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That was a really interesting aspect of the Edinburgh process. Members might recall that, during the 26th UN climate change conference of the parties—COP26—subnational actors such as Scotland, some American states and some European regions were frustrated that members of the United Nations might not have been as ambitious as subnational actors wanted them to be. The same concern was expressed in the biodiversity space during COP15, which is why the secretariat asked Scotland to lead the process for subnational bodies. In Montreal, I met the mayor of Kunming, the deputy mayor of Paris and some amazing people from Sao Paolo, Quebec, California and other parts of America, and it was interesting to talk to them about what they were doing in that ambitious space.

The member is absolutely right that regional governments can do so much, because they are on the ground and are at the coalface of how things happen. I am happy to outline some of the things that we are doing. A lot of stuff will need to be delivered by local authorities, so I meet the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities regularly, and NatureScot works closely with a network of local authority biodiversity officers on those matters.

The nature restoration fund has a specific Edinburgh process stream, which is for local authorities to use to take on projects. We are providing direct funding to local authorities—£5 million was allocated during 2021-22 and £6 million was allocated during 2022-23.

Another interesting initiative for local authorities in Scotland is our nature networks. In October 2022, we announced an additional £200,000 for the expansion of nature networks in Scotland. The vision is that each local authority will have a nature network, which will address the problem of habitat fragmentation. As human activity has encroached on nature, nature has retreated to sort of islands. That is a problem for resilience because it means that species cannot move between those islands and, therefore, cannot keep their genetics healthy by intermingling. It also means that species are less able to adapt to climate because they cannot relocate or move as the climate changes around them. We can tackle habitat fragmentation through nature networks, which will be delivered by local authorities in Scotland. That is very exciting because it means that each local authority can decide what will work for it and what is right for it. I am interested in how we join up those networks across boundaries so that we have a continuous network of nature throughout Scotland. Some really interesting work is happening in that regard.

We have no specific newt knowledge, but we are happy to write to the member on that issue.

That is a serious matter and a really big question. You are right that one of the outcomes detailed in the Scottish Government’s environment strategy is that we need to be responsible global citizens and have a sustainable international footprint. If everyone on earth consumed resources as we do in Scotland, we would need three planets. Our consumption relies on resources—including water, land and biological and mineral resources—that are extracted or used in other parts of the world.

Our environmental impact is so significant that it does not just impact our own country; the impact extends far beyond it. The impacts from how much we overconsume are complex. Some of the commodities that we import are associated with deforestation, water stress and other ecological pressures.

To be good global citizens, we need to make sure that we manage our own consumption here. A big part of that relates to the circular economy, which, as the member rightly points out, is the other part of my portfolio. We need to move to an economy in which we do not tolerate waste of energy or materials, so that we reduce to the bare minimum our extraction from the natural environment. Where possible, we should re-use materials over and over again and use materials that have a long life. That is how we can reduce our impact.

As I touched on earlier, in relation to the impact of plastics on wildlife species, for example, we need to look at how we manage plastics, how we reduce their use and how we make sure that we recycle them when we do need them. We can tackle a lot of our problems in this area by looking at the “how”.

As the member will know and the committee will have heard in the evidence session last week, there absolutely need to be mechanisms for bringing private finance and investment into this space. Carbon credits are an established tool, and work is being done on biodiversity credits and so on. They are under development, but the finance that they bring in is absolutely needed. There is no question but that we must have private finance to develop those areas, and that is one of the tools for bringing in that finance.

I do not have any particular comment on that. I am not aware of any particular work in that policy space.

The matter of green lairds does cause concern, to me and to my ministerial colleagues. It is really important that we balance the need for investment in our natural capital with work that we are doing to empower local communities, so that we do not have the situation of problematic green lairds.

A suite of existing measures are in place to mitigate the impact of that rapidly evolving market. For example, in the last session of Parliament, we implemented legislation to extend community right to buy, including the right to buy land in order to further sustainable development. We also introduced a new register of persons holding a controlled interest in land.

Fears were raised at the time that our measures would deter inward investment but, as the member knows, that has not been the case, as we can see from substantial rises in land values over the past few years.

I share the member’s concern around so-called green lairds on the land concerned, and that is why we are putting in place frameworks for ethical investment in land and nature restoration, with private finance.

The development of highly protected marine areas is still under way. We are carrying out a consultation to get the areas in the right places—which was rightly pointed out as being important. There is certainly a challenge in ensuring that we have engaged stakeholders at all the key stages when locating and selecting the sites for those areas.

I turn to the enforcement of HPMAs. MPAs and HPMAs are different beasts. MPAs will have marine management plans in place, which say how the areas are to be used, while HPMAs are much stricter as no-take zones, given the restrictions on commercial activities in those spaces.

I might have to get Lisa McCann or Matthew Bird to support me on the detail of how exactly those restrictions would be enforced.

—the need for private finance for nature restoration is unquestioned.

The finance gap is £20 billion. There is absolutely no way that that can be fully funded from the public purse; that simply is not possible. What we need to do, and what we are working on doing, is to put in place the framework for ethical investment in the places concerned for nature restoration. That means managing the different interests and incorporating community wealth building and local input into the schemes. However, we absolutely cannot meet our targets for the climate and nature restoration without private finance. That simply would not be possible. We have to find a way of doing that ethically that supports communities.

I actually think that the problem is largely because of misunderstanding of what the scheme is and how it operates. The scheme is moving toward launch, and we have that big milestone of 95 per cent of the market, by volume, being signed up to the scheme.

The scheme is a producer responsibility scheme. That means that producers of the materials that we are collecting—the people who profit from those materials—need to ante up. They need to put it on the line and say, “Yes, we are now going to be responsible for collecting the materials, sorting them, and making sure that they are recycled properly.” That is a big shift, from using public money to do that work to putting it back on the producers. Producers that produce an enormous market volume—as I have said, it represents 95 per cent of the market—have signed on the dotted line and said, “Yes, we’re stepping up.” That is a huge milestone.

The next significant milestone is getting the return points signed up. Once Circularity Scotland and Biffa know where the return points are and how many items they expect from each return point, they can finalise their collection schedules. Circularity Scotland and Biffa are working towards the 16 August launch date.

All those pieces of the puzzle are under way. That is what we need to get the scheme launched. I know that there are still concerns among some small producers about how they participate in the scheme. We are working with them, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and Circularity Scotland to bring them on board so that they can continue to supply the Scottish market.