 That concludes topical questions. The next item of business is a statement by Michael Matheson on update on Scotland's climate assembly. The cabinet secretary will take questions at the end of his statement, and so there should be no interventions or interruptions. I call on Michael Matheson up to 10 minutes, cabinet secretary. I am pleased to provide an update on Scotland's climate assembly, which held its eighth and final weekend in February. The assembly has been a truly historic process, bringing together people from across Scotland. Over 100 people gave their time and commitment over a 16-month period to consider the question of how Scotland should change to tackle the climate emergency in an effective and fair way. This process resulted in 81 recommendations, which have already played a pivotal role in shaping Scotland's journey to becoming a net zero nation. It was particularly encouraging to see so many areas where the Scottish Government and Assembly members were in absolute agreement, reflecting our shared ambitions. It is clear that the members have considered a broad evidence base to inform their recommendations. In December 2021, we published a detailed response to all the recommendations, drawing on a wide range of portfolios, ensuring that we have a whole Government response to support the scale and nature of the change required. The process of the assembly itself has been highly innovative, not least as the first national citizens assembly to take place in an entirely online setting, but also the first to fully integrate the voices of children, providing a clear platform to share ideas and priorities for tackling the climate emergency. We are clear on the urgency of the climate emergency and the need to act decisively whilst ensuring that we focus on the areas that will have the most impact. We were pleased to be able to support the vast majority of the assembly's recommendations, and, as I mentioned earlier, some of those have already helped to shape work that was under way or in development. However, we must do more, and the assembly has rightly led us to go further and increase our ambition in a number of areas. We are working to ensure that we translate the recommendations into rapid action. For example, we are rolling out support for a new network of shared libraries across Scotland, enabling people to borrow rather than buy certain items whilst ensuring that those services are more accessible for communities. We are also working to update and strengthen our learning for sustainability action plan to take full account of the recommendations from the assembly and the calls to action from the children. We have committed to a feasibility study to investigate the assembly's recommendations on food-carbon labelling, exploring the potential impact of such a scheme. We have increased our annual native woodland creation target from 3,000 to 4,000 hectares for the next two years, and we will explore opportunities to go further. We have committed to developing a career path and volunteering opportunities for people who are economically inactive to develop green nature-based skills. We are considering the assembly's recommendations as we develop our volunteering action plan with stakeholders. We are also supporting the creation of new and existing local work hubs across Scotland to support local living. That has already begun for the Scottish Government staff, and we have commissioned an additional piece of work with the Scottish Futures Trust to scope existing and planned local work hubs and to understand how they support better local outcomes. More broadly, the work of the assembly has influenced the evolution of Scottish Government policy. For example, it not only helped us to refine our policy position ahead of COP26 but also influenced the bute house agreement between the Scottish Government and the Scottish Green Party parliamentary group, as well as the new heat and building strategy and the development of the new economic strategy. You will have seen that at the eighth weekend of Scotland's climate assembly, members drafted a statement of response to the Scottish Government. The statement commends the Scottish Parliament for establishing the assembly. We all agreed that this process must challenge us all to do things differently in the future, and it has certainly done that. It also sets out some of the areas where assembly members want us to go further and outlines some new actions that they are urging us to consider. We understand that some members will be disappointed in a few areas where we have been unable to support individual recommendations in full. That reflects needs to consider limits of current devolved powers, technological feasibility and the feasibility of timescales. Where matters are reserved, we are and will continue to call on the UK Government to match Scotland's level of ambition. We will also continue to work collaboratively with the UK and other devolved administrations to secure progress. As one example, since publishing our response, we are now part of a cross-administration group on equal labelling to help us to take forward those assembly recommendations. In Scotland, we understand the benefits of citizens assemblies and other forms of participation, but there is always more to do. Thanks to the hard work and dedication of the climate assembly, we have all learnt a lot and we now have an even stronger foundation to tackle the climate emergency. Although the list of requirements of Scotland's climate assembly has now been fulfilled, members of the assembly have put forward several suggestions on how we in government could continue to engage with them in the future. We are looking at those suggestions now. We want to continue to hear from people, the people of Scotland and our public engagement strategy, which we published in September 2021 sets out our vision for all of Scotland to understand the challenges that we all face and for us all to embrace our role in that transition to a net zero and climate ready Scotland. We know that achieving net zero emissions requires us all to collaborate across all sectors and regions of Scotland as well as internationally. Like many of my ministerial colleagues, I had the pleasure of personally meeting with a number of assembly members and some of the children who were involved in this process. The level of dedication and