslop and Mercedes Villalba for their comments on skills and under my portfolio in green skills I'm interested in looking into offshore passports there on my radar and the other elements of the skills programme that you mentioned. Graham Simpson, I was really pleased that the member was supportive of our ends, even if we possibly disagree on his means, although I very much welcome his call for segregated cycle lanes everywhere. My colleague Patrick Harvie will be delighted to hear that you're supporting that. Unfortunately, widening roads doesn't actually reduce traffic congestion, whether the vehicles have electric motors or diesel engines. However, I also think that he identified an excellent business opportunity for manufacturing in Scotland in building and scaling up of low-carbon buses, exactly the sort of economic opportunity that tackling the climate crisis brings. Eleanor Whitham, I thank you so much for bringing up regenerative farming. I've long seen farming as a big part of the solution to the climate and nature emergencies, so I've got a lot of people to get through. Katie Clark, I'm a member of Unite the Union and you're quite right to push the Scottish Government on green jobs and the needs of the workers. The 350,000 jobs identified in your speech chimed with other findings that there are enormous potential for jobs in energy, sustainable farming, forestry, installing these segregated cycle lanes that Graham Simpson has called for. Of course, upgrading Scotland's homes to make them warmer and greener. The challenges before us remain. There are real and lasting opportunities for Scotland to grasp in finding practical solutions to tackling the twin crisis of climate emergency and the nature emergency. That will require a whole Government and I would argue a whole Parliament approach and the reward for doing so will be a greener, fairer Scotland with the natural environment truly at the heart of Scotland's prosperity. That concludes the debate on a net zero nation. It's now time to move on to the next item of business, which is decision time. There are three questions to be put as a result of today's business. The first is that amendment 1293.1, in the name of Liam Kerr, which seeks to amend motion 1293, in the name of Michael Matheson, on a net zero nation, be agreed. Are we all agreed? The Parliament is not agreed, therefore we will move to a vote and there will be a short suspension to allow members to access the digital voting system.