The fossil fuel giant Equinor has submitted a new application to drill for more oil in the North Sea, but—[ Interruption .]

Let us be courteous.

This time, it has had to admit that the Rosebank oilfield will be 50 times more polluting than it first claimed. There will be 250 million tonnes of carbon emissions, which will accelerate climate breakdown and destroy our hopes of keeping our planet safe.

The First Minister’s predecessors were crystal clear in their Opposition to Rosebank. Nicola Sturgeon agreed that it would be

“the greatest act of environmental vandalism in”

her

“lifetime.”

Humza Yousaf said that approving the field was the “wrong decision”. However, so far, John Swinney has avoided taking a position. He has quietly ditched the Scottish Government’s energy strategy, the first draft of which opposed new oil and gas exploration.

The science is clear: if we are to have any hope of changing course and preventing total climate breakdown, there can be no new oil and gas fields. Does the First Minister agree with Nicola Sturgeon that it would be the greatest act of environmental vandalism in our lifetime? Will he oppose the Rosebank oilfield?

The approach that the Scottish Government has taken consistently through my time as First Minister, and the terms of Humza Yousaf and Nicola Sturgeon, is to insist on the importance of a climate compatibility assessment for any development that is proposed. That is the position that has been adopted in legal judgments that require the United Kingdom Government to go through the process that it is currently going through in relation to the applications that are being made. That is the point of consistency.

Any development of oil and gas licensing has to be compatible with our journey to net zero. The importance of that—which is widely accepted, and I think that even members of the Green Party accept it—is that, for some time, there will be a requirement to utilise fossil fuels as we transition from our current situation to net zero. The question that must be addressed, given society’s requirements in that respect, is: can any of that activity be compatible with our journey to net zero? That is the policy position of the Scottish Government.

I asked the First Minister a yes or no question, but I did not get an answer. Both his predecessors were capable of giving a clear answer to that question. He says that it is a question of climate compatibility, but Equinor has just admitted that Rosebank would create 250 million tonnes of new carbon emissions. That is clearly incompatible with any chance of meeting our climate ambitions.

However the First Minister spins it, approving Rosebank would be a disaster for people and planet. It will do nothing to reduce energy Bills. All that it will do is funnel more money into the pockets of Equinor’s super-rich shareholders. Every single penny that those mega-polluters and Governments sink into new oil and gas projects takes us even further away from the investment in renewables that we really need.

The two most recent former First Ministers were brave enough to say that but, today, the Scottish National Party’s Westminster leader, Stephen Flynn, demanded that the UK Government—

Briefly, Mr Greer. You must put a question.

He demanded that the UK Government give those planet-wrecking corporations a tax cut. The First Minister needs to pick a side.

Ask your question, Mr Greer.

I asked him again: will he oppose the Rosebank oilfield?

I think that, generally, people will see me as being on Scotland’s side in everything that I do. [Interruption.]

I am finding it difficult to hear the First Minister from here and I know that those who have gathered with us in the gallery would like to hear whoever is called to speak.

I have to be mindful of the fact that we are delivering a just transition—not any old transition, but a just transition.

A just transition enables me to look the staff of oil and gas companies in the eye and say that we are doing everything possible to manage the transition to avoid the industrial devastation that Scotland experienced under the mercenary actions of the Conservative Government in the 1980s, which I will not repeat.

The Scottish Government recognises that, as I explained in my first answer to Mr Greer, there will be a need for the utilisation of some oil and gas resources for the foreseeable future. That has to be undertaken in a way that is compatible with our journey to net zero. That is the approach that the Scottish Government will take.