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We have had to take incredibly difficult decisions because of the financial settlement that we have received. In particular, as the Deputy First Minister set out, we have seen a reduction in our capital budget from the UK Government, as well as a reduction in financial transactions and a real-terms cut of almost 10 per cent coming forward in future years. That has had a direct impact on what we are able to spend. It goes without saying that we cannot spend what is not there, and I have had to take a very difficult decision to prioritise our commitment to an offshore wind supply chain, which I believe will help to catalyse some of the projects that will lead to the continued development of hydrogen.

The hydrogen innovation scheme continues to operate and we are continuing the Scottish industrial energy transformation fund, which has the potential to look at the decarbonisation of heavy industry, including through the generation of hydrogen. There are huge opportunities still available. We are incredibly well placed to take advantage of green hydrogen in particular; there is a huge market for that. We know that there is significant interest from Germany in particular for a fixed link. Hydrogen will play a critical role and I want to see it developed as quickly as possible. However, where we are faced with a fall in budgets, we have to take difficult decisions, and I have had to prioritise the offshore wind supply chain.

That is a fair point and I am cognisant of it. The issue is how we use hydrogen, where it can be deployed and what is possible from it. We should not underestimate the opportunity that would come from an export of some of that hydrogen, because it would also catalyse the wider hydrogen industry, which allows some of the other offtake to happen.

I think that you are right that the investments that we have made so far are around demonstrators as well as around testers on the viability of some of those potential uses. I am thinking of the work that the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney has done to demonstrate that green hydrogen can power the harbour infrastructure for the ferries while they are dockside there, or indeed the investments that have been made in the demonstrator in Fife of the potential for green hydrogen to be used for an alternative energy and heat supply.

There is massive potential in relation to green hydrogen, particularly for industrial decarbonisation; also, potentially, for export and transport decarbonisation. There is a difference of opinion across industry pretty widely as to whether green hydrogen, or hydrogen in general, will be best used by deploying it for alternative household energy consumption. However, it is important that we continue to invest in those demonstrators to show whether it is viable and to work with some of the organisations that have an interest, such as the gas grid and its regulators, to see how we can best deploy green hydrogen.

Some of that thinking will come through in the green industrial strategy, but the completed energy strategy and just transition plan will also feature some of that work.

As I said, local authorities have agency and decision-making powers regarding the level of investment that they make in their planning departments. First and foremost, we are looking to ensure that the protection of planning budgets is encouraged, so that local authorities also reap the economic rewards that come from having a good planning system and taking advantage of the investment opportunities that come through it.

The Scottish Government’s commitment of its own human and financial resources to our consenting regimes is under constant review. We have a direct commitment concerning the consent time for onshore wind as part of the onshore wind sector deal, and we will need to ensure that it is reflected in the resource—including human resource—that is committed, in order that it can be realised.

Ms Dunbar is correct—we have that long-standing commitment to continue to support carbon capture. The release is triggered by the decisions that are taken at a UK Government level, as I set out previously, around furtherance of the track 2 status and, in particular, whether industrial emitters will be included. We continue to engage with the UK Government on making progress and encourage it to do so in a timeous fashion, so that we can realise our commitment and our obligations to meet not just our net zero targets but the UK’s net zero targets. The Scottish cluster also has a very important role in the UK meeting its net zero ambitions—it is not just about the central role that the cluster will play in Scotland’s ambitions. Therefore, we need to see faster progress there, and I am sure that the committee will also be interested in exploring progress on that with UK ministers.

I concur.

The Scottish cluster has that work in hand. We have also done our own work, and I can pass on further information around the industrial emitters that we are aware of and the work that needs to be done in order to see that decarbonisation happen. I am happy to provide that to the committee.

I am happy to give a brief response to that. First of all, without referencing any particular project, the central importance that the traditional oil and gas companies will play in securing our energy transition is clear. I have already stated that we cannot make that just transition happen without private capital, and a large amount of that private capital will come from energy companies that have traditionally been involved in oil and gas. We are also going to need the skills and expertise of people who have been working in oil and gas—and that volume of people—in order to transition to renewable energy.

I absolutely welcome and value the work that those workers have contributed to date and I appreciate the on-going investment by traditional oil and gas companies in new energy technologies. I encourage them, as the First Minister and I did at an Offshore Energies UK round-table meeting last Monday, to move faster and to show where they are making those investments so that that is demonstrated.

There are various on-going projects by traditional energy companies, in oil and gas and in renewable energy, that demonstrate that the just transition is happening, and the movement of workers from the oil and gas industry into renewables demonstrates that, too. I am keen to see it happen quicker—as quickly as possible—and I will work with anybody who can help us realise that goal.

So, £42.5 million has been set aside for this financial year.

Yes. The first consideration of whether we can legally come forward with a direct award will be considered as part of the procurement process. On the second element of whether we can invest in making the yard more productive, those conversations are on-going with the yard, to ensure that its business plan passes the first hurdle of the legal test—the commercial operator test around whether we would pass subsidy control rules. Then, it is about whether it is the right investment to make and whether we would want to do that; if so, we would find the finance to come forward to do that.

I and the Government remain committed to Ferguson Marine and to delivering Glen Sannox and Glen Rosa in as speedy a time as possible, because we have island communities who are in desperate need of those vessels coming on stream.

We also remain committed to doing everything that we can to ensure the future of commercial shipbuilding on the Clyde, which Ferguson Marine will be central to.