Just Transition for the Grangemouth industrial cluster: discussion paper

Developing Just Transition Plans

An overview of Just Transition:

What is Just Transition?

Scotland has ambitious plans to reduce our emissions to net-zero by 2045. Our vision for a Fairer, Greener 2045^[3] sets out what we could expect our economy and society to look like in the future.

With so much possibility for change, it is vital that we ensure a Just Transition to Net Zero, ensuring that the benefits, costs and risks are shared and managed fairly, so that no one is left behind.

A just transition is both the outcome – a fairer, greener future for all – and the process that must be undertaken in partnership with those impacted by the transition to net zero. Just transition is how we get to a net zero and climate resilient economy, in a way that delivers fairness and tackles inequality and injustice.

For the Scottish Government, Just Transition, at its core, is about carefully managing major shifts in our economy as we move to net-zero; using evidence to identify the risks and benefits of decarbonisation, and finding ways to share them equitably through collective action.

Just Transition Planning

To realise its ambitious net zero goals, secure the opportunities presented by progress towards these, and manage the change in an equitable way, the Scottish Government has committed to lead the production of key, sectoral and regional just transition plans. This means producing these plans in a manner which is co-designed and co-delivered by communities, including youth voices, businesses, unions and workers.

Co-design ensures that a wide range of groups can be directly involved in what will inevitably be a more robust and creative process of planning. This active planning is critical to avoid the mistakes of previous economic change in Scotland, and to accomplish a just transition – meaning:

• Skills, training and education that helps to secure good, high value jobs in green industries like low-carbon manufacturing, renewables, and tech.
• Job security for those in industries that will play the biggest part in the transition – at every level – from those working in petrol stations to those on oil platforms.
• Homes that are energy efficient and help to reduce fuel poverty.
• Building infrastructure, transport and communities that support our efforts to decarbonise, to enhance biodiversity and which are resilient in the face of the impact of climate change that we are already feeling.
• Making sure the costs do not burden those least able to pay and the benefits of our transition are felt regardless of where you live, who you are and what you do.

Scotland has also committed to a Just Transition Planning Framework, setting out a consistent, ambitious approach to guide just transition planning. This includes setting the expectation

that planning activities contribute to the achievement of a set of National Just Transition Outcomes will be evidence-based and co-designed.

The Framework stipulates that certain regions and groups in society, particularly areas where there is a high concentration of carbon-intensive industries (such as Grangemouth) that will be undergoing intensive, often rapid change, will experience the transition to net zero more acutely than others, and that this disparity would need to be reflected in the level of engagement.

Grangemouth and Just Transition

The Scottish Government’s Programme for Government 2022 to 2023 committed to develop a Just Transition Plan for the Grangemouth Industrial Cluster, reflecting the fact that the site represents one such area that we can expect to undergo major structural shifts to 2045. Partners across the Grangemouth Future Industry Board are leading the process to deliver this targeted plan and initial work is already underway.

The business case for a Grangemouth Just Transition Plan is clear. The region is central to Scotland’s industrial sector and has a significant role in our Energy network. Many of the industrial assets there are well placed to transition to provide products and services that will be vital in a net-zero economy. In terms of its geography and infrastructure – and, as a region, Grangemouth could influence Scotland’s wider transition in deploying the highly-skilled workforce, significant assets, and engineering heritage in the locality.

More broadly, the industrial region has an historic and interwoven relationship with the surrounding community and local workforce. It is vital then that any changes to the industrial complex pay due attention to the impacts this could have on these critical partners, working with them to identify a shared future that puts collective benefit first.