Scotland

Free public transport, more support to buy electric cars and the chance to whizz around on e-scooters are high of the green wish list of Scots in the run-up to the COP26 climate change conference. Before the meeting in Glasgow in November, a Panelbase survey for The Sunday Times found strong backing for several environmental measures to reduce harmful emissions. However, there was also resistance to some of the measures that some politicians want to take. Free public transport to reduce the number of cars on the roads was backed by 58 per cent and opposed by 29 per cent, while 13 per cent said that they did not know their opinion on the matter. Sixty-one per cent backed public subsidies to reduce the cost of electronic cars and electronic bikes, while 19 per cent were against it and 19 per cent did not know. There was a high level of support for more of an inducement to fit solar panels: it was backed by 75 per cent, versus 10 per cent who opposed it, while 14 per cent did not know.

Times 16th May 2021 read more »

What will Scotland’s net zero economy look like? The Scotsman’s webinar, Kick-Starting Scotland’s Green Economic Recovery, heard a range of experts discuss the scale of the challenge ahead. Morag Watson, Head of Policy at Scottish Renewables, said although Scotland was generating 97.4% of its electricity through renewables, there was a big job in decarbonising energy use in transport and heat. While electricity and transport each make up about 25% of energy use, heat accounts for 50% of energy use in Scotland. Fitting low-carbon heat technology like heat pumps in homes across Scotland could be a real game-changer, Watson said. Mike Smith, CEO of NECCUS, an alliance of interests focused on industrial decarbonisation, said integration of all the big projects moving Scotland towards net zero was vital – including the move to hydrogen as an energy source, continued decarbonisation of electricity and carbon capture and storage. Joanne Allday, a senior executive at Port of Cromarty Firth, said policy had to speed up. “We need clarity of policy direction. The private sector takes its direction from government.”

Scotsman 14th May 2021 read more »

The Scottish Greens have urged the SNP to wind down Scotland’s oil and gas sector as they open the door to a coalition government. Lorna Slater, the party’s co-leader, said that she was open to negotiations but that no approach had been made. Their increased number in Holyrood will give the Greens “significantly more influence” over the SNP, she said, but one red line in any coalition would be the accelerated decommissioning of the oil and gas sector. Speaking on The Sunday Show on the BBC, Slater said: “The oil and gas sector needs to decline and be phased out — there is no question about that. “The SNP have not yet committed to ever stopping oil and gas extraction and I believe it was still ‘maximum extraction’ from them, which is not reasonable. It’s not safe and it is not in line with our international agreements under the Paris [climate] agreement.

Times 10th May 2021 read more »

The taxpayer has lost almost all of the £10 million invested in a not-for-profit energy company, which was backed by the SNP government. Our Power collapsed in January 2019 even though three loans, totalling £9.8 million of public money, were approved by ministers. Only £600,000 has been recouped from the administrators. In 2017 Nicola Sturgeon pledged to establish a new not-for-profit energy company by 2021, which she has not done. The SNP’s election manifesto restated the pledge, saying that “whilst work on a planned publicly owned energy company was halted during the pandemic, we will now refocus our efforts on a new dedicated national public energy agency”. Willie Rennie, the Scottish Liberal Democrat leader, accused ministers of being “oblivious” to the problems that led to the government losing 94 per cent of its investment. “Two years later they still haven’t even conducted a review of the investment to find out why they lost millions — despite Nicola Sturgeon announcing plans to mirror and scale up the not-for-profit energy company model,” he said. “It’s negligent beyond belief. The SNP have racked up high-profile high-value losses at BiFab, Prestwick, Fergusons, Lochaber and now Our Power.”

Times 3rd May 2021 read more »