 The next item of business is a debate on motion 10498 in the name of Rhoda Grant on protecting Scotland's nature, and I would invite those members who would wish to speak in the debate to please press the request to speak buttons, and I call on Rhoda Grant to speak to and to move the motion up to six minutes, please, Ms Grant. The urgent action is needed on the climate emergency and its impact is something that unites us all. Rural Scotland is in a strong position to contribute with our potential for tree planting and large peatlands acting as carbon sinks. There is also agreement to provide public funds to incentivise action, but private green finance is not just mooted by the Scottish Government, it is being actively encouraged to finance change. Many Scots will share a deep anise at inviting private financiers to make money exploiting Scotland's natural heritage. We know where there is no private profit, there is no private finance. Therefore, is the policy rationale for using private finance for nature sound, especially if it offsets pollution elsewhere? The reason that is most quoted for this has been the £20 billion gap in funding that is required for nature, but it turns out not to be a £20 billion gap at all. John Hollingdale, the retired chief executive of community woodlands association, has cast significant doubt on the figure. It is now clear that the £20 billion figure produced by the Green Finance Institute and organisation claiming that it is led by bankers is grossly overestimated. NatureScot now says that they agree in large part with John Hollingdale's analysis. The Scottish Government and parliamentary answers also reveal other aspects of the Green Finance Institute report that do not stand up to scrutiny. Even the Green Finance Institute seeks to distance itself, making it clear that it always said that its data was heavily qualified. With the £20 billion figure crumbling under scrutiny, we now need to see NatureScot throwing out alternative funding gap figures. For peatland restoration alone, they throw out a £3 to £4 billion figure being needed against the £250 million that they have available up to 2030. However, the problem is not the lack of available investment. The real gap is in the underspend of budgets that the Parliament has voted for. Both tree planting and peatland targets are not being met by a substantial margin. In peatlands, less than half the annual budget is being spent. The recent programme for government set out the expectation for peatland restoration for next year as 10,700 hectares. That is less than half of the annual target. Getting up to target will take the rest of the decade at this rate. To suggest that we can spend up to £4 billion private finance on peatland restoration anytime soon when we can't spend £10 million today is simply not credible. So the case for needing private finance investment looks flimsy at best. We understand the reasons for the inability to spend the available budgets. They are set out in a recent Scottish Government social research paper mobilising private investment in nature. Key among them is landowner reluctance to commit to land use changes. Landowners will lose autonomy over their land use for up to 100 years when they can't see the future circumstances, the costs and how those might change. Even landowners suggest that offering more money, public or private, probably is not the answer. There are other ways to increase tree planting and peatland restoration. Degraded peatland is emitting, not sequestrating carbon. SEPA and environmental health professionals are constantly acting to monitor and act on air, noise, water and wider environmental pollution. If we consider carbon emission as another form of environmental pollution, what are we doing to regulate it? Regulation could create the right incentives to fix our emitting peatlands. With continuing restoration grants, there could be no excuse not to act. Where is the policy discussion on this and other forms of regulation that can be considered alongside whether private finance has any legitimate role? Instead of addressing the practical challenges to ensure our current budgets for climate investment can be spent, instead of examining all policy options, the Government has allowed itself to be dazzled by the pitches of private financiers. I know that COP and the National Strategy for Economic Transformation encourage consideration of private green finance, but COP does not tell us what specific actions we must take. We must consider the policy approach best suited to our circumstances. We would tackle the issue very differently. Scottish Labour would not adopt a neoliberal economic preference for the green SNP ministers selling off our natural capital. We would set out and consult widely on a range of policy options that exist and build consensus on the best way for Scotland to move forward. That is what I urge the Scottish Government to do now. I move the motion in my name. Thank you, Ms Grant. I now call on Lorna Slater to speak to and move amendment 10498.2 up to five minutes, please minister. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I welcome today's debate. The twin nature and climate emergencies are ever more urgent. They represent an existential threat that simply cannot be ignored. Nations around the world agreed the global biodiversity framework last year. An ambitious global agreement to halt biodiversity loss by the end of the decade and reverse the catastrophic declines that we have seen in our natural world. A global agreement to tackle the nature emergency. It's the same determination and commitment to collaboration that led to the Paris agreement on the climate emergency. The UK Government might abandon their responsibilities, but this Government stands by its promises to the international community and to future generations. Restoring Scotland's peatlands and forests is critical to meeting both our climate and nature commitments. We are making good progress. Last year we restored 7,500 hectares of peatland, up from 5,400 the previous year. Finlay Carson? When you say you're making good progress, would not even reach 50 per cent of your target that was set out in 2018 good progress? Members need to speak through the chair. It is indeed good progress. We can see the year on year progress and the enormous effort being made by the sector. The growth in the restoration rate reflects an increasing delivery capacity and we're confident of positive results this year. The woodland targets that we have set for ourselves also reflect our ambition to increase planting, both to sequester carbon but also through the planting of native woodland to protect and preserve our rich biodiversity. While weather and other factors can impact progress, we know we need to do more here too. Doing more means continuing to build capacity and understanding across the land management sector. No, I'm going to make progress. It also means investing more money. To prevent climate disaster, we are all in agreement that the infrastructure investment we need will not come just from the public sector but from the private sector also. All parts of society have a role to play and this is true for nature restoration. Yes, we need public investment and this government is delivering that but we also need the private