Image source, bbc

Committee convener Gillian Marin asks about the quality of water.

Mr Millican says Scotland is fortunate to have the availability of soft water people like drinking, but this requires filtration.

More intense storms will lead to a greater run off of material into treatment plants, he adds.

Ms Martin pivots to planning for droughts.

The Scottish Water chief executive cites the climate change adaptation strategy which addresses the water supply-demand balance.

Image source, bbc

Image source, Charlie Irvine

Flooding across Scotland has left cars, roads and fields submerged.

One woman had to be rescued from her vehicle by canoe after her car became deluged by floodwater in Old Kilpatrick, West Dunbartonshire.

Other vehicles were left stranded on Saturday as they became swamped.

Read more.

Image source, Kev Collins

Tory MSP Rachael Hamilton asks how the strategic and delivery plans will clarify the responsibility of flood planning.

Scottish Water director of strategic customer service Professor Simon Parsons says Scottish Water, SEPA, local authorities and the Scottish government work together to combat and react to flooding.

Prof Parsons points out the recent infrastructure review called for more clarity on responsibilities on this.

He says we have seen lots of action on flooding and he cites the drainage partnerships run by Scottish Water.

Image source, bbc

Ms Hamilton asks about the SuDS network.

What's that? Good question. Sustainable drainage systems (SuDS), external can be used in all types of development to provide a natural approach to managing drainage.

Scottish Water are investing significantly in SuDS systems, Prof Parsons tells the committee, citing improvements in guidance but accepting more work needs to be done on this.

Douglas Millican tells the committee: "By late summer we will publish our route map, what I will say is we are being highly ambitious."

The Scottish Water chief executive says a priority is to keep the support and trust of customers who will have to pay more for services.

He assumes governments will maintain standards post-Brexit.

Scottish Water chief exec Douglas Millican says the strategic plan is "completely aligned" to the sustainable development goals.

He confirms there has been engagement with the customer forum on the plan, with the forum agreeing it reflected customer priorities.

Adaptation to and mitigating Scottish Water's impact on climate change are at the heart of the strategy, he adds.

Prof Simon Parsons accepts "significant work" is required to reduce the half a million tonnes of emissions from Scottish Water, despite improvements already made in this area.

In Scotland, drinking water and sewerage services are provided by Scottish Water, which is a publicly owned company.

Scottish Water operates within a regulatory framework and is accountable to Scottish Ministers who are in turn accountable to the Scottish Parliament.

Since May 2016, Scottish Water has fallen within the remit of the ECCLR Committee.

The aim of this evidence session is to scrutinise the investment priorities of Scottish Water in the context of the Strategic Review of Charges for 2021-27.

The Strategic Review of Charges is the process undertaken by the Water IndustryCommission for Scotland (WICS) , external– the independent economic regulator of Scottish Water – which determines the charges payable by Scottish Water's customers for the next regulatory period (currently six years).

A significant amount of work has already been undertaken by WICS and by Scottish Water, which included the publication of the revised methodology document, external in November 2018 and a number of 'Decision Papers', external, which offer WICS' views on issues key to the review.

Image source, PA

The committee will now take evidence on the Scottish Water Investment Plan. Convener Gillian Martin welcomes:

• Scottish Water, external chair Dame Susan Rice
• Scottish Water chief executive Douglas Millican
• Scottish Water director of strategic customer service Professor Simon Parsons

Read the committee papers here., external

Asked about intergovernmental relations on tackling climate change, CCC chief executive Chris Stark says: "Both governments are crap at this, this is something we have to be better at all around."

Mr Stark says the climate does not "give a monkey's" about these constitutional issues.

He calls for better links between the Scottish government and Whitehall.

"There has to be a place to have a discussion about these governance issues."

He adds: "At the moment I really don't see a sensible place for those discussions."

That ends the session on climate change.

Uncertainties around getting houses off the gas grid need to be resolved in the next ten years and from 2030 onwards we need to be "full tilt" on deployment, Chris Stark says.

