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Absolutely. My colleagues can come in if they wish to add anything about the planning for this, but all that I can say is that I expect such issues to be born out of the discussions that we have with communities and that, when that happens, I expect to be able to demonstrate how they have been taken into account in the plan.

Indeed, through the Grangemouth future industry board—which, again, represents a novel approach with regard to the public sector coming together over something of such importance as Grangemouth—there has already been close working with Falkirk Council on, for example, road issues such as congestion and the movement of heavy goods. Work is on-going. I am very open to hearing the communities’ priorities, and I want to demonstrate how those views are being taken into account.

I absolutely take the point that people should be able to expect staging posts and tangible outcomes at various points along the way.

I agree that Grangemouth—the cluster, the people who live there and the public sector bodies—is much greater than the sum of its parts, although I broke it down in that way in order to demonstrate the way in which we are engaging.

I take on board the point about co-ownership and co-leadership. Those are important because change can be frightening, and the more the people who are involved in or impacted by that change are empowered to lead it, design it and be responsible for its working, the more sustainable and successful it will be. To me, that is a core concept that applies equally to the just transition and to a lot of the work that we seek to do across Government in order to rise to the challenge of the climate emergency. We can all think of a few examples that are pertinent to that just now.

I have talked before about the fact that I need to have the feedback from all the interested parties, be that on transport, housing, flooding or employment, including the industry’s views, before I can say with the surety that I would want to give the committee exactly how that will be taken forward into the plan.

I come back to the phase 1 work that is very much under way, which is about working towards the vision for 2045 on the basis of close consideration of the economic and social issues. At the moment, it is difficult for me to say exactly what the issues will be and how they will be built in.

From what I can see, and from my experience of speaking to Ineos and other companies, funding is available. Oil and gas companies are increasingly referring to themselves as energy companies, because they are diversifying.

For our part, the Government can set the direction of travel and the regulatory environment, and give companies confidence. As Liam Middleton rightly pointed out, we can also provide a small amount of funding; it is not seed funding, but it can back up what companies are seeking to do.

I am sorry—are you asking about the SNIB’s role or that of the oil and gas industry?

That is a really good question. In the past little while, I have been reflecting on the need for investment not just in industrial decarbonisation but in all the actions that we have to take on climate change across the piece. The price tag is eye watering, and the public sector cannot afford to meet it alone.

The Government’s role is about setting the correct regulatory framework, creating confidence in the market about our direction of travel and, as you say, facilitating investment from the private sector. It should be responsible investment, additional investment, and investment with integrity, but it should be investment nonetheless.

The creation of the Grangemouth future industry board is an example in and of itself of Government providing public sector clarity and direction of travel, and the just transition plan will be a very important addition to that. We will work with industry. As Liam Middleton has mentioned, we have already met the eight large businesses at the complex; we will engage with smaller and medium-sized enterprises in the area, too. That will create the confidence and the direction of travel to allow for investment.

Indeed—this is the final point that I will make—that is already happening. For example, Ineos’s sustainability plan, which I was taken through when I met it, is linked with our 2045 target, which is very welcome, and it includes over £1 billion of investments at Grangemouth. We can see already that, where we are able to say, “This is where we and our economy are going. We must decarbonise, but we will work with you on that”, that gives confidence to investors, including those of the size of Ineos, to make the investments that are needed.

Thank you for the question. I will take the last bit first; my colleagues might want to add to my response.

I would expect the questions that you have asked to inform some of the baseline economic analysis that we are doing as part of phase 1 of the just transition plan. What is the lay of the land?

On your wider question about the availability of capital and investment, I suppose that, globally speaking, we recently had the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s sixth assessment report and, among all its dire warnings of climate catastrophe that we are heading for, there was a sort of silver lining with its statement that there is sufficient finance globally to fund the transition. Again, that brings us back to our role, as the Government, of making it very clear that this is the way in which Scotland’s economy and society are going and that we are open to investment of the right kind.

I am conscious that you asked for short answers, convener, but I wonder whether Liam Middleton has anything to add about investment in Scotland. I know that he already works closely with some of the investment bodies.

I will come back to that point—I am writing it down so that I do not forget.

I am committed to co-design. As I said, the energy strategy was developed before my time in the portfolio, but we have a new memorandum of understanding in place between us and the just transition commission, which everyone has welcomed. It speaks to the need for close engagement and early sight of drafts. That is how I expect the plans to be developed.

It is of benefit to us to engage closely with the just transition commission, which has been set up because it brings knowledge across civic society that will make the plans better and more sustainable in the end. Therefore, early sight of drafts and close engagement are important. Your question is in a similar vein to Mr Beattie’s question about communities. It is important that we are able to demonstrate how we have listened and where changes have been made.

It is me.

First, the extent to which the workforce is made up of permanent and agency workers respectively is important. When I was in Grangemouth last week, we discussed the fact that there are an estimated 2,000 full-time equivalent jobs at the cluster, but that it can employ up to 2,000 more contractors, and up to 7,000 at peak times when there is maintenance work to be done. That complicates the picture and presents a challenge that we must rise to.

Earlier, I mentioned the baseline study that we are doing as part of phase 1, which will map the extent to which the workforce is made up of various elements and will clarify the figures that I have just mentioned. Alongside that, we will do another piece of work, which is currently with the future industry board. Liam Middleton might want to say more about that, but it consists of a skills audit. That involves us working with Skills Development Scotland, via the board, to examine existing skills and consider future needs as we make the decarbonisation journey. Those two pieces of work—looking at where we are now in conjunction with the skills audit—will give us a really good picture to enable us to rise to that challenge. Of course, trade unions will be absolutely critical to that process. I do not want anyone to feel that the transition is being done to them; it must happen with them.

Thank you very much, convener. I am pleased to be here for the first time in front of the committee, in my new role as Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Just Transition.

The Government is committed to realising what we see as an exceptional opportunity to deliver a growing green economy. We set that out as one of the primary missions in our prospectus that was published last week. In my section of that prospectus, I set out my commitment to reducing our carbon emissions with the urgency that the climate emergency demands of us, but also to doing so fairly and in a way that takes people, workers and communities with us.

We welcome the inquiry and its specific focus on Grangemouth and the just transition planning that is going on there. The Grangemouth cluster is of significant industrial importance to Scotland and we see it as integral to our future net zero economy and society.

Scotland’s industrial emissions of CO₂ fell by more than 10 million tonnes between the 1990 baseline and 2020. However, the industrial sector today accounts for more than 20 per cent of Scotland’s total greenhouse gas emissions. That is why, in our programme for government, we announced that work is under way on a dedicated and focused Grangemouth just transition plan.

The plan will be place-based, regional and nuanced. It will be different to the other plans that we are setting out and will chart a vision for the cluster to 2045. I was pleased to be able to visit Grangemouth recently. We may get on to discussing that, because I know that the committee also visited there. We are right at the beginning of the process. The work that you have been doing will be helpful in informing much of what we continue to do as we develop the plan.

I will leave it there and we can move to questions.