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Scotland’s energy sector is at the forefront of our transformation to becoming a net zero nation. It is a major employer and source of economic output, and our oil and gas infrastructure and highly skilled workforce have long been at the forefront of energy innovation - which is why it is well-placed to embrace the transformation that lies ahead.

We are already investing in the oil and gas sector’s net zero transformation. Our expanded £75 million Energy Transition Fund which is supporting the energy sector to grow and diversify, whilst helping to attract further private investment; and our £500 million Just Transition Fund for the North East and Moray will support the North East and Moray to become one of Scotland’s centres of excellence for the transition to a net zero economy . The opportunities of offshore wind are also considerable. Applicants to the recent ScotWind leasing round were required to submit a Supply Chain Development Statement, outlining the supply chain activity they commit to undertaking within Scotland, the UK and overseas. The full Supply Chain Development Statement Outlooks for all successful applicants were published by Crown Estate Scotland in April 2022, and the initial projections show an average spend of £1.5bn in Scotland across each of the 17 ScotWind projects. This week Crown Estate Scotland’s ScotWind clearing process offered seabed agreements to a further three projects off the east coast of Shetland bringing the total number of ScotWind projects to 20 totaling 27.8GW.

Our £75 million Energy Transition Fund is focused on acceleration the energy sector’s transition to net zero-emissions whilst helping to attract further private investment, £26 million of which has been allocated to develop the Energy Transition Zone (ETZ) in Aberdeen. ETZ is expected to directly support 2,500 green jobs by 2030, alongside a further 10,000 transition-related jobs. Our £500 million Just Transition Fund - which we have called on the UK Government multiple times to match - will also support the north east and Moray become one of Scotland's centres of excellence for the transition to a net economy, with our investment supporting transformation across the region.

In recognition of the particular challenges the North East has faced as result of the Covid-19 pandemic and the downturn in oil and gas, we have allocated £14.3m to the North East Economic Recovery and Skills Fund, which offers over 3,000 training opportunities in addition to supporting hundreds of local businesses at a critical time for the local economy. We have worked closely with local partners to develop proposals aligned to the City Region economic priorities of diversification and net zero transition, including local authorities, Skills Development Scotland, Opportunity North East, Scottish Enterprise, the Scottish Funding Council and local universities.

This programme aligns with existing nationwide upskilling and reskilling programmes of support for colleges and universities as we work towards a just transition, including the Young Person’s Guarantee, the National Transition Training Fund, the Flexible Workforce Development Fund and the Green Jobs Workforce Academy.

In 2022-23, we are also progressing key actions from the Climate Emergency Skills Action Plan (CESAP) focused on inspiring and empowering young people; supporting upskilling to meet emerging green jobs requirements; aligning work-based learning, Further and Higher Education provision to meet the needs of the net zero transition; facilitating behaviour change and helping employers capitalise on opportunities, and driving change in the skills system. The CESAP is being driven forward by an Implementation Steering Group comprised of central and local government and its agencies, education and skills providers, industry and independent experts.

The Scottish Government published an update to the 2018 Climate Change Plan in 2020, including over 200 policies and proposals which will drive our delivery of emissions reduction between 2020 and 2032.

The Scottish Government is currently in the process of developing the next climate change plan which covers the period from 2025 to 2040. The Scottish Government has committed to fully costing the next Climate Change Plan as set out in the Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets) (Scotland) Act 2019.

Our focus now is on delivering the existing plan as well as the polices that have been developed since to achieve our climate objectives. The challenging nature of delivering these targets will depend on a national endeavour, with action from all sectors of society. The updated plan sends a clear market signal which should give businesses the confidence to act, invest and achieve our climate targets, driving new green jobs, growing a thriving sustainable and fair economy.

All these actions require co-operation from the UK Government to maximise action in reserved actions. Our updated Plan set out the main asks of the UK Government and calls on them to match Scotland’s climate ambition in a credible way. As we develop our next plan and the vision for 2040, we will be required to go further and require reductions in currently reserved areas to achieve the 90% reduction by 2040.

We need bold action to tackle the climate emergency and Scotland has some of the most extensive renewable generation capabilities in Europe with which to accelerate our just transition to net zero.

We do not believe that Scotland can achieve our 2030 decarbonisation targets without a substantial increase in onshore and offshore wind deployment.

In October 2020, Scottish Government published our Offshore Wind Policy Statement, setting out our ambitions for offshore wind in Scotland in the context of our commitment to achieve net zero by 2045. The Offshore Wind Policy Statement sets a new ambition to achieve 8-11 GW of offshore wind in Scotland by 2030. This recognises that deployment must increase significantly if we are to meet our climate change targets.

The Onshore Wind Policy Statement consultation was launched on 28 October 2021, which includes our ambition that an additional 8-12 GW of onshore wind be installed by 2030, in line with the Climate Change Committees' recommendations.

As of June 2022, there were 8.7GW of installed, operational onshore wind in Scotland, comprising approximately 3,940 turbines, and 1.86GW of installed, operational offshore wind in Scotland, comprising of 264 turbines.