commitment to tackling the issues that we are facing in Scotland was impressive. I therefore want to reiterate our thanks to the members of Scotland's climate assembly and of our children's parliament. I want to reassure Parliament and members of the assembly that, although the official process may now be complete, the influence and legacy of the assembly will continue. We will continue to ensure that we draw on the assembly's recommendations as we develop our policies going forward. We will continue to re-evaluate opportunities to go further and to go faster. To close, it is clear that the assembly process has been transformative for all those who have been involved. I am sure that, as a Parliament, we will want to embrace that commitment in doing politics differently in the future. Thank you. The cabinet secretary will now take questions on the issues raised in his statement. I intend to allow around 20 minutes for questions, after which we will move on to the next item of business. I would be grateful if members who wish to ask a question were to press their request-to-speak buttons now, or please put an R in the chat function. I thank the cabinet secretary for advance sight of his statement. It is extraordinary how members of the climate assembly dedicated themselves to Scotland's role in addressing the climate emergency, particularly during an especially challenging period for collaborative working. What is concerning, however, is the disconnect between the warm words and the self-congratulation that we have just heard from the cabinet secretary and what the committee heard this morning, that the assembly feels that the Scottish Government focuses more on what it cannot do than what it can. Members overall are disappointed that the Government's response fails to recognise the urgency of our report. Their frustration also lies in their inability to check on delivery. The assembly called for the Government to create a scorecard for Scotland with 10 KPI's, with measurable targets to hold the Scottish Government to account. I ask whether the cabinet secretary will commit to developing such a scorecard, and in the form that it suggests. Secondly, the assembly recommends a whole-government approach, which includes local government. According to COSLA, this year's budget cuts £100 million from local authority budgets. What will the Scottish Government do to ensure that local authorities have the funds and resources that are required to achieve the assembly's ambitions? Finally, cabinet secretary, I have asked minister Lorna Slater twice how a French-style ban on plastic packaging for most fruit and vegetables could work in Scotland to reduce plastic use as the assembly would like. Twice, she has avoided giving me a substantive response, so I wonder if the cabinet secretary has any thoughts on how such a ban could work here? I am grateful to the member for his questions. Let me try to deal with a number of the issues. I recognise and acknowledge, as I did in my statement, some of the disappointment that some of the members have in relation to our response to what are the 81 recommendations that came from the climate assembly. It is worth keeping in mind that of the 81 recommendations that we have accepted in full or in part 75 of those, some of the ones that we have rejected, not because it is that we do not have the power to deal with it, some of them are just not feasible. For example, the decarbonisation of aircraft by 2025 is just not feasible to do because of technological limitations. We have sought to meet the challenges that assembly members have set us to stretch us as much as we can within the terms of what is feasible. I am sure that the member will also recognise that the expert group who assessed our response commended the approach that the Scottish Government has taken in responding to many of the areas that were set out in the assembly's member's report and acknowledged some of the areas where it was extremely difficult, for example, in the areas of taxation where we simply do not have the powers in which to be able to pursue some of the recommendations that were made by the committee. However, what I can say to the member is in relation to making sure that we mark our progress. If there is an area of policy where there is greater scrutiny and annual accounting for the progress that the Government is making, it is in this area of climate change. We have our climate change plan, which is evaluated every year. We have our climate change adaptation plan, which again has to report every year as well. We also have to commit to regularly updating those and alongside that we also have the work that is taken forward by the committee in climate change to carry out independent assessments of the progress that we are making. We are looking at the proposals on how we can make sure that there is greater transparency around how the Government is making progress or not making progress so that we are open and honest about where we are not making sufficient progress in this area. I hope that that will give the member a reassurance that we are seeking to ensure that we are held to account and that we are challenged and that we are transparent in the progress or the lack of progress that we are making. On the member's final point in relation to the plastic ban, the member will be aware that we have recently introduced regulations to deal with some of the most problematic single-use plastics that plight our environment. We need to take robust action to deal with those. I am more than happy to take the point away that the member raised with my colleague Lorna Slater, but I hope that he would support the Scottish Government's position that the UK Government should not use the internal market act to dilute the impact of the single-use plastics regulations, which could undermine the potential environmental impact that there are regulations would have. To the cabinet secretary for advanced sight of his statement, I should declare an interest. I recently became Labour's representative on the assembly steering group. Even in that short time, I have personally seen the commitment that the passion, the wealth of ideas assembly members have. I want to place on record my thanks to each and every one of them for the ambition that they have shown in their collective fight against climate change. In the response, the Government