sector to take responsibility. The finance gap as the global biodiversity framework calls it is an estimate of how much more investment is needed to protect and restore our natural environment. Globally, the UN's environment programme has estimated the gap could be as high as 4 trillion US dollars by 2050. Here in Scotland, the only substantive estimate to date has come from the Green Finance Institute in 2021. Are either of these figures exact? No, they are estimates based on a wide range of assumptions, certainly. The minister actually looked at the document. The document contains figures for implementing the right to Roman Scotland, something that we have enjoyed for decades, and other aspects where private finance is not allowed. Did she actually read the document before she pinned her hopes to it? I am absolutely familiar with that document and with the assumptions that are in it. The member is quite right. There are assumptions in that document. That is the only figure that we currently have towards understanding what the gap may be in Scotland. We are continuing work to get more exact figures and to understand that but these numbers are merely indicative of the size of the challenge and that challenge is huge. We will set out how we will rise to that challenge in our biodiversity investment plan. Investing in our environment is also about investing in our communities. That is why we have published the interim principles for responsible investment and are now developing a market framework that builds on that and reflects our vision of a values-led high integrity market that ensures communities benefit. Our aim here is to support diversification of land ownership and to empower communities. Goals that will also be reflected in our forthcoming proposals for a land reform bill. We will therefore ensure that those plans are informed by the on-going debate of how we ensure investment in nature supports our land reform agenda, including the recent Scottish Government. The member is about to conclude because the minister is over time. Including the recent Scottish Land Commission report, Natural Capital and Land Reform. Our public investment in nature is something that I am proud of. At COP26 in Glasgow— Minister, you need to conclude and you need to move the motion. Thank you. We announced the new multi-year funding for nature restoration. Minister, I asked you to conclude and to move the motion. Please allow me to do so. My apologies, Presiding Officer. I move the amendment in my name. Thank you, Minister. I now call Jamie Halcro Johnston to speak to and to move amendment 10498.1 up to four minutes, please, Mr Halcro Johnston. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Can I refer members to my register of interests as a partner in the organic farming business of Jay Halcro Johnston and Sons, the owner of a croft on Orkney and as a member of NFU Scotland and Scottish Land and the States? I'm also the species champion for the Caledonian pinewoods. I don't think anyone in this chamber needs telling that Scotland's natural environment is one of the most beautiful and ecologically varied in the world. And it is key to us meeting on net zero and biodiversity goals. It's not hard to talk up Scotland's natural environment to extol its many virtues. And I'm particularly fortunate as someone who lives in and who represents the Highlands and Islands that one of our most stunning and adverse areas is where I call home. But we need more than just talk, because that is all too often what this Scottish Government has done. But the reality is that by consistently missing restoration targets and by launching numerous strategies that neither protect against biodiversity loss nor expands our natural capital, the SNP have failed to protect nature in Scotland. Eighty per cent of the UK's peatlands, the majority of which are in Scotland, are estimated to be damaged and in need of restoration. But the Scottish Government has not met its peatland restoration targets for five years. Since 2000, almost 16 million trees have been felled on public land in Scotland to make way for wind farms. That's the equivalent of more than 1,700 every day. And now the Scottish Government's proposal for a natural environment bill will set out a framework for statutory targets for nature restorations. Targets that will be binding on government in the same way that climate change targets require the Scottish Government to work towards meeting their net zero targets. The consultation on the biodiversity framework states that, and I quote, Statutory targets will signal a clear long term direction of travel and drive and focus action. But in June this year it was announced that the Scottish Government had missed four out of its last five legally binding emissions targets. I'm sorry, it's a short debate. I've only got four minutes and I'm opening. This SNP Green Government has no problem setting targets. It's actually hitting them where they fall down. And to see those targets hit will require effort from stakeholders across Scotland and across many sectors. And at the heart of those efforts will be Scotland's farmers, crofters and land managers. As custodians of large parts of Scotland's land, they are already at the forefront of protecting our natural environment, supporting biodiversity and managing land for the future. But as we debated only last week, Scotland's agricultural sector has been left in limbo by the Scottish Government's failure to publish its new agriculture bill, or to provide details of how this vital sector for Scotland and for Scotland's natural environment will be supported going forward. And if the new bill is to focus on food security, then the support available going forward should surely focus on that too. And so where this government is looking for farmers and others to support protecting nature, encouraging biodiversity, meeting climate targets, Scottish ministers should be looking at how this can be supported from the net zero budget as it is for other sectors. Presiding Officer, I very much recognise that my own connection with the natural environment stems largely from being brought up on our farm in Orkney, which has always been rich in biodiversity with wetland, moorland coastal areas and believe it or not, trees. Given the importance of engaging with the next generation, our motion acknowledges NatureScot's teaching, learning and play in the Outdoors report that highlights how outdoor education in place stimulates children's connection to nature. I would recognise the importance of all efforts to educate wider society of the work being done to protect Scotland's natural environment. I would welcome this short debate today on what is an important subject. The Scottish Conservatives want to strengthen environmental protection on land and sea. We would establish a cleaner seas fund to get harmful products like plastics out of our water. We want to see increased tree planting, create a third national park and protect our green belts. We are ambitious for Scotland's natural environment and we will work with others to protect and restore it. But we need more than just more words or more targets from Scottish ministers. They need to start delivering and that has so far been lacking. I would now like to move the amendment in my name. I now