Our recent ScotWind announcement includes 25GW of generating capacity of offshore wind [note: this figure was correct at July 2022], which is a massive vote of confidence in Scotland’s potential. The planning and consenting processes that lie ahead – together with the need to fully consider the views of stakeholders about impact – means it is not possible to know now exactly what scale of development will be permitted ultimately. However, we are seeking to maximise the opportunities from ScotWind, for energy, the environment, the economy and our supply chain, albeit in a way that aligns with the marine planning framework.

There are many variable factors, including advancements in turbine technology (i.e. larger turbines that produce more electricity), environmental considerations and landscape considerations, which make it difficult to determine precisely how may turbines will make up the estimated 8-12GW of onshore wind and 8 – 11GW of offshore wind required to meet our net-zero targets.

The Scottish Government believes that renewables, particularly wind, has a vital role to play to achieve our net zero targets and to the decarbonisation of the energy system.

Scotland’s natural resources, which include strong and consistent wind resource, along with our established expertise in offshore oil and gas, skilled offshore workforce, excellent port structure and strong innovation hub, make Scotland one of the best places in the world to develop offshore wind and its supply chain.

The recent ScotWind leasing round demonstrates this, by delivering around £700 million in option fee revenues to the public purse, plus the ScotWind projects committed to investment of up to £25 billion across the Scottish supply chain across the 17 ScotWind offshore wind projects as set out in their Supply Chain Development Statements

This work will be further complemented by the Scottish Offshore Wind Energy Council’s (SOWEC) Collaborative Framework. This Charter signed by 24 organisations offshore wind developments in Scotland, is a practical way for developers and Scottish ports to work together, helping to build a long-term pipeline of work and creating certainty that ports need to prioritise investment in higher value activities like fabrication. By working together developers can identify joint opportunities, mitigating risks in bringing together the infrastructure needed to build out the full pipeline of ScotWind projects.

The Scottish Government supports the principles underpinning the green taxonomy, especially the need to establish criteria for sustainable economic activity, to give investors certainty on the sustainability of projects, and to combat greenwashing, and we look forward to continuing to work internationally with our partners in the European Union and its Member States to combat climate change.

The Scottish Government position on nuclear power is clear – we do not support the building of new nuclear power stations in Scotland under current technologies. Given that new nuclear power will take years, if not decades, to become operational and will be expensive, we do not believe classifying nuclear as sustainable or transitional should be our focus.

The best pathway to net zero is through increased investment in renewables, storage, hydrogen and carbon capture. Concentrating growth in these technologies is better for both energy security and the climate. As the UK taxonomy is a reserved matter, we are working with UK government to ensure the forthcoming UK taxonomy reflects the level of climate ambition the Scottish Government has set. We will be publishing our Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan later this year, including energy scenarios that will set out how Scotland can achieve our climate targets and meets our energy needs in a sustainable manner by 2050, and will provide a long term basis for investment in energy generation in Scotland.

The shared policy programme in the 2021 Bute House Agreement committed to establish a 10-year £500 million Just Transition Fund for the North East and Moray, with £20 million allocated to year one of the Fund.

The published criteria for projects seeking to access the first year of Fund allocations included a location based stipulation that “the bidding organisation must be headquartered, or demonstrate a strong connection to at least one of Aberdeenshire, Aberdeen City or Moray. The majority of project activity and benefits realised must also be within these regions. If bidding jointly, at least one partner must be based or have majority of operations in one of the regions.”

Our Just Transition to net-zero will necessitate the creation of new businesses and jobs, in addition to managing the transition of existing jobs and skills to the renewables sectors and their supply chains. The pace of change will differ between these sectors (offshore and onshore wind, hydrogen, carbon capture and storage) and we expect jobs to be created throughout Scotland by 2030.

The Scottish House Condition Survey is the source of National Statistics on fuel poverty in Scotland. The key findings from the 2019 Scottish House Condition Survey were published in December 2020 and estimated that 613,000 households were in fuel poverty in 2019. Furthermore, it was estimated that 619,000 and 583,000 households were in fuel poverty in 2018 and 2017, respectively.

Due to Covid-19, the fieldwork for the 2020 Scottish House Condition Survey was suspended in March 2020 and did not resume. The 2021 Scottish House Condition Survey was undertaken using a non-contact external plus approach and the results, including key statistics on fuel poverty, energy efficiency and external repairs, are expected to be published in February 2023. Therefore, at present there are no National Statistics estimating the number of households in fuel poverty in 2020 and 2021.

There are already well-established links between learning in the STEM - Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics - subjects at school and the cross-curricular theme of Learning for Sustainability (LfS). The Scottish Government has, in collaboration with Education Scotland and other partners, supported implementation of the LfS action plan. LfS is a curriculum entitlement for all learners in Scotland.

Study of STEM in both the Broad General Education and Senior Phase includes environmental science, the living environment and Earth's resources which are crucial to delivering on learners' entitlement to LfS. Specific connections exist between STEM and LfS in areas such as engineering and technologies, in particular when considering energy production and distribution.

In relation to the North East, Skills Development Scotland (SDS) is working with Aberdeen City Council as they develop the “ABZ Campus”. The courses offered within this programme are available to Senior Phase pupils and are designed to promote skills development aligned with the fastest growing industries of the North East, including renewable energy.

SDS Careers Advisers are in every state secondary school offering careers information, advice and guidance to pupils through a mixture of one-to-one and group engagements, to enable them to make informed choices about learning and career options in the renewable energy workforce for the future.