Scotland is well placed to profit from wind energy but must ensure the beauty of its landscape is preserved. As Scottish Conservative energy spokesman Alexander Burnett pointed out yesterday, some people view windfarms as an “unsightly” blot on the landscape. And they, he added, are “simply unwilling to have more turbines foisted upon them”. So they will doubtless be dismayed by the news that Scottish Power has sold off its gas and hydro plants to concentrate on wind and renewables, with plans to more than double the capacity of windfarms currently generating electricity or under construction. However, for others, it is a sign of things to come, a move that heralds a new age as the world moves towards a zero-carbon future that will enable us to avoid dangerous climate change and bring a literal breath of fresh air to blow away potentially deadly pollution.
Scotsman 17th Oct 2018 read more »
Kezia Dugdale: we did meet the most recent annual targets though. That’s only because we closed Longannet power station and you can’t bank on having something like that in your back pocket year after year. It also masked the reality that our agriculture emissions are stagnant and our transport emissions are on the up. To bring these down, we need to talk about meat and how much of it we consume. If we can’t give it up completely, there needs to be a much greater focus on locally sourced meat, nitrogen-free fertilisers and – dare I say it – vaccines that make cows less, well, windy. That alone won’t do, but neither will pretending that we’re doing enough.
Scotsman 16th Oct 2018 read more »