He says there will come a point where government will have to set out its policies to achieve it because, unlike with electric vehicles, we will not get to a point where it will make economic sense to make the shift without policy change.

Image source, Getty Images

Finlay Carson says he does not understand why so much of this conversation is about agriculture, given that total emissions have fallen in the sector by 75% since 1990.

The Tory MSP cites the high level of food waste in Scotland as a bigger issue, he says.

Mr Stark says he does not recognise the statistics quoted by Mr Carson.

We need to have a change in land use and a reduction in the numbers of livestock, he points out, warning it would be a disaster to import meat from abroad.

The CCC chief executive reiterates the importance of diet change, to which Mr Carson asks if it is not better to encourage local buying than diet change.

There still has to be a reduction in methane levels, replies Mr Stark, accepting Scottish meat and lamb produces the lowest emissions in the world, but we still have to eat a bit less of it.

• Do Scotland's farmers have a problem with climate change?
• Five ways farmers are tackling climate change
• Farmers could 'comfortably' cut emissions by third

Tory MSP Rachael Hamilton asks about engaging the public on climate choices.

Mr Stark agrees a great deal of progress on climate change has been on cutting emissions rather than on engagement. He suggests this is something the Citizens' Assembly, external could look at.

We need to break climate issues into meaningful goals which people can understand, he adds.

The CCC exec tells the committee not to be afraid of pushing for behavioural change, highlighting switching from filling up at the pump to a charging point would be an easy change to make if the infrastructure is available.

He accepts other areas would be more difficult to change, for example diets. He points to only small reductions in meat consumption in recent years, despite this being the "age of the vegetarian".

Prof Bell agrees change must be made and look as easy as possible.

Image source, SEC

The CCC says: "Scotland must match the ambition of its world-leading Net Zero 2045 target with decisive action to strengthen climate change policy in all parts of the economy.

"Decisions over the next 12 months are likely to determine the direction of the next 25 years.

"Next year, Glasgow will host the most important global climate summit since COP21 in Paris in 2015.

"These crucial talks offer a major opportunity to increase global ambition and effort to cut emissions.

"The UK’s credibility as COP26 President – and Scotland’s, as hosts – now rests on real action at home."

Tory MSP Finlay Carson asks how detailed the forthcoming Climate Change Plan needs to be.

Prof Bell says detail will be important and access to data will be crucial.

He tells the committee councils will need help with this and there is still work across the sector to get the right level of support and tools to inform that.

The 2018-32 Climate Change Plan provides for a reduction in annual emissions of just over 10 megatonnes by 2032, but new targets mean that a reduction of 25 megatonnes will now be needed by the same date.

An addendum to the plan will be laid in Parliament at the end of April.

Read more here., external

Green MSP Mark Ruskell quizzes the CCC on the road building programme, pressing for advice on whether it should be reduced.

Chris Stark admits the CCC struggles with road building because such networks will be needed in a net-zero world but emissions from transport by road is increasing.

He suggests there should be ambitious provisions on decarbonising, for example by installing more charging infrastructure for electric vehicles.

Mr Ruskell highlights even small sections of road, such as the Queensferry Crossing, can add millions of cars onto the road.

Mr Stark says the CCC is unable to make recommendations on what the road network should look like.

Image source, GETTY IMAGES

It matters immensely that Scotland will phase out new petrol and diesel vehicles by 2032, Mr Stark says.

The UK's planned ban on sales of new petrol, diesel or hybrid cars could start as early as 2032 but will happen by 2035, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has said.

The Scottish government does not have the power to ban new petrol and diesel cars but has already pledged to "phase out the need" for them by 2032 with measures such as an expansion of the charging network for electric cars.

The CCC chief executive points out car manufacturers will take note of this and change their plans accordingly.

Prof Bell agrees saying private investment is absolutely crucial but the government can set the framework.

Chris Stark says getting to net-zero will require every sector to have a clear set of steps to get there.

Almost every sector will have to get to zero emissions, with the exceptions of aviation and agriculture he says.

There are big, system-wide challenges that must be tackled including skills, land use and public engagement, which climate plans should also consider the CCC chief exec says.