BEGINS a spokesperson: “The Scottish Government’s welcome committment to 100 per cent renewable electricty plan should now be matched with greater ambitions for heating and transport.
“The Scottish Government’s ‘Renewables Routemap’, which sets out its plans for achieving Scotland’s renewables targets for electricity, heat and transport sectors, puts the power sector firmly on the right track but fails to describe the changes we need to see in heating and transport said WWF Scotland today (Thurs 30).” [1]
Dr Richard Dixon, director of WWF Scotland, said:
“We welcome this renewed commitment to meet 100 per cent of our electricity needs from renewables by 2020.
“If this is matched by equal efforts to reduce our energy demand, Scotland could secure at least 50 per cent of our total energy needs from renewables by 2030.
“This transformation of our energy sector offers huge opporutunities to Scotland as we build an indigenous energy supply, create thousands of green jobs and protect homes from ever rising fuel prices.
“We also welcome the new target for total energy from renewables to be 30 per cent by 2020, up from the previous target of 20 per cent.
“This puts us up with the leaders in Europe and is double the UK target, but we would have liked to see even more.
“The aspiration for greater community ownership of renewable energy is also very welcome and we hope that many communities and farmers across Scotland will be generating their own renewable energy over the coming decade.
“Greening electricty is very important but it only accounts for about a fifth of the energy we use, so action on transport and heat is vital and today’s routemap doesn’t do enough in these areas.
“Heat and transport energy demand must eventually both be met entirely from renewable energy if we are to hit the targets in the Climate Change Act targets.
“We are already beating the Government’s projections for generating heat from renewables [4] and the current target of just 11 per cent should be reset to be at least 20 per cent by 2020 if it is going to help drive this sector forward.”
Dr Dixon continued: “A similar effort is required in the road transport sector, the only sector where emissions have been steadily rising instead of falling for the last two decades.
“The acceleration in renewable electricity generation should be matched by efforts to replace petrol and diesel cars with electric vehicles.
“Early strong ambition by the Scottish Government has not been followed through.
“We need a clear committment to help secure at least 300,000 electric vehicles by 2020, including the publication of the long-awaited action plan to ensure co-ordinated delivery.
“We learnt today that the reactors at Torness have been shut down since Tuesday because of jellyfish.
“The lights did not go out across Scotland, we just exported less electricity to England.
“The juxtaposition of the jellyfish incident and the Government’s new plan show clearly that nuclear is on its way out and the future is all about renewables.”
Notes to Editors:
[1] Link to Scottish Government press release http://www.scotland.gov.uk/News/Releases/2011/06/30094005
and the Routemap for Renewable Energy http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/917/0118728.pdf
[2] Summary of Scotland’s energy usage and future direction of travel required to meet Climate Change targets:
Total Energy: In total, the energy sector accounts for over 87 per cent of Scotland’s total GHG emissions.
Target: The current renewable energy target is now 30 per cent by 2020, this should be increased to reflect the increased ambition for renewable electricity and the necessary step change in energy efficiency this should be reset at 50 per cent by 2030.
Electricity: The largest source of emissions in Scotland is from power stations, they accounted for 26 per cent of total GHG emissions in 2008.
Electricity Target: The Scottish Government’s target of 100 per centrenewable electricity consumption by 2020 is very welcome and sets the right level of ambition. However, our renewable potential means we can generate all our electricity from renewables by 2030. To achieve this, the Scottish Government must reject proposals for a new coal plant at Hunterston in line with the SNP manifesto which stated there is no energy need for new thermal power plants in Scotland.
Transport: Road transport is the second biggest single contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for over 18 per cent of Scotland’s total emissions in 2008. Emissions from road transport have risen by eight per cent since 1990. To achieve this much greater investment required to encourage active travel and improve public transport to move people from private vehicles. Scottish Government must also set out a clear action plan to replace at least 300,000 petrol/diesel cars with electric vehicles by 2020.
Heat: currently represents 50 per cent of total energy demand, produces 47 per cent of Scotland’s CO2 emissions and accounts for 60 per cent of domestic energy costs. The current target of 11 per cent should be reset to be at least 20 per cent by 2020 if it is going to help drive this sector forward.
[3] Joint NGO report on energy strategy for Scotland: Power of Scotland Secured http://assets.wwf.org.uk/downloads/power_of_scotland_secured.pdf
[4] Scottish Energy study volume 1 http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/89792/0021573.pdf
[5] Renewable Heat Reports
http://www.scottishrenewables.com/static/uploads/publications/110320_sr_-_renewable_heat_report_final.pdf
Energy Saving Trust
http://www.energyadvicecentre.org.uk/content/download/1988038/6665493/file/EST_Renewable_heat_in_Scotland_Final3_Scot_Gov.pdf
[6] WWF’s electric vehicles plan for Scotland: Watt Car?
http://assets.wwf.org.uk/downloads/evs_report_web2.pdf
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Contact: Mandy Carter
Phone: 01350 728200
Email: mcarter@wwfscotland.org.uk
Website: http://www.wwfscotland.org.uk
