Green jobs hopes dashed as energy strategy 'long overdue'

The £500m fund was launched by former first minister Nicola Sturgeon in August 2021 under the co-operation agreement signed with the Scottish Greens, which collapsed within four years.

When the 10-year fund was launched, Ms Sturgeon claimed the agreement with the Greens was ground-breaking and declared: “We need boldness, courage and a will to do things differently. That is what we offer.”

But she and successors have found it much harder to find a way to use the funds concerned than to announce the plan. Rather than break ground they appear to have ground to a halt in terms of action to speed a just transition.

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Months after Ms Sturgeon launched the fund the auditor general Stephen Boyle lamented the existence of a “major implementation gap between policy ambitions and delivery on the ground”.

Mr Boyle has made clear that he thinks the shortcomings extend to budgetary matters. The just transition drive has been one of the casualties.

In a report on the Scottish Government’s latest accounts, Mr Boyle criticised ministers for relying on making short term savings to plug a hole in the national budget rather than implementing the reforms that were urgently required to address the public sector’s unsustainable finances.

Mr Boyle said the Scottish Government’s accounts for 2023/24 showed it “responded to large and ongoing financial pressures through a range of short-term measures such as cutting spending across transport, net-zero and education to balance its £54 billion budget”.

In a report of fiscal sustainability in Scotland published last week Mr Boyle reiterated his concerns. Noting the country faces a £1 billion spending deficit in the current year, he said: “The Scottish Government continues to take short-term decisions, reacting to events rather than making fundamental changes to how public money is spent.”

He noted that pay awards agreed in the current year would be funded by delaying spending and by drawing down one-off sources of funding, including £460 million revenues from the ScotWind offshore licencing round. The revenues were meant to fund spending on the net zero drive.

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Mr Boyle said the pressure on the public finances had been exacerbated by former first minister Humza Yousaf’s decision to freeze council tax, which was a boon for people living in high value homes. His successor John Swinney’s decision last week to guarantee winter fuel payments for all pensioners will add to the strain on the public finances.

Spending on a just transition could come under renewed pressure following a sharp fall in the amount of funds deployed since the initiative was launched.

In a report published in March, MSPs noted the funding allocated to just transition spending fell to £12m in the budget for the current financial year, from £50m in 2023-24, and £20m in the programme’s first year.

“This … raises questions about the Fund's future direction and the Scottish Government's stated ambition to accelerate the development of a transformed and decarbonised economy,” the report said.

Champions of a just transition insist the allocation must be increased in this week’s Budget.

Sceptics may counter that the fall in the allocation probably reflects the fact that the Government doesn’t really know what to spend just transition funds on.

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But Aberdeen Grampian Chamber of Commerce last week told Ms Robison that it wanted to see faster progress. The chamber’s members include BP and Shell.

In a letter to Ms Robison, chamber chief executive Russell Borthwick also expressed concern that the Scottish Government appears to have done nothing significant to implement the £500m offshore wind support plan launched by Mr Yousaf in October last year.

“The announced £500million Offshore Wind Supply Chain Fund has not yet materialised, but alongside other initiatives such as the … Just Transition Fund can make a transformative difference in diversifying the regional economy. But it is needed now, not at some undefined point in the future,” wrote Mr Borthwick.

The Scottish Government has also faced flak over the just transition fund from environmentalists. Campaigners have complained about the lack of progress made and the fact that corporations have been big beneficiaries of early awards.

Friends of the Earth Scotland highlighted ‘serious questions’ and community concerns about the first round awards announced by Ms Sturgeon.

The group said: “Millions of pounds is going towards companies, many of which are backed by the fossil fuel industry, as well as a significant amount awarded to a contentious project which will destroy a vital community greenspace.”

The project referred to is the plan to develop Energy Transition Zone facilities on St. Fittick’s Park in Aberdeen, which has provoked strong opposition.

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The criticisms highlight the fact that opinions differ about what constitutes a just transition.

Some people say oil and gas corporations can’t be trusted to support such a transition by investing in renewables and the like as their desire to make money will always take precedence.

Industry leaders say corporations can being vital expertise and should be allowed to make a return on activities that will benefit wider society. They say the public sector won’t be able to afford the investment required on its own.

In the report published in March, MSPs noted that the Scottish Government had not really quantified the amount of investment that would be required to achieve a just transition.

Ministers may attempt to address such concerns in the revised just transition plan that they have long accepted is required.

The plan was meant to have been published this summer, alongside the final version of the Energy Strategy that was issued in draft form in January last year. The draft recommended a presumption against further oil and gas exploration in the North Sea.

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Energy minister Gillian Martin said recently that she hoped both plans would be published by the end of the year.

However, Mr Swinney played for time at first minister’s questions last week.

Pressed by Scottish Greens chieftain Patrick Harvie to publish the “long overdue” energy strategy, the beleaguered SNP leader indicated his government had come up with a new excuse for inaction.

Mr Swinney said some of the judgements in the strategy will be informed and influenced by recent court decisions. He did not elaborate on the judgements concerned but indicated that they could require lengthy consideration.

“The Government is taking time to ensure that we properly reflect on these issues in the formulation of the energy strategy and it will be published when these conclusions have been reached,” he told MSPs.

The wait for the Scottish Government to explain how it will create the green jobs the country was promised may last a while yet.