Despite the political differences between parties, most parliamentary committees try to find consensus whenever possible. Disagreements get a proper airing when issues are debated in the Chamber, but committee reports generally reflect the range of views and make sure all members can stay on board.

Sadly that wasn’t possible with my own committee this week. The report published on Monday was about the oil and gas industry, and it would probably have been impossible to ensure that fossil fuel fans and a Green MSP would agree.

Despite the 100% support that exists at Holyrood for the climate change legislation and the ambitious, “world leading” targets that the Government often brags about, most MSPs are not yet willing to join the dots to energy policy.

Renewable electricity has been growing, and that’s great. But unless we shift away from fossil fuels for transport and heating, we’ll keep on missing those climate targets just like we missed the first four. And if we keep producing fossil fuels all that carbon will still end up in the atmosphere even if we cut our own consumption; it will just end up being used by other countries.

The fact is that the world has far more fossil fuel than we can ever afford to burn, if we want a reasonable chance of holding back climate change. Last month’s Paris Agreement increases the challenge, by including a goal of limiting temperature increase to 1.5 degrees instead of 2. The world must come to terms with the idea of a rapid transition away from fossil fuels, and the countries which are sitting on reserves will have to leave most of it unused.

Globally, the world’s governments have accepted this. But individually they are still in denial.

No doubt this feels like a terrible threat to those whose livelihood depend on fossil fuel production. But as we’ve seen in recent months, the current government priority of maximum extraction doesn’t give a guarantee of work in the North Sea for those who rely on it. In fact jobs are already being created in decommissioning oil and gas platforms and pipelines – but we’re at risk of losing out on those jobs to other countries. We already lost out on a lot of high-value jobs in the wind industry because government didn’t move fast enough. We’re at risk of seeing the same thing happen because the Scottish and UK Governments can’t see the opportunities of changing direction.

There will be far more good quality, lasting jobs in the post-carbon economy than we lose from oil and gas. But unless we grab the opportunities that transition offers, we’ll miss out on them as the fossil fuel age passes into history.