Working for people, planet and place
Scotland’s transition to a low-carbon economy must be a jobs strategy as much as a climate strategy.
And it cannot mean public money going to big companies to fix what they broke. With the right public investment and rules, the transition can deliver more than enough jobs to allow everyone currently working in oil and gas to move into secure, well paid and long term work.
Green jobs are not limited to turbines and heat pumps. They include care, childcare, planning, construction, manufacturing, reuse and repair – the everyday work that sustains communities while cutting emissions and waste. Yet too often, these sectors are fragmented, undervalued or dominated by insecure work. A green economy that reproduces low pay and weak rights is not a fair transition.
The Scottish Greens will deliver a Green Industrial Mission grounded in fair work, domestic supply chains and democratic business models. Every pound of public money spent must support good employers: paying the real Living Wage, recognising unions, investing in skills and anchoring jobs locally.
Investment must also ensure that more of Scotland’s economy is headquartered in Scotland, ensuring our communities benefit from the wealth generated by a Just Transition. And we will also prioritise circular enterprise – reuse, repair and remanufacturing – where Scotland can cut carbon fast while creating work that cannot or should not be offshored.
Co-operatives and employee-owned businesses are central to this vision. They retain wealth locally, give workers a stake and have a proven track record in renewables, care and community enterprise. By backing skills, co-ops and circular industries together, Scotland can build a green economy that is resilient, fair and rooted in place.
Deliver a Green Industrial Mission
- Invest in offshore renewables, green supply chains, renewable manufacturing and circular industries anchored in Scotland, with direct pathways for oil and gas workers to transition from the industry, delivering a net increase of 40,000 green energy jobs in Scotland by the end of the Parliament.
- Create a new publicly funded retraining programme for oil and gas workers, open to all employment types and fast-tracked for those at risk of redundancy, ensuring there is no repeat of the failed transition plans at Grangemouth and Mossmorran.
- Plan the workforce transition into Green Jobs by improving data gathering and publishing an annual Green Jobs and Skills Outlook, linking infrastructure investment to workforce planning and inclusion.
- Establish regional Green Skills Hubs linking colleges, employers and unions to guaranteed routes into low-carbon work.
- Double Just Transition funding to £1bn, using it to support new jobs and reskilling, and directly invest in infrastructure which creates and supports new Green Jobs.
- Support publicly owned ports as key economic drivers of the energy transition to develop local supply chains, bring oil and gas workers into new opportunities, and diversify our marine economy. We will support the public buyout of privately owned port facilities as an alternative to tax-haven ‘Freeports’.
A new deal for apprenticeships
- Launch a New Deal for Apprenticeships with fair pay, adult entry routes and recognition of prior learning.
- Establish minimum standards for apprenticeships to ensure quality control and fair treatment for apprentices.
- Provide funded childcare hours equal to course requirements for modern apprentices, to support parents returning to work and drive up women’s participation in often male-dominated green trades and professions.
- Make a guaranteed living wage a condition of public funding for all apprentices, and provide funding to support the purchase of essential tools, clothing and equipment.
- Ensure employers do not place age caps on apprenticeships, to support inclusivity and address Scotland’s skills gap, especially for older workers seeking retraining in green technologies.
- Streamline Scotland’s apprenticeship system by working with colleges and universities as lead partners to deliver modern and graduate apprenticeships in key sectors.
A circular economy
- Scale up reuse, repair and remanufacturing through national reuse targets, repair vouchers and dedicated funding for community repair hubs, and provide transition funding to enable successful reuse organisations to scale without being crowded out by the private sector.
- Require some product manufacturers to take back used products, such as mattresses and textiles, at the end of their life, and extend the scope of Extended Producer Responsibility Schemes so that items can be repurposed or fully recycled.
- Pilot a Scot Repair Voucher scheme which would allow a discount on repair of household goods by participating manufacturers and retailers.
- Implement regulations to ban the destruction of unsold consumer goods in Scotland.
Supporting worker-led and ethical business
- Expand support for worker, consumer and community co-operatives, including expert advice, funding and finance from Scotland’s Enterprise Agencies and Business Gateway, with an initial target of 1% of enterprise grant funding to go to co-operatives.
- Implement the Inclusive and Democratic Business Models recommendations to grow co-operative and employee-owned enterprises at scale.
- Change the law to allow councils and public bodies to prioritise procurement and commissioning from local content, worker-owned firms and organisations with high labour and environmental standards.
- Place conditions on public procurements and grants to end slave labour in the supply chain.
