The Scottish National Investment Bank – working to ensure a just transition to net zero
We hear a lot about the need to ensure a “just transition” as the world tackles climate change by decarbonising, pushing towards meeting the net zero goals that are so crucial to ensuring a sustainable future.
A “just transition” means that as we create a new economy focused on reducing emissions, we need to ensure that workers and communities are brought along with the change. Whether that’s embracing the use of electric vehicles, to harnessing offshore wind to create electricity, there are various opportunities.
Working on those priorities for Scotland is a big part of what we do at the Bank, which was launched three years ago as the country’s development investment bank. We invest for the long-term in businesses, projects, and communities, through debt or equity investment.
So far, we've committed around £460 million to our investee community, while supporting a further £750 million investment from other sources, contributing £1.2 billion to the Scottish economy.
Every pound we lend or invest must deliver impact for Scotland by meeting one of our three missions; to transform communities, scale innovation or support the journey to net zero. Our net zero mission is about rebalancing the economy towards leadership in sustainable technology, services and industry — and bringing people and communities along as we do so.
What does a just transition mean in Scotland, and in particular the Northeast, where communities since the 1970s have relied on oil and gas for jobs and economic wellbeing?
The investments we make are focused on exciting businesses that are not only working on innovative technologies that are a key part of our transition to a green economy, but are committed to developing people with the skills needed to get us there.
Take offshore wind, where Scotland is already a global leader. The skillsets needed here have a lot in common with those that have made Scotland a global leader in oil and gas and those skills are very transferable. Putting it in simpler terms: for 40 years, we've known how to explore find, develop, produce, and transport liquids and molecules in the form of oil and gas. Now, we can apply a lot of those skills to do the same with the electrons that pulse from an offshore wind turbine through an underwater cable onshore to a grid connection to power millions of Scottish homes.
These skills are a key asset, and we must ensure that this asset is embedded in the transition to a green energy future, with communities in the North East benefiting now, and for future generations.
Supporting the development or the transfer of skills is a key consideration for investment, and a way the Bank can deliver wider economic and social impact beyond individual investments. We work with our investee companies to help them sustainably scale their businesses through a focus on fair work, inclusion, and skills.
That’s why we have invested in North Star, operator of the UK’s largest fleet of offshore oil and gas infrastructure support services vessels. The Aberdeen-based company is in the midst of an exciting transformation of its fleet into one that increasingly provides hybrid-powered specialised maintenance services to the growing number of wind farms in the North Sea. A big part of this is not only retraining some of its 1,400 workforce but also recruiting people in the region for its cadet programme, which prepares aspiring seafarers for a career working in offshore wind.
Another of our investee companies is Port of Aberdeen, where the Bank’s funding has helped facilitate the completion of one of the largest marine infrastructure projects in the UK, enabling servicing for offshore windfarms. Retraining and recruitment will be a crucial part of that, too.
As oil and gas declines in use and importance amid the green transition, we are investing in the people and technologies that will ensure Scotland’s skills and experience make that transition in the right way.
Find out more: www.thebank.scot