call Liam McArthur up to four minutes. The proud species champion of the Scottish primaries. I very much welcome the fact that the Parliament is debating Scotland's twin crises on climate and nature. I am very grateful to Rhoda Grant and her Labour colleagues for allowing us further opportunities to do so. It is a subject that we return to frequently in debates, statements and questions in this chamber. That is a good thing. It would be a good thing if we were not in a holding pattern. Because while the perilous state of our climate worsens as the need to address emissions and biodiversity loss becomes ever more urgent, the response from the Scottish Government too often is lacked focus, detail and urgency. By way of example Rhoda Grant's motion is right to note that Scotland is falling short of realising its significant potential in carbon sequestration. This comes on the back of years when targets for woodland generation and peat restoration have been missed on occasions by some margin. As concerning as this is, the fact that budgets in these areas also appear to be underspent simply beggars belief. The confusion now about the extent of the funding gap as well as the questions over the method of plugging that gap really do not inspire confidence. Of course this comes against the backdrop, as others have said, of the Government missing its wider emissions reductions targets. They may very well be world leading but that only matters if there is a credible plan for their delivery. This has been a constant criticism of the Government's approach from the UK Climate Change Committee. Lord Daven and his colleagues have all but begged Scottish ministers to detail how they plan to meet their targets. Meanwhile, just this week Scotland's council leaders sent out a stark warning that without adequate funding and direction from Government, Scotland will continue to miss its climate targets. There is an established pattern here. Announcements are made to grab headlines, to shape a narrative. Sell them though is the hard work done to figure out how and explain how those commitments may be delivered in practice. When failure can always be blamed on others, whether that be UK Government, opposition parties, local councils, the constitutional settlement, the incentive to invest in the painstaking work of delivery simply evaporates. On transport, on heat, even on agriculture, areas where the need for emissions reduction are most pronounced, the Government must detail how it plans to support a just transition. When one in nine species in Scotland is threatened with national extinction, ministers seem happy to launch another consultation on a biodiversity strategy that was supposed to be implemented six months ago. As for the carbon credits scheme, Rhoda Grant is right to express concern, given the apparent lack of regulatory oversight, our former Green colleague in this Parliament, Andy Wightman, is also right to suggest that those proposals to sell off Scotland's woodlands are, quote, "...highly questionable." All in all, as I've said before in previous debates, our climate ambitions may be world-leading, but the Government's delivery is world-lagging. Scottish Liberal Democrats will work with ministers, with other partners, on detailed proposals targeting those twin emergencies, but time quite clearly is running out. We will now move to the open debate, and I call Sarah Boyat to be followed by Colin Beattie. In opening the debate, Rhoda Grant referred to the recently published and very revealing social research probe on mobilising private investment into nature, a report recently published by the Scottish Government. It confirms everything that Rhoda Grant said about private finance. It focuses on investing in carbon markets, peatland restoration, but potentially links in forestry as well. The theory is that if we plant more trees and restore our peatlands, both will generate large amounts of carbon credits to sell on the open market, paying for the green investment and a good profit margin. It makes it clear that the carbon price isn't anywhere near enough for the private investors, and that that's unlikely to change anytime soon. They suggest that public finance should underwrite the risk of carbon price continuing to fall short, with a minimum of 30 years of public underwriting probably needed but better committing to 50 years. That is a massive commitment. They talk about recommending that the grants that are offered to restore peatlands should be stopped and underwriting the future costs of private investment. That would give rises of money that would be needed to spend out the Scottish Government's budget. 25 million pounds, for example, would be a contingent liability or budget requirement of gash guarantees of well over £1 billion over the 50 years suggested. No free lunch here. The social research report helpfully goes on to describe the structures about how you could release the private finance. A contract for different approach, let's not go there, as we've seen in the last week, it could spectacularly fail. Once you're dependent on private finance, it can simply stop delivering until you offer more taxpayer funded guarantees, a timely warning to the Scottish Government. So let's look at the alternatives to tackle our nature and biodiversity challenges. Rhoda Grant talked about the regulatory changes that we could make. To add to those ideas, we're about refocusing the work of the devolved Crown Estate in Scotland, a much clearer climate challenge focus through land purchases, future land holdings and use of the proceeds of sales of seabed leases to benefit our communities now. Likewise, what more could forest and land Scotland do? Unlike the SNP and the Green Government, we'd explore all the options for action, not just private green finance. I want to finish on what needs to happen now. Liam McArthur made this point. Do not underspend your existing budget. Make that money work for our communities now. How will the Scottish Government support our rural communities now? Our crofters, our farmers, our landowners to play a part in the just transition we urgently need, creating jobs, addressing our climate and biodiversity crisis. But critically, spending the money that's budgeted, creating benefits and tackling our climate emergency. On today of all days, the Scottish Government needs not just to talk the game, it needs to deliver in practice for all of our communities. Thank you. Presiding Officer, I welcome the opportunity to take part in this debate, albeit with a more positive view than our Labour colleagues. Much has been done by the Scottish Government and much remains to be done. And I'll touch on just a few of the aspects which are making a difference in the climate change initiatives. Firstly, I would draw attention to forestry. Last year, Scotland created 63 per cent of all new woodland within the UK and we by far the most ambitious woodland creation targets in the UK. In the past five years, 51,000 hectares of new woodland have been established. That's the equivalent of 102 million trees. The Scottish Government continues to support and encourage landowners to boost the scale of their efforts. A success story, but of course there's always scope to achieve more. The Scottish Government is acting now to tackle the nature crisis. The