has not shown that same ambition. The assembly speaks for Scotland when it talks about the lack of affordable, accessible public transport and no proper smart ticket. The concerns that the cost of retrofitting homes could fall on the shoulders of those who can afford it. The assembly was clear that there is a lack of urgency from the Government. There are too many pledges to consider or explore, but not enough to actually do. Does the cabinet secretary agree with the assembly that there is still not that detailed route map that we urgently need to take us on that journey to net zero? Does he also agree with me that we need to continue to harness the talents of assembly members? In particular, the children's Parliament has played a really important role in its final recommendations. Surely, nine months after the assembly set out its recommendations, the cabinet secretary has got a bit more to say about that than simply he is looking into suggestions of further engagement. When will he set out what that engagement will be and, crucially, how will he assess the assembly's recommendations, particularly those that he says he is exploring and still considering in the months ahead? Assembly members want to continue to play that role, but, more important, they want to see their work implemented. The member raised a number of issues, and I am grateful for his questions on the matter. I recognise his interest in the issue in representing his party in the assembly process. On free transport, we are at the point where, in the course of the past few weeks, we have extended free bus travel to under 22s, which is a significant expansion of free bus travel for young people in Scotland. We would always like to go further where there is the financial provision to do so, but we are certainly moving in the right direction and we will certainly be keen to make further progress in the years ahead. On heating and buildings, one of the responses that we have made to the assembly member's report is that there is a real danger that, if you require the retrofitting of the meta-yearing system, you could unintentionally create greater levels of fuel poverty, the delivery plan that has been taken forward by my colleague Patrick Harvie is focused on making sure that that does not happen. That has been influenced by the recommendations that have come through the assembly process. On the climate change plan, it is the clear route map that we have set out for achieving our net zero targets of being at 75 per cent by 2030 and being at 100 per cent by 2045. That is a process that has been gone through in great detail, both in this Parliament and also through government policy development. On making sure that we harness the talents and the interests of those assembly members, although the formal part of the process is now complete, we are engaging because this is the first part of the assembly process in looking at what more we can do going forward. However, we have also agreed to the establishment of an assembly member's network, which will be independent of government, how it will operate and the way in which it will operate will be for the network itself to determine, but we are there to provide support to that. We are looking at where there are other measures. Of course, by engaging the children's parliament in the process as well, it is allowed us to ensure that children's voices are very much at the heart of the recommendations that came from the assembly and how that then feeds into government thinking. I have just come from the children's cabinet meeting, which is hosted once a year. We are young people again discussing the issues around the assembly, having an opportunity to feed into that process. We want to make sure, given the importance that our young people have to place in our environment, that young people are very much at the heart of their thinking and involvement in designing policies to tackle climate change. As you would expect, there is a great deal of interest in the statement, and many members wish to ask a question. From that point on, I insist that we have short and succinct questions and responses. I call Fiona Hyslop to be followed by Dean Lockhart. I refer members to my declaration of interest as a member of the third group of the climate assembly. Can the cabinet secretary confirm that Scotland's climate assembly work has attracted international interest, not least because of the response follow-up dialogue and challenge to government? At the last formal planned meeting of the climate assembly in February, concerns were raised about how to maintain momentum and accountability once the assembly has ended in its current form. Will the Government commit to the assembly's proposal of a simple and widely publicised annual score card on its work and to support and possibly fund a recall of the assembly in the future, if that is what the assembly wants? I am grateful to remember for questions. Fiona Hyslop is correct that there has been significant international interest in the climate assembly during the course of many bilateral meetings that I had with ministers from other parts of the world during the course of COP26. The issue that was often raised by other ministerial colleagues was the issue of the climate assembly and the experience of that particular work, which we have offered to share with other countries. In relation to ensuring that we try to help to provide a network to keep members of the assembly process together, as I mentioned in my response to Colin Smyth, we are prepared to support the network and how that could operate, but I am also very much open to the possibility of recalling at some point again in the future, and I will certainly ensure that we consider all the options that can help to support the assembly work. On the final issue that the member raised about to call the score card, as I mentioned in my response to Liam Kerr, it is an issue that we are actively considering alongside all of the other measures that we have for climate change policy. The climate assembly is quite rightly called for a decline in ferry emissions in 2015. The Scottish Government commissioned the procurement of two low-emission ferries for this ferry purpose, but almost seven years later the net zero committee has received correspondence from outgoing director Tim Hare to say that there would be another delay