Green industrial strategy

Introduction

The world is changing profoundly, driven by an absolute imperative to live within our planet’s climate boundary. The transition to net zero revolutionises our industrial model. It creates demand for new goods and services on a global scale, provides an opportunity to build new supply chains, demands new skills and ways of working and offers a powerful new inspiration for innovation and entrepreneurship.

This Green Industrial Strategy’s mission is to ensure that Scotland realises the maximum possible economic benefit from the opportunities created by the global transition to net zero. It shows how, with the right focus, support, investment and partnerships, Scottish businesses can innovate, capture new markets, create new jobs and diversify the workforce, solve problems with new products – and sell their expertise to the world.

In addition to achieving domestic decarbonisation, Scotland is competing with other nations to secure investment, build infrastructure and grow globally competitive industries in renewable energy technologies related to net zero. To do this, industry and other key actors need to see a credible, long-term plan which shows we understand Scotland’s existing strengths (assets, capabilities, expertise), the opportunities we have to succeed in global markets and what we need to do to realise this potential.

Success requires a strategic approach to ensure:

• Prioritisation of resources and investment (we should not seek to do everything);
• Coordinated policy (connecting energy, climate, economy goals);
• Partnership working (aligning public institutions, business, industry, investors and academia).

This document comprises three parts. Part One addresses Scotland’s strengths, our approach to industrial strategy, and how we have prioritised the opportunity areas for Scotland to grow globally competitive green industries. Part Two examines the opportunity areas in more detail. Part Three focuses on the economic enablers which underpin Scotland’s ability to fully realise economic growth potential in global net zero transition.

The strategy includes targeted actions throughout, which aim to ensure Scotland is an attractive host country for investment in priority areas and associated value chains. It aims to offer a compelling proposition to all who are considering investing in Scotland, from domestic businesses considering expanding into new net zero markets to global investors considering infrastructure opportunities in Scotland, and overseas firms examining potential locations for net zero investment.