Just Transition Plan
(Mossmorran)
1. Mark Ruskell (Mid
Scotland and Fife) (Green)
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide further
details of the process that it will follow to develop a just
transition plan for the Mossmorran industrial site. (S6O-03540)
The Minister for Climate
Action ()
The Scottish Government has committed to publishing a just
transition plan for Mossmorran following the delivery of the
Grangemouth just transition plan. Work will commence in early
2025.
Lessons will be learned from developing the just transition plan
for Grangemouth. I anticipate taking a sequential and measured
approach, and the plan is likely to include a data-driven
baseline, an outline vision for 2045, a corresponding action plan
and a monitoring framework.
I am committed to ensuring that that work is business credible
while embedding the ambitions of both workers and the community.
I welcome early engagement with all stakeholder groups to ensure
that their voices are heard, and the plan will be co-designed
with them.
Mark Ruskell
I thank the minister for the detail of that answer. ExxonMobil
and Shell run
Mossmorran. Around 250 workers work there, and many more are
employed through short-term maintenance contracts. Any credible
just transition plan for the site must be co-designed with the
workers and the unions from the get-go, to safeguard their
livelihoods. What engagement process does the Government plan to
follow to ensure the development of a worker-backed plan? Will
the minister join me, alongside site operators, workers and
unions, at the summit that I will organise on the issue later
this year?
As with the Grangemouth just transition plan, unions and the
voices of workers will be central to the development of the
Mossmorran plan. I approached ExxonMobil at Mossmorran to say
that I would like to work with it on a just transition plan, and
it was happy for that to happen.
It is probably more important to get the Grangemouth plan off the
ground, given the situation at the Grangemouth complex, but work
will be brought forward into how we approach the Mossmorran plan.
Many of the same unions will be involved in that process, and we
will be able to learn the lessons from the Grangemouth plan and
adapt them for the Mossmorran plan.
Alexander Stewart (Mid
Scotland and Fife) (Con)
In December, the Scottish Government, which the Greens were then
part of, cut the just transition fund. The Greens now ask about a
just transition for the Mossmorran industrial site. Now that the
Bute house agreement has collapsed, will the minister commit to
restoring funding to the just transition fund for the future?
The just transition fund is for the north-east and Moray, and I
am considering how other areas of Scotland might benefit from it.
It has not been cut. In its current form, it will be the same as
it was when it was announced, and it will be delivered over 10
years. It is not true at all to say that it has been cut.