to both ferries this time because of cabling problems. My question is, cabinet secretary, can you confirm when exactly we might see those two ferries being finished and can you provide an update on the latest cost estimates to complete the ferries? I recognise the Committee on Climate Change's determination to decarbonisation of the transport network, including within the ferry network, as well. I am conscious that there has been an update provided to the committee, and that my colleague Kate Forbes has also provided an update to, I believe, to Parliament on this particular matter, but I am more than happy to ensure that Mr Lockhart gets provided with an update on the latest timescales, which I am sure my colleague Kate Forbes will be more than happy to provide. To ask the Scottish Government for an update on plans to protect low-income families from being pushed into fuel poverty, including the working poor when decarbonising homes. You might address that briefly, but I remind members that the statement is focused on the climate assembly. One of the key things that have been identified within the climate assembly is the work around the decarbonisation of domestic premises. The work of the committee fed directly into our heating building strategy, which my colleague Patrick Harvie published a number of weeks ago. A key part of that is about making sure that we not only drive down our emission levels, but that we work in a way that helps to reduce fuel poverty as well. I can assure the member that, as we take forward further work around our fuel poverty strategy and our heating building strategy, a key focus of that is to make sure that we reduce the levels of fuel poverty in Scotland overall. I thank the cabinet secretary for advance sight of his statement, but the limits of current devolved powers that he mentioned in his statement do not excuse the lack of ambition shown by the Scottish Government over the powers that it currently has, including land use planning. On land, the climate assembly has recommended that community right to buy legislation be enhanced to empower communities to take ownership of unproductive land for climate action. Can the minister confirm whether the Scottish Government will include this practical suggestion as part of its proposed land reform bill? If not, why not? I very much support the ability of local communities to be able to purchase land, and the member will be aware of the provision that the Scottish Government already provides to support communities in doing exactly that. We want to consider how we can explore and develop that further with our land reform bill. I am sure that the member will also recognise that it has been appropriate for me at this stage to give the details of a piece of legislation before it is introduced into Parliament, but the member can be assured that we intend to take a very ambitious approach to how we take forward land reform in that legislation. To ask the Scottish Government for an update on banning single-use plastics and non-recyclable packaging, and in particular banning plastic bags, it is called for by the children's Parliament and local pupils to host in COP26 moment events across Lanarkshire. This is an important issue and an issue that was identified by the Assembly. I am not sure why Mr Kerr thinks that it is a funny issue, but it was an important issue that was raised by the Assembly and in particular by young people at the children's Parliament. I am sure that the member would want to respect the reviews of our young people on those important issues. As I mentioned earlier, we have introduced regulations to tackle problematic single-use plastics. It has the potential to have a significant impact in dealing with the issue, but it could be impacted by the internal market act, which could undermine its effectiveness in operation. It is important that we do not allow the UK Government to do that, but the member will be assured that we are continuing to look at other measures that we can take in order to reduce the potential impact that plastic has on our environment. I add my thanks to all those who are involved with the climate assembly. The assembly rightly underscored the urgent need to decarbonise transport and recognised that we cannot achieve our ambitions here without disincentivising air travel when more sustainable transport options are available. Is not this finally the moment for the Scottish Government to rip up its contract with Ethory Airport in support of a third runway, given that we know that that will lead to an extra 75,000 flights between Scotland and London and an additional 600,000 tonnes of emissions being added to the atmosphere by 2040? I do not recall it being a specific recommendation from the climate assembly in fairness to them, although I recognise that it is a point that the member has raised with me. We are already taking forward a range of actions to help to reduce the carbon output and to support research and reducing the carbon output from aircraft, including in Orkney, which the member will be well aware of the amp programme that has been taken forward by Hial and others in order to look at zero-emission aircraft. Clearly, this is an area where technology still has to be developed, which is why part of the recommendations are difficult for us to implement because of the timescale, which does not match technological development as yet. However, I can assure the member that, as a Government, we will continue to look at what measures we can take forward to help to support the decarbonisation of the aviation sector, and particularly for journeys where alternative forms of transport that are zero-carbon can be used to encourage people to make use of those as well. Rona Mackay, to be followed by Maurice Golden. Many of the areas that are highlighted by the assembly are reserved and require UK Government action, so how does the Scottish Government intend to work with the UK Government to ensure that Scotland can reach our full emissions reduction potential? There are a number of areas where there are devolved pillars that run across areas in tackling climate change here in Scotland. Part of the challenge here is that the UK Government's approach to tackling climate change does not match the level of ambition of the Scottish Government, which therefore causes consequences in some of the targets that we