Nature Restoration Fund is Scotland's largest ever fund for nature. Since this fund was launched at COP26 in Glasgow, it's invested over £20 million making a difference across the length and breadth of Scotland. Restoring rivers and floodplains, regenerating our forests and recovering our wildlife populations. This year, the Scottish Government has provided Scottish councils with an additional £5 million to develop nature networks across the country to help tackle the nature and climate crisis. The fund will allow local authorities to develop new woodlands, hedgerows, wildflower meadows and ponds. An area that needs attention is deer management. Deer can seriously damage growth prospects for young trees and vegetation. In some areas, deer ffencing is in poor condition and does not protect fledgling trees. Improvements are needed there. Hand in hand with this is the need to restore our peatlands, which lock up huge amounts of carbon. The Scottish Government has previously announced a £250 million 10-year funding package to restore a quarter of a million hectares of degraded peatland by 2030. While the 64,000 hectares of peatland that has been restored so far is short of Scottish Government targets, the barriers that have been faced are gradually being addressed and progress is accelerating. Investing in natural capital needs money. Nothing can happen without funding and there is no doubt that the public sector alone can never meet that need. That means calling on the private sector to invest responsibly in our natural capital. For the private sector to do that, there needs to be a clear path with transparency around investment opportunities. There also needs to be a fair return on the capital invested. Private investment is crucial to achieving net zero and many tens of billions of investment will be needed to achieve that. It is essential that natural capital has the ability to generate fair profits to service the debts which will be incurred and that that is factored into every project. A key point to remember is the need to ensure that our people and our communities are not disadvantaged and that benefit will accrue to both the investor and the community. This summer we watched in horror as one natural disaster after another filled our TV screens. People in so many countries were losing their entire possessions and in some cases even their lives. The climate crisis is with us now, it's worsening, and I do not see the strong and decisive leadership in Westminster which is needed to take action against it. I genuinely despair when I see both Labour and Tory parties in Westminster rolling back in green undertakings which they have made. There is no choice in this. We must adapt to our changing circumstances and respond to the climate change threat or we will face the consequences. While Westminster is watering down its net zero targets, I'm pleased that the Scottish Government is taking clear action to address climate change. Others must follow. Thank you, and I call Richard Leonard to be followed by Maurice Golden. Thank you, Presiding Officer. What we are holding the SNP Green Government to account for this afternoon is their relationship with Big Capital. Under the Green Finance Initiative, backed by government, trusted by finance, led by bankers, we are told, it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Hamden & Co, a private bank for high net worth clients, with Lombard Odea Investments, an asset management company which, I quote, offer investment capabilities spanning an innovative spectrum of major and alternative asset classes, whatever that means. And with Palladium International, the transnational corporate private outsourcing consultancy. So what we are witnessing is the fusion of venture capital, private equity groups, sovereign wealth funds and the state. And it is all been overseen by a minister who tells us that she's proud. Proud to hand over Scotland's nature recovery into the grasping hands of these asset managers. This is not bottom up, it's top down. It represents the entrenchment of privilege rather than its removal. It is a redistribution of power and wealth, but it is a redistribution of power and wealth going in precisely the wrong direction. It's a system of commercialism which ushes in not simply private profit, but private advantage. So I say to the minister, whatever happened to the idea of the earth as a common treasury, what about the common good and the common wealth? This private extractive capital is not remotely compatible with your stated aims of land reform, of just transition and of community wealth building. It is the polar opposite. The government's slogan is equality, opportunity and community. But in this plan, we have abandoned the goals of equality and community in favour of opportunity for the speculators. The government has turned its back on an economy of the people, by the people, for the people and put in its place this grotesque alternative. Our nature being colonised for nothing more than wealth asset growth, turning it into a financial commodity to be bought and sold to be marketed as a vehicle for the avoidance of tax. Under its market framework for investment, mentioned in the programme for government, are we even to be told who these investor clients are? Those who will use our land, our trees, our peatlands to greenwash their cash? Will we get full disclosure of all the investors? Will we ever be told how much of the money comes from secretive offshore trusts, paying no tax in any jurisdiction? These are not abstract questions. They are questions about what is happening in Scotland today. If we want the radical change which the nature and climate emergency demands, we must not accept the limits of power and money in its present form. We must change those limits, rebalance that power, widen those horizons and build up the confidence of the people. A century ago, Tom Johnson declared, our old nobility is not noble. Well, there is nothing noble about this new nobility either. And the Scottish Government needs to understand why there is anger out there about it, why there is an impatience for change and why the people who elect us are crying out for a real responsible, democratic, ethical, socialistic alternative. Thank you, and I call Maurice Golden to be followed by Emma Harper. Thank you, Presiding Officer. As we've heard today, our natural environment is in a perilous condition. Scotland may be one of the most beautiful countries in the world, but Scotland is also one of the most nature-depleted, ranked 212 out of 240 countries in the Biodiversity and Tachness Index. To put that in context, one in nine species in Scotland faces extinction according to the RSPB. The good news is the Scottish Government accepts the need to act. The bad news is that they haven't been successful. Earlier this year, NatureScot reported a year-on-year decline of 2.5 per cent in the number of habitats in favourable conditions. Today's motion highlights the lack of progress in peatland restoration and woodland planting. Indeed, the Woodland Trust warned about a lack of resources for woodland recovery almost a year ago. Then there's the IHE targets aimed at preventing biodiversity loss, more than half of which the Scottish Government missed. A subsequent report from Scotland pointed to a