First minister Humza Yousaf appeared to enjoy himself last week bestriding a world stage left vacant by prime minister Rishi Sunak amid the climate crisis. However, he must focus his attention on more mundane matters in Scotland where the SNP has failed to deliver on the grand plans it loves to announce.

Mr Yousaf took advantage of Mr Sunak’s decision not to attend the UN General Assembly in New York by claiming at a Climate Week event in the city that Scotland could play a leading role in the fight against global warming.

“We will transition from being the oil and gas capital of Europe to unleashing our renewable potential and becoming the net-zero capital of the world,” declared Mr Yousaf at the event, adding: “We will show moral leadership and ensure funding for loss and damage is not just pledged but paid and I would urge others to join us. The very existence of humanity depends upon it.”

Lest he be accused of empty grandiosity, Mr Yousaf said Scotland would provide hard cash to help countries struggling with climate related challenges.

The funding concerned, which includes additional support for Storm Freddy relief work in Malawi, will mean Scotland will deliver on the promise made at the COP 27 environment summit in Egypt last year to commit £7m to help countries worst affected by climate crisis.

Mr Yousaf probably enjoyed the discomfort suffered by Rishi Sunak, who insisted he was committed to tackling climate issues despite failing to attend the UN assembly, before making a series of announcements that played into the hands of green critics.

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Mr Sunak delayed the proposed ban on the sale of petrol-powered cars by five years to 2035 to ease the pressure on consumers then attracted derision for scrapping policies that sceptics said had never been policies, including a tax on meat.

All this was grist to the mill of the SNP and Scottish Greens and Mr Yousaf accused Mr Sunak of being guilty of “abdication of leadership on a colossal scale”.

It might seem churlish to ask if Mr Yousaf should have flown thousands of miles to the US to announce what are meant to be planet-friendly measures. However, he would have to accept that the sums involved are so small they are likely to have little impact in the global scheme of things.

Mr Yousaf attracted criticism in Scotland for suggesting Aberdeen should surrender its role as the capital of the European oil and gas industry when renewables activity has so far failed to provide anything like the scale of economic benefit expected.

More than a decade after former first minister Alex Salmond talked about Scotland becoming the Saudi Arabia of renewables, this is an area in which the SNP Government has struggled to turn grand policy statements into effective action.

In 2021 Scotland’s Auditor General Stephen Boyle highlighted the problem of a “major implementation gap between policy ambitions and delivery on the ground”.

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The same year the then first minister Nicola Sturgeon announced a £500m just transition fund for the North East and Moray to help communities that will be hit by the expected reduction in oil and gas activity. She provided scant detail about what the money would be spent on.

Not much has happened since.

In November last year Friends of the Earth Scotland said the £50m first round of awards raised “serious questions” about the direction of the fund.

The organisation complained: “Millions of pounds is going towards companies, many of which are backed by the fossil fuel industry, as well as a significant amount awarded to a contentious project which will destroy a vital community greenspace of St. Fittick’s Park in Aberdeen.”

In April, Mr Yousaf said £25m from the fund would be entrusted to the Scottish National Investment Bank to “leverage further private investment” in the energy transition across the North East.

The bank has faced repeated criticism for its lack of impact since it was launched in 2020 by Ms Sturgeon.

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The Scottish Government has said that further information on year three of the just transition fund’s activity will become available in early 2024.

In the Programme for Government that he announced this month Mr Yousaf shed little light on what he plans to do to support a just transition.

“We will consult on a Heat in Buildings Bill, and we will continue to promote a circular economy.

We will publish our final energy strategy and just transition plan,” said Mr Yousaf when the programme was launched, without providing specifics.

In the draft energy strategy published in January following long delays, the Scottish Government said there should be a presumption against exploration for oil and gas in the North Sea on environmental grounds.

Hopes of a green jobs boom have faded fast since then with energy firms cooling on plans to build big windfarms off the UK following cost increases.

Mr Yousaf has said the UK Government must do more to encourage firms to invest. However, consumers would have to pick up the bill if the support provided for firms under existing schemes is increased.

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The Scottish Government plans to use its powers to support onshore wind developments by speeding up the planning process. Residents in the areas affected may not be so happy.

Last week the Scottish Government unveiled an Onshore Wind Sector deal, which it reckons will help to secure a big increase in generating capacity by 2030 whilst delivering maximum benefit to Scotland.

In the announcement of the deal, the government said it will “explore opportunities with EAs (Enterprise Agencies) to support onshore supply chain development and business diversification and transition, publishing a strategy paper by July 2024”.

It may look odd to some that after being in power since 2007, the SNP is only just getting round to doing this kind of work.

Big questions remain about how sensible it is to increase renewables generating capacity before we come up with cost-effective ways to deal with the intermittency of power sources such as wind. This will involve storing power generated in times of low demand.

The SNP Government has failed to use its powers to help secure a meaningful reduction in demand for the energy needed to heat homes. Its record of support for insulation work looks no better than that of the Westminster administration.

In March the Flagship Warmer Homes Scotland was closed to new applications until October. That stopped people getting the support required to have work done before the winter sets in.

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Energy bills soared following the surge in oil and gas prices fuelled by Russia’s war on Ukraine.

The agency that runs the warmer homes scheme, Home Energy Scotland, said the ‘pause’ would allow changes to be made to widen the eligibility criteria, meaning more households could benefit.

In response, Liberal Democrat MSP Willie Rennie said the scheme was a joke and complained it would take more than 100 years to insulate homes of people living in fuel poverty in Scotland.

Last week Lib Dem leader Ed Davey said plans to develop the huge Rosebank oil field off Shetland should be blocked on environmental grounds. The development would support huge numbers of jobs while the output concerned would help reduce the UK’s reliance on imports.

With the oil price expected to top $100 per barrel in coming months amid moves by Saudi Arabia to curb production, some reckon the economic case for UK production is getting ever stronger. Brent crude sold for less than $75/bbl in June.