take forward. A very good example of that would be the decision by—as Mr Kerr thinks—that the issue of environment and the negative impact of the UK Government's policies on it, again, is laughable. If there is anything that is laughable in this Parliament, it is probably Mr Kerr more than anything. I point out that this tactic that the minister is using is very childish. In actual fact, make as much noise as you like. The reality is that the minister uses this tactic. He needs to be aware that we are laughing at the fact that he is making such outrageous claims about ambition. Ambition has to be matched with action that results in outcomes. It is bereft of any of that this Government. In response to Mr Kerr's point of order, I have noticed several members shouting across the aisles to one another during this debate. I have heard one or two voices perhaps more clearly than others, and I would be grateful if, at all times, all members of this Parliament treated one another with the courtesy and respect that the Code of Conduct demands. I did not finish the answer to my question. I was in the middle of answering before I would give way to the question. If you would like to complete your response to that question, cabinet secretary. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Of course, it will be a surprise to most of us that the Pantel season now runs into March each year. Cabinet Secretary, can I just remind you of my addressing of that point of order? A very good example of UK Government policy not matching the ambition of the Scottish Government in tackling climate change is the decision by the UK Government not to proceed with the Scottish cluster on carbon capture. The ACORN project is an example of policy in which the committing climate change is absolutely essential in order to achieve our climate change targets. That is the type of approach that I am afraid that if the UK Government does not start to align the level of ambition with that of the Scottish Government in tackling climate change, it will undermine our ability to reach our targets. That is exactly why we continue to engage with the UK Government and why it gets that decision wrong and why, through the inter-ministerial group on net zero, I am pursuing the UK Government in making sure that it responds to the reserved areas that the climate assembly has set out that need action on the part of the UK Government. Maurice Golden to be followed by Mark Ruskell. One of the recommendations is to improve recycling in Scotland. An important step to that will be to finally meet the 2013 household recycling target now almost 10 years late. The member will be rightly aware of the very ambitious proposals that we are taking forward alongside the record level of investment that we are making in recycling, with some £70 million being invested in recycling infrastructure to support local authorities to meet the challenges that they face. The investment is necessary in order to meet our climate change ambitions and to invest in areas of recycling as a priority, and some £20 million of that has already been committed. What I can assure the member is that that investment will help to make sure that we drive forward and meet those targets in the years ahead. Mark Ruskell to be followed by Collette Stevenson. In recent months, we have seen successive warnings from the UK Climate Change Committee, from the Government's energy advisers and now from the Climate Assembly about the urgent need to cut air miles. The Assembly has made a clear recommendation that air departure tax is raised for frequent fliers. Will the Government square up to this climate reality and make demand reduction for non-lifeline flights a central objective in its new aviation strategy? One of the main areas that could help to have a positive impact on reducing the need, particularly for regional flights, is greater investment in our regional rail network and speeding up of that. For example, greater electrification of the network could play an important part in helping to do that. For example, extending high-speed rail into the north of England and into Scotland would have a significant impact on reducing the need for regional flights. That is the approach that we believe that it should be taken in order to help to support the need for transport investment that reduces journey time, but does so in a way that is sustainable and compatible with coming and zero nation. That is why part of the work that we are taking forward is looking at how we can improve and speed up connectivity between our seven cities through further electrification programmes. We have also made representations to the UK Government to look at electrifying parts of the network in England, which would help to speed up journey times and increase freight capacity as a side issue. If that happened, that could help to reduce the demand for some regional flights. Young people have been inspirational in their campaigns for the future of our planet. The decisions that we make now will have a huge impact on their future and that of subsequent generations. Can the cabinet secretary outline how the Scottish Government will keep an open dialogue with children and young people as we work towards next year so that they can help to shape those decisions? During the course of COP26, some of the most powerful testimony and events that I attended were those that were hosted by young people and their ambition and determination that we should do everything to protect our environment and tackle climate change going forward. I am very clear—the First Minister is very clear—that young people must be very much at the centre of our thinking in how we take forward climate change policy and how we go about tackling climate change in the years ahead. In the discussion that I have just taken part in with the Children's Cabinet meeting, it was an issue that was put to us by young people in making sure that their voices are being heard. As we move forward with our climate change plan update and other wider climate change policies across Government, we are determined to make sure that young people's voices are very much at the heart of it and in our thinking in how we take those policies forward. That concludes the ministerial statement update on Scotland's climate assembly. We will be a brief pause before we move to the next item of business.