decline in biodiversity over the previous decades and concluded that the current biodiversity duty and the strategies have therefore failed to halt loss or generate any recovery. I've raised this to underscore that good intentions are not good enough. The SNP and Greens can't keep blundering on underfunding policies, missing targets and offering that tired old mea culpa lessons must be learned. It's welcome to see statutory nature restoration targets considered as part of the natural environment bill, but any such targets must be fit for purpose. For one thing, what do we mean by nature restoration? Is it a predetermined baseline or a fully resilient ecosystem? Likewise, what's the timeframe? The Scottish Biodiversity Strategy used 2045 and perhaps this is enough of a balance between keeping a close enough date to focus mines but far enough off to allow for delivery. Ultimately, it's delivery that counts, so we need to be mindful that simply designating a target as a statutory is no guarantee of success. We only have to look at emissions targets for proof of that. The Scottish Government has missed it eight times in the last 12 years. I agree with Maurice Golden. I wonder if he would agree with me that, when things come to Parliament for us to vote on, which actually puts some of those, are actions into place that would get us to net zero targets that are not incumbent on all of us to vote for them? Maurice Golden. Alongside targets, we need robust means of holding the Scottish Government to account. A dedicated Scottish environmental court is one such mechanism, offering better accountability and enforcement as well as an opportunity to address the fragmentation in the current model, develop greater technical expertise in the justice system and improve public access to environmental justice. Sadly, the narrow scope of the review of environmental governments looks like a missed opportunity to progress on this. We must harness the overwhelming public support for our natural environment and the appetite for action in this chamber and start delivering. I want to start on a point of agreement with the Labour motion, despite what Sir Keir Starmer told Shadow Cabinet in response to a presentation from his climate and net zero spokesperson, where he said, I hate tree huggers. Labour's motion does affirm in recognising that there is a global climate emergency and that we have a huge potential for more carbon sequestration, carbon capture and peatland restoration. I am going to unashamedly talk about some of the fantastic examples of promoting and protecting nature, that activity that is taking place in Dumfries and Galloway in my South Scotland region. We are at a tipping point for nature. It is in decline across the globe with around one million species already facing extinction. Restoring nature is crucial and it will reduce carbon emissions. Businesses are rising to the challenge of the global climate emergency. While that is key in helping to meet our climate change targets, it is also bringing economic growth particularly to our rural areas. In Dumfries and Galloway, there is a fantastic company that I have visited on numerous occasions most recently with the energy minister and they are leading the way in the field of carbon capture. Carbon capture Scotland, based in Crockettford in Dumfries, has a combined investment including from the Scottish Government of £120 million to remove 1 million tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere every year. CCS are working with farmers, distillers and anaerobic digestion energy from waste firms to capture CO2 and put it to good use elsewhere or remove it from the atmosphere permanently. CCS currently utilises carbon, utilises capture CO2 to produce dry ice, catering for the needs of the pharmaceutical and food transport industries. That makes these industries more sustainable as CCS proudly stand as the UK's second largest producer of dry ice. The company hoped to increase their employees up to 500 and are a great example of how we can use anaerobic digestion including through agriculture to both bring economic growth and protect our environment. I would be interested to hear how the Scottish Government aims to engage and support rural and urban anaerobic digestion in the future. I welcome that the Scottish Government has scaled up its investment in nature restoration including for peatland as well. In Dumfries and Galloway, the Crichton Carbon Centre has a project called Peatland Connections and this project is highlighting the significance of the Galloway peatlands through a range of practical and community engagement initiatives. It is part funded by the Scottish Government. I do not think that we have got time for interventions today in these wee four minute time slots. I am interested in promoting this peatland restoration work that is taking place in the south west of Scotland. The team at Nature Scotland have been working with external partners to look at the restoration of degraded eroding and modified peatlands. This is one of the most effective ways of locking in carbon and supporting the promotion of nature and a clear nature-based solution to the climate crisis. I visited one of the peat bogs at Mossacree near Wigtown with Dr Emily Taylor, who is the Crichton Carbon Centre project manager and a specialist in deep peat. The Mossacree project, which has peat measuring six metres deep, shows how peatland action and peatland restoration can support landowners and managers through the whole process of peatland restoration from initial ideas and planning through the successful delivery. The farmer Ian McRaeff has worked closely with the project which has helped him to put in a successful funding application to create a 62 hectare forest to bog restoration project coming to fruition. It is a fantastic case study and I invite the minister to come and visit the Crichton Carbon Centre to see the vitally important work. Time is short, as I said this afternoon, so I am looking forward to hearing the minister's response this afternoon and looking forward to continuing to progress the promotion and protection of our nature in Scotland. I call Mark Ruskell to be followed by Finlay Carson. What we are seeing today from both the Tories and Labour are attacks on the action that is necessary to tackle the climate and nature emergencies. Labour attacking action on the nature crisis on the same day that Rishi Sunak is cancelling action on climate. Two sides of the same political coin. Politicians who only think of the next election rather than the next generation. Now nature deserves to be restored for its own sake, but Woodlands, Peatlands and Wetlands can also help us lock up those climate emissions that are genuinely unavoidable. The global biodiversity framework agreed at COP 15 recognised the urgent need to scale up nature restoration and the sheer scale of the investment that is required to close the global biodiversity finance gap. Hundreds of billions of dollars are required every year and no country can deliver that through public funding alone. That is why the global framework commits countries to substantially and progressively increase the finance available from all sources to restore nature. Scotland has already begun to ramp up public funding. I'm proud that since the Greens