E: Cabinet Secretary for Climate Action and Energy
E: Deputy First Minster
E: Minister for Public Finance
22 October 2025
Dear Ms Martin,
Research on Just Transition Conditionalities
We are writing in order to share new research prepared for the Commission on the role of conditionalities in delivering a just transition.
This research will support us in making specific recommendations on the topic in our final report scheduled for publication in February 2026. It was commissioned in response to a number of direct requests at ministerial and official level, in line with the provision within our remit that “Scottish Ministers may also make ad-hoc requests for advice in support of just transition planning”. We are pleased to be developing advice accordingly.
The research seeks to build on the strengths of our current approach in Scotland by developing a more detailed understanding of how conditionalities can be deployed strategically in line with just transition objectives, including encouraging the growth of domestic supply chains for sustainable industries and greater security for workers. It analyses potential strategic enhancements and draws from applied examples of successful international practice.
We hope the research findings will be helpful in informing work currently underway to support the workforce at Grangemouth and the low carbon renewal of the industrial cluster. Grangemouth provides the primary case study examined in the research and the proposed toolkit is intended in the first instance to support policymakers in delivering tangible social, economic and environmental returns on investment from the Grangemouth just transition fund.
The Commission’s view is that there is significant potential for conditionalities pertaining to just transition objectives to develop into an important component of the Scottish approach to just transition policy and investment, via dedicated just transition funds and also by application to broader public investments, contracts, tax incentives, licensing and procurement. To that end, the toolkit is intended to support meaningful progress to enhance our existing approach within current competencies, without representing a ‘hard-and-fast’ set of proposals. It acknowledges that the most effective approach is likely to require combined efforts from the Scottish Government, the UK Government and local authorities, recognising the opportunity for Scotland to lead through taking a more innovative approach in this area.
We wish to record thanks to the officials who took time to speak in detail to our researcher Riyoko Shibe and thereby helped develop our understanding across a host of complex policy topics. Next month, the Commission will meet with relevant policy officials to present the research findings and for an in-depth discussion on the role conditionalities can play in further strengthening the approach to just transition delivery for Scotland.
We welcome any opportunity to discuss this work with you and ministerial colleagues.
Sincerely,
Professor Dave Reay and Satwat Rehman
Co-Chairs of the Just Transition Commission