The publication yesterday of our first report as the new Just Transition Commission could not have come at a more challenging time for Scotland and its journey to a just net zero transition.
All across Scotland, workers and communities are facing the biggest threat to living standards in a generation.
Food and fuel prices are soaring, and the cost of domestic heating is due to rise yet again before winter hits, All the evidence that I see in both my role as a senior Trade Union leader in Scotland, and as a Just Transition Commissioner, points to people facing hard choices about heating their homes, feeding their families, or commuting to work.
The recent announcements from the Scottish Government about its recently completed Resource Spending Review with warnings of austerity style cuts in public spending and public sector jobs simply add further worry and stress to Scottish workers and their families.
We know that if delivered well a Just Net Zero Transition can add enormously to the wellbeing of workers and their communities. It can play a huge role in reducing inequality and creating the wellbeing economy that Scotland desires.
However, if Scotland is to retain its world leading position on progress to a Just Net Zero Transition, then worries and concerns about the costs of that progress cannot be added to the strains already threatening the fabric of many people’s lives.
The Scottish Government must prioritise measures which help those most at risk of further marginalisation from the transition to net zero.
It must accelerate those changes which will assist those struggling with the cost-of-living emergency, prioritising investment in retrofitting houses and other energy efficiency measures to bring down domestic fuel bills.
We also need a fully functioning, accessible and much more affordable public transport system. This will mean hard choices for the Government, but nobody ever said this was going to be an easy journey.
As the cost-of-living emergency bites harder we are in a battle for the hearts and minds of those who are the most deeply affected both by the current economic turmoil and by the changes we need to make.
Unless we give communities and workers confidence that they will not end up like the pit villages of Fife and Ayrshire or the steel communities of Lanarkshire our progress to Net Zero will ebb away to the detriment of everyone.
That’s why I’m proud of the report we have complied as a Commission, proud of our recommendations for an Energy transmission map and investment plan, for increased access to energy efficiency schemes and a review of the UK energy market, for the adoption of all the Fair Work Conventions recommendations on the Construction industry, on a national care Service, and for an expansion not diminution of Scot rails services , proud that the spirit of collegiality and consensus has carried over from the first Commission, Government now has a chance to act on the recommendations we make on its new Energy Strategy and ensure that a Just Transition helps workers, communities and the whole of Scotland cope with the cost-of-living emergency.
Richard Hardy is the senior officer in Scotland and Ireland for the Trade Union Prospect, a member of the STUC General Council and a current and past member of the Just Transition Commission
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