On Wednesday I spoke in my SNP colleague Audrey Nicol MSP’s Members’ Debate at Holyrood on the above.
An estimated £90,000 million worth of green investments are happening now or due to take place over the next three years.
Projects like XLCC Hunterston will collectively create thousands of jobs as part of the global push for net zero.
A 2022 report identified Scotland as having the potential to become a green energy powerhouse by expanding our green energy output to over five times the current rate and creating up to 385,000 jobs in the process.
However, Westminster holds back Scotland’s energy potential. Energy is reserved, so we do not have the power to change disastrous policies like Transmission Network Use of System (TNUoS) Charges.
The last UK Labour Government introduced these policies which subsidise transmission in London but uniquely disadvantage Scottish projects with Scottish Renewables saying they remain “enormously destructive to Scotland’s offshore wind industry and [are] clearly at odds with everything we need to do to reach net zero.”
We have an opportunity to achieve a transition to net zero that enhances energy security and lowers energy costs for households. To optimise that opportunity, Scotland needs the powers to act that can only be secured through independence.
Please see my contribution by clicking on the graphic.
