Brexit could "compromise" the UK's ability to tackle climate change, an SNP minister has claimed.
Michael Matheson, Holyrood's Net Zero secretary, told a COP26 event in Glasgow the renewable energy sector was already struggling to attract skilled workers due to Brexit restrictions on immigration.
The MSP for Falkirk West said: "An issue across the whole of the UK and Ireland that we need to understand is that Brexit is having an impact that could start to compromise our ability to move at the pace we need to in order to tackle climate change.
"I've heard over and over again here at this summit about the need for pace and that this is a decisive decade; we heard it from the World Leaders Summit last week as well.
"Key to that is not just the deployment of technology, it's also having the skills to manufacture, install and maintain that technology.
"We need to start to recognise that limited access to the right labour markets could compromise our ability to move at the pace at which we need to tackle climate change."
His remarks followed comments by Northern Ireland's Infrastructure Minister, Nichola Mallon, who bemoaned the "brain drain" of students leaving the country, blaming it in part to the "toxic political environment".
The SDLP MLA said: "We do have far too many of our young people leaving to go to university - there's issues around university places and caps in the north - so then they go away and they just don't come back.
"We are losing that intelligence but also their enthusiasm and commitment."
Mallon said it was "an issue I feel very sad about" and added: "We need to get better at providing many more opportunities at the education and skills level, but also in employment.
"But if you want me to be really straight with you, we also need to get rid of the toxic political environment in Northern Ireland that is turning so many of our young people away."
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