entered government over 20 million has already been allocated to projects across the country from the River Tweed to the Cangorms through the nature restoration fund. Putting species and habitats on the path to recovery. I don't have time in hand. But these public funds alone will not be enough to deliver the scale of change that is needed. That change certainly can't be delivered within the constraints of a devolved government with limited borrowing powers. But even if we had all the powers in this Parliament, the finance gap would remain huge and unbridgeable. The fact is that the carbon and nature market is already here and operating in Scotland. Responsible governments must step in early to ensure that the market develops in a way that is truly ethical, benefitting nature, climate and communities. I agree with colleagues that communities need to be leading this change themselves. I want to highlight Fife Coast and Countryside Trust's excellent work in setting up the Nature Finance Fife, an organisation that will channel public, philanthropic and private finance into nature projects across Fife. This is nature investment from the bottom up driven by communities and not-for-profit organisations, working with academics, landowners, councils, regulators and, yes, those with finance expertise. Their first investment project on the drill burn in Fife had a landscape scale. The trust is also working on community benefit standard as part of the Uniform Natural Finance Certification Alliance and the aim of that project will be to create a standard that demonstrates the wider benefits of nature restoration for all communities. It is important that work is happening with our communities but I do note the concerns, the valid concerns that have been raised by community land Scotland and others about the effect that this emerging market could have on the climate crisis. Certainly with one of the highest concentrations of land ownership in the developed world this cannot be overlooked. But recognition of that problem has already been made including through changes to the Wood and Carbon Code that according to the Scottish Land Commission have had a cooling effect on demand for land for planting in 2022. The commission has gone on to advise in their words, there is nothing inherently contradictory in government's ambitions if the tensions are addressed by the policies that drive delivery. The commission has made detailed recommendations to ensure that balances struck across government and I do look forward to the Scottish Government's collective response on that. In concluding, the forthcoming agriculture and land reform bills will also help to redirect more public funds and put the public interest at the heart of landowners responsibilities. But we do need to take action at all levels to tackle both the climate and nature emergencies. It will need all governments to act with integrity, particularly on this issue of natural capital investment. Thank you, and I call Finlay Carson to be followed by Claire Adamson. Thank you, Presiding Officer. We all recognise the growing importance in urgency. We need to appropriately address the climate and biodiversity emergency. A recent report by the James Hutton Institute on NatureScot has already warned that considerable changes needed to stop nature loss here in Scotland. It points to factors that are indirectly contributing to this loss, including our culture, education, economy, political systems and technology. Appropriate education is hugely important, and that includes teaching young people about how food arrives on our plate, educating primary and secondary pupils on the pivotal role that is played by farmers and ensuring that there is good, nutritious produce available and equally important farmers, invaluable and often overlooked work in protecting Scotland's nature. Thousands of young people across Scotland are now able to learn about farming and agriculture, thanks to the sterling work carried out by the Royal Highland Educational Trust. The charity hosts events, including farm visits and provides free access to unbiased information about food production. The work supports the good food nation ambitions of the country and showcases how farmers protect our climate and our unique biodiversity as they strive to deliver healthy, affordable and sustainable food. Regrettably, during this debate, it is also important to shine the spotlight on the so-called green credentials that the Scottish Government is so keen to boast about. Particularly on a world stage, those green credentials don't exactly stack up. We've heard already from Jamie Halcro Johnston that the SNP have failed repeatedly to reach tree planting targets. Let's not forget that despite all the grandstanding on peat restoration, the Scottish Government has not met its target for five years now. In 2018, Rosanna Cunningham boasted of the Scottish Government's game-changing £250 million 10-year investment in peatland restoration. Committing to restore 20,000 hectares of peatland every year is part of its climate challenge plan. But they are failing. Make no mistake, this is not just a marginal failure. The area of peatland restored is less than half of the target. The most recent update by the Government admitted that just 7,000 hectares of peatland had been restored in years 22 to 23. I'm afraid I don't think I've got any time. A number of reasons for the shortfall have been cited as a lack of capacity among the contractors needed to carry out the work, a delay in planning processes and the Government also stated that limited demand for restoration from landowners and managers was the problem. Once again, the Scottish Government ambitious plans but their failure to deliver is blamed on someone else. I agree with Liam McArthur who's unfortunately not in the chamber but when will this Government stop grandstanding and deliver targets which are deliverable rather than relying on magic? Farmers, crofters and land managers have been doing their bit to protect nature, reduce emissions, as well as capture carbon projects. Yet they're still awaiting sight of the new agriculture bill which comes years after the rest of the UK. This bill should have been in place years ago and delivering on improvements for our environment. Less than a year ago when the CCC published what he called the most damning report to have ever produced in the Scottish Government, Chris Stark said of the SNP's own legal climate targets that they are increasingly moving out of view and in danger of becoming meaningless. When the CCC published what he called the most damning report that's exactly what it is. He said the report was a reg flag. Well, Presiding Officer, in conclusion, simply put this SNP green Government needs to be shown the red card when it comes to their green credentials. Thank you. Clare Adamson, the final speaker in the open debate. It's been a very interesting debate this afternoon and I found myself being schooled in finance by the private finance by the architects of PFI and on targets by a party whose Government have just abandoned their targets to get to net zeros. That being said there is a lot of consensus about where we need to be this afternoon. I particularly want to talk about peak restoration. It's very close to my heart for the small pearl bordered flotillary a species of butterfly that can be found in various bogs in North Lanarkshire, including in Greenhead Moss in my constituency and in the SPB Burns-Hawch reservation in the constituency as well. Those are really important aspects of what we're doing and I know it is key to the Lanarkshire Biodiversity Action Plan in the local council because of the importance of bogs, but managing and restoring Scotland's nature requires partnership approach. It needs us all to be stepping up not just the Government. That's why I'm so glad that the Government has developed and entered in principles for responsible investment in natural capital which means that although investment is welcome and it is needed it must be responsible work with communities be additional and verifiable and have integrity at the heart of what the Government is doing in bringing forward this proposal. In North Lanarkshire it is not unique in terms of its peat bog restoration indeed in an article in December 2021 by Alan Lane in The New Scientist Peatlands and Peril the race to save the bogs and slow climate change Scotland is pointed out as being a exemplar in this area Finland who lost 5 per cent of all its peatlands after World War 2 when it abandoned the peat bogs for deforestation are now recognising they have to bring it back in and they're looking to the work that's going on in Scotland right now we know that in the words of Hans Euston's the general of the intervention of my conservation that carbon goes in slowly but it comes out fast so it is a long-term commitment it's a long-term project it takes up to 10 years to restore peat bogs and ensure that there is no carbon emission from them when they have been degraded and this is the challenge we have and also this article highlights the work in Scotland that's going on with the University of Highlands and the Islands particularly working in conjunction with Naughtyam University to monitor peat bogs and the behaviour of peat bogs we know that this is an environment that changes and develops over time and sometimes it can release more carbon outside than at others and they're working with a satellite technology with radio waves that will monitor this so that we can accurately measure the peat bogs not just in Scotland but across the globe and the planet and with the recent discovery of the biggest topical peat bog in the planet being the Democratic Republic of the Congo this is a world issue this is a world challenge this article also talks about the tensions in Indonesia where they're trying to restore the peat bogs and that means farmers being challenged to give up farmland and use the land in a different way and that's why I'm so glad that this comes in conjunction with the land reform bill coming forward that should help us meet some of these targets I'll leave it there thank you very much thank you and we move to winding up speeches and I call on Douglas Lumsden thank you Presiding Officer and thank you to colleagues in the Labour Party for bringing this important debate before us today we are incredibly lucky to live in a country that has such a rich diversity of plants animal species and fauna being captured in the debate today and I'm privileged to be the MSP for one of the most beautiful parts of the UK the north-east of Scotland an area that balances our respect for nature with industry and entrepreneurship Presiding Officer the SNP are great at making promises unfortunately they are even better at breaking them particularly when it comes to the environment four out of five of their own legally binding annual emission targets in fact oxide emissions missed domestic travel emissions missed business emissions missed energy supply emissions missed a point made so well by my colleague Maurice Golden the SNP Greens can't keep blundering on lessons must be learned and peatlands are mentioned in the motion and covered today by Rhoda Grant are at the heart of our natural environment and this is a target that's been missed by this government as Finlay Carson said this government committed to restore 20,000 hectares of peatlands each year however in the most recent update the government admitted to restoring just 7,000 hectares in 2223 another target missed but Colin Beattie thinks this is success it's somewhat ironic Presiding Officer that government with the Greens pooling its strings would fail so dismal at improving the natural environment in Scotland the Scottish Conservatives have a clear policy to improve our natural environment and protect our economy we would establish nature networks across Scotland to safeguard protected areas and species we would bring forward an ambitious nature bill to strengthen environmental protection we would establish a 25 million cleaner seas fund increase tree planting create a new national park in the time I have remaining I just want to pick up on two of those points no one on trees we lost millions of trees during storm arwyn but as Jamie Halcro Johnston mentioned we have lost millions more since 2000 felled on public land to make way for wind turbines we have a target of planting 18,000 hectares annually and increase the proportion of native species forestry is a key industry in Scotland and it is one where we have to work with forestry land Scotland to ensure a good mix of species that benefit not just the timber industry but also complementary to our tourism and sports industries we need spaces that are open to walkers and cyclists to enjoy national parks are a key issue for many communities and they have been waiting patiently for the Scottish government to act the campaign was launched in 2013 and eventually the government agreed to bring forward one more by 2026 and hopefully the minister will update us on that all colleagues have made other important points of this debate reflecting the importance of this subject to every area of Scotland from the highlands to the south of Scotland Lorna Slater mentioned a gap in funding but offered no ideas on how it will be bridged a point made by Lea MacArthur Jamie Halcro Johnston and Finlay Carson made the point that farmers, crofters and land owners are key they are part of the solution but they are looking for guidance but at present there is a vacuum Lea MacArthur also was right to point out that the government have made no real plans but just chased headlines no guidance for local government no money for local government to adapt no guidance for farmers just headlines Presiding Officer as Maurice Golden said the decisions are not enough it's delivery that counts thank you and I call on Julian Martin Minister thank you Presiding Officer so we've heard today the different approaches that parties would take and where they would concentrate their effort some with some detail some with less than adequate detail in my view today UK government clarified its own stance largely in action and it seems to me that Richie Sunat thinks it's all just too difficult and too expensive to do and maybe doesn't go well with his election strategy but in Scotland it's important we need to focus on what we can do as a country despite what happens noises off from Westminster we need to get on with it ourselves the tangible choices that we make alongside those other countries who are also at the forefront of tackling the twin crisis of climate change and biodiversity loss the First Minister has been speaking about this in his New York visit this very week in contrast to the Prime Minister's approach it could not be starker Ms Slater outlined in her opening speech some of the actions that the Government has already taken and the further ambitions that we hold but given that my responsibility in my portfolio I have peatland restoration in my portfolio I want to concentrate my initial remarks on that before I talk about other people's contributions we had a 40% increase in peatland restoration last year over the year before and projecting a further 48% increase in this year with the highest budget £30 million ever allocated to date 174 projects are registered under the peatland code and this represents 80% of all UK registrations but that is not enough and people are right to say we had very lofty high ambitions in this we still do are we doing enough no we're not doing enough so we are working to see where it is so that we can do enough restoring our peatlands is a very young industry and we are working hard to signal to our young workforce in particular that this is an area of conservation and tackling climate change that has a long term career prospectus peatland action are encouraging new entrants through training for crofting communities and island communities in particular and we are creating a cohort across the country of skilled and accredited restoration scheme designers through the SRUC graduate level courses we have to build on the amount of people we have who are experts in this field to be helping our land managers our land owners and actually restoring some of the degraded peatland that they might have on their land and building a real cohort of experts in this field I just want to mention some contributions Sarah Boyack said that mentioned a suggestion of using public bodies to tackle climate change I'll give her an example in Glenprosyn where Forest and Land Scotland are already working to reforest native woodland, sequestering carbon and sustaining nature but of course that work needs to be done in addition to working with the right private investors as well as doing it and I'll just mention to Richard Leonard that the interim principles for responsible investment in natural capital have obviously escaped his attention as he decided that he would just make this later sound like some kind of disaster capitalist investment, those principles are investment that delivers integrated land use, public and private and community benefit, demonstrates engagement and the collaboration is ethical led and values led as high environmental integrity and of course the Scottish Land Commission is developing new guidelines on securing social and economic community benefits from investment in land and natural capital briefly yes in the final half minute if the cabinet secretary could sorry the member, the minister could refer to the regulatory points made by Rhoda Grant and also my comments about Crown Estate Scotland there are changes that could be made as well as spending the budget with the best will in the world I'm not going to let anyone dictate what I say in the rest of my speech because I have another few people to mention I wanted to mention Colin Beattie pointing to the climate justice element of this debate and railing against any rolling back of previous commitments is required to conclude minister I will conclude in just the same one thing Mark Ruskell said that rightly of the two opposition parties that they've got one eye on the next election but not on the next generation he was absolutely right we have got our sights firmly on the next generation and we are taking the action that is going to protect biodiversity enhance biodiversity and reach our climate change targets with that in mind thank you and I call Mercedes Villalba to wind up the debate up to five minutes please the Scottish Government has consistently promoted the use of private finance to meet our rightly ambitious nature targets it has done so based on an uncritical acceptance of the so called funding gap identified by the green finance institute which as we've heard today from Richard Leonard is an organisation led by bankers and as we've also heard today that alleged gap of £20 billion has not been demonstrated by the Scottish Government and is now not recognised by Nature Scott who have in fact publicly stated it is an overestimate and the recent report by the independent forestry and land use consultant John Hollingdale raises significant doubts about the credibility of the green finance institute itself so what we should have heard from the minister in her closing remarks was an acknowledgement on the record of the irresponsible way in which the Scottish Government accepted these now discredited figures instead this Scottish Government has denied deflected and doubled down Presiding Officer in March when I put it to Minister Lorna Slater at a meeting of the net zero committee that pursuing a private finance model at this scale would have a negative impact on communities in the long term I was told and I quote the need for private finance for nature restoration is unquestioned Presiding Officer I'm questioning it I was also told quote the finance gap is £20 billion but today the minister has told us that figure is just one estimate Presiding Officer private financiers are not accountable to the people of Scotland this Scottish Government is so for a Government minister to assert such figures as fact that question is highly irresponsible and to blithely outsource the meeting of Scotland's environmental responsibilities based on unverified figures is nothing short of an abdication of responsibility for a Government to sell its mandate and our precious natural resources to the highest bidder is shamefully telling of the way this Scottish Government operates Presiding Officer if the Government continues with its private finance initiative we face the prospect of Scotland's land and natural resources being used as a greenwash for big polluters as we heard from Rhoda Grant these financiers will require a return on their investment so in return for funding nature restoration and carbon sequestration carbon credits will be created and sold at a profit and who will buy these credits we've already seen that the principal beneficiaries of carbon credits are carbon polluters big emitters who have profited from environmentally damaging practices are being encouraged to pay to continue to pollute so instead of Scotland's rich natural resources benefitting the people of Scotland and contributing to the global response to the climate emergency they will be used to absolve the sins of the biggest polluters rather than selling indulgences to absolve polluters the Scottish Government must fulfil its role to the people of Scotland to restore nature and reduce emissions not simply to meet targets but to secure a brighter future for us all it's time for the Scottish Government to draw breath and consider all options to restore nature not simply hand over the reins to private financiers so I urge all members to support the Labour motion Thank you that concludes the debate on protecting Scotland's nature and it's now time to move on to the next item of business I'll allow a moment for front benches to organise