A Greener Scotland (Jim Hume)

A Greener Scotland

June 13, 2007 12:00 AM

Presiding Officer, I am grateful for the opportunity to sum up on this short debate.

Richard Lochhead won his seat on the basis that he was opposed to wind farms - but he says that Scotland should aspire to be "the world leader in renewable energy". This surely conveys very mixed messages from his party.

As my colleague, Mike Rumbles, mentioned green issues are undoubtedly at the heart of Liberal Democrat policy, a fact endorsed by Friends of the Earth and WWF, when they both claimed that our manifesto was the greenest.

Liberal Democrats, in Coalition, have already made huge strides regarding renewable energy. In Scotland, we set the target of producing 40% of electricity from renewable sources by 2020, and the target of 18% was in fact met three years early. Liberal Democrats invested around £100 million in renewables and energy efficiency support in the last three years - ahead of any other part of Britain or Ireland - and we provided support for over 600 small and micro-renewables projects through the Scottish Community and Household Renewables Initiative. Liberal Democrats have delivered record recycling rates with rates trebling under our governance, and have delivered record renewable energy levels, and in public transport. Presiding Officer my party has a proven track record in delivering green policies - we know what we are talking about it, we know what's achievable and we know how to achieve results.

Many have talked about renewable potential & that is hugely important. But we must as a priority address energy demand. In the UK, the power demand for electricity is only 15%, which is significant enough. But the demand from the energy supply for heat is 52% - by far the biggest demand on our limited energy market. Insulation & Energy efficiencies can go a long way to address this. Liberal Democrats believe that better energy efficiency measures can be achieved through tighter building regulations for new buildings both in the public and private sectors & serious encouragement for existing buildings to upgrade. Combine this with microgeneration in all new homes, and Scotland can look forward to a greener, more environmentally sustainable future. We therefore believe that the introduction of a new energy efficiency and microgeneration strategy with targets must be taken forward this will go a long way to addressing the energy gap combined with greater use of renewables in the future not just from one source, but from many - wind, wave, micro renewables, Biomass and tidal power, and reducing energy consumption with energy efficiency measures as I've mentioned.

Some may try to balance Scotland being Greener with economic growth, as though they were two different matters - they are not. The key wording is sustainable development. If our economic growth demand outstrips the limited energy supply then we will have stalemate, if not economic decline. I have mentioned that Heat is the main demand on energy, but the second biggest demand on our limited energy supply is Transport. That leaves me with the question of how the new SNP administration can shelve vital PUBLIC transport plans - whether it's the trams in our capital or the main airport/rail link or indeed the Borders Railway - and simultaneously tackle climate change in any serious way? Presiding Officer, whilst Liberal Democrats welcome the pledge of the new Executive to resist new nuclear power and the commitment to a Climate Change Bill, I share the concerns expressed by Mike Rumbles that the current administration simply cannot deliver a greener Scotland while it cuts public transport plans and opposes renewables. We need joint up thinking and decisions from the few Cabinet Secretaries we have - maybe this is something for the minister of everything to address.

A liberal voice for the South of Scotland