Charity voices are among those on the Just Transition Commission pushing the UK and Scottish Government to work together.
Leading voices advocating for a just transition for Scotland have outline plans which could protect workers across the country.
Scotland’s Just Transition Commission has written to Rachel Reeves, Ed Miliband and Ian Murray, welcoming “a positive strategic reset” in the relationship between Holyrood and Westminster.
The commissioners also shared a new report setting out the key next steps to support people at Grangemouth, one of the UK’s biggest industrial sites, as operations are decarbonised.
The independent commission urged the new UK Government and Scottish Government to not only support those whose current livelihoods are on the line, but also deliver tangible results for young people and the local community through a serious and detailed long-term plan.
“The retention of jobs and the local skills base on an intergenerational basis must be the core strategic aim of Grangemouth’s just transition plan” says the report.
The Commission called for conditionalities on all public money deployed to support the green transition at Grangemouth, to ensure fair work and a lock in economic benefits for the surrounding community.
Satwat Rehman, co-chair of the Commission, said: “The move away from high carbon assets has been clearly foreseeable for some time given long-term trends.
“We expect UK and Scottish government to take an active role in anticipating these changes and shaping them in a socially positive way. It will only be truly just if the new industrial model in Grangemouth provides a future for local young people and brings meaningful benefits to the community.”
The Commission is an independent expert advisory group with members drawn from the third sector, business, industry, trade unions, environmental and community groups and academia.
It aims to make sure the benefits and burdens of the major changes involved in Scotland’s net zero transition are shared as fairly as possible, and is tasked by the Scottish Government with making an annual assessment of progress towards a just transition to a low carbon economy.
The Commission writes: “As an industrial site of UK-wide strategic importance we welcome the Prime Minister’s commitment to ensuring the best outcome possible for Grangemouth and hope the UK Government will play an active and enabling role on the Grangemouth Future Industry Board as it works to develop the Grangemouth Industrial Just Transition Plan.”
The Commission said efforts by all levels of government have so far been insufficient.
The report said: “Five years of policymaking on this agenda has not developed sufficiently to require high carbon emitters to deliver a just transition as standard practice. The current path will not deliver.
“The limitations of collective efforts to date are nowhere more clearly in evidence than at Grangemouth, which presents an acute challenge for applying a just transition approach, given the central role of a privately owned company and foreign state-owned enterprise, and the associated difficulties in setting conditions and implementing effective mechanisms for open dialogue about the site’s future.”
Deborah Long, chief officer at Scottish Environment LINK and a commissioner, said: “As a critical test for Scotland's Just Transition, Grangemouth is in danger of becoming an example of how to transition and leave communities and the local environment behind.
“We saw no clear plans for a planned and orderly transition. Instead, there is a danger that international companies will seek subsidies without conditionalities that ensure benefits accrue to local communities and protect the local environment.”
The Commission visited Grangemouth earlier this year to meet with local people and organisations. It also worked with researchers at the University of Glasgow to record the perspectives of workers at the industrial site and their aspirations for a fair future.
Lang Banks, director of WWF Scotland and a commissioner, said: “As our report makes clear, there’s still time to put Grangemouth on a path toward a just transition for workers and the local community, but only if we act quickly and only if every stakeholder begins pulling in the same direction.
“The recent announcement by UK and Scottish government ministers, to work collaboratively to secure a sustainable future for Grangemouth, is therefore a welcome first step.
“Done well, a successful just transition plan at Grangemouth could be the template for the rest of the country, where we need to see similar plans developed for every high emitting facility.”
