Grangemouth Future Industry Board minutes: December 2021

Attendees and apologies

• Falkirk Council
• Forth Valley College
• Fuel Change
• Green Action Trust
• IBioIC
• Scottish Enterprise
• Scottish Environment Protection Agency
• Scottish Futures Trust
• Scottish Government
• Skills Development Scotland

Items and actions

Purpose

The meeting covered three substantive items:

• a session on Net Zero Transition Planning
• a presentation from IBioIC
• an update from Fuel Change on the Grangemouth Net Zero Challenge

Key Board decisions/points raised at GFIB meeting 6

The Programme for Government has committed to producing a Just Transition Plan for every sector and every region.

The Grangemouth Just Transition Plan owned and executed by GFIB needs to be focused on the industrial cluster.

GFIB will consider the industrial cluster under the eight Just Transition Principles and, through this methodology, we can tackle the Just Transition as they relate to industry with the aim to encourage a more open industrial cluster Benefits of net zero are shared more widely.

Board members were content with the proposed Just Transition approach.

The national plan for industrial biotechnology is in place in Scotland and IBioIC are very proud to be the main delivery vehicle for that.

IBioIC are in the process of refreshing the plan which will be delivered in 2022, need to consider resetting some of the targets and the evaluating the work that was set out a number of years ago.

IBioIC provided an overview of what their ambition is for Scotland’s Net Zero Accelerator Programme and highlighted the need for further investment.

IBioIC presented to the board the outcomes of their report - SUGAR BEET: A Just Transition for the Chemicals Sector and a Net Zero Solution for Manufacturing.

Bio-based manufacturing of sugar beet gives us the opportunity to adapt 100 years of expertise in oil based chemistry to a fully sustainable carbon negative manufacturing for the next hundred years.

Fuel Change are working to engage the next generation in their Just Transition.

Fuel change looked at Grangemouth specifically due to the amount of carbon that is emitted from that cluster. INEOS set the questions in conjunction with Scottish Government. The four challenges were around sustainable manufacturing, carbon utilisation, plastic waste and heat energy.

Fuel Change requested the support of GFIB, perhaps within the just transition work or with Scottish Enterprise to draw on the expertise to deliver some of these projects.

Actions summary

• board members to contact the Just Transition Team for further conversation around regional plans 
• submission to Ministers outlining GFIB’s approach to the Just Transition Plan for the Grangemouth Industrial Cluster
• net zero vision to be discussed further at GFIB 7
• board members to contact GFIB Secretariat with potential stakeholders and identify existing relationships 
• specification for just transition baseline and vison to be shared with board members for comments
• members to contact GFIB Secretariat to volunteer to be on the Just Transition working group 
• Grangemouth Flood Protection Scheme – Infrastructure workstream and Just Transition and Net Zero Workstream to maintain close conversation and ensure appropriate references are made
• GFIB to map green ports alongside the Just Transition plan
• secretariat to make relevant connections with IBioIC
• Just Transition Unit and Fuel Change to have offline discussion on the Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan co-design process