A Week in Parliament

Energy Policy

After nearly 5 years the Tory Government have now intimated they will allow onshore wind to bid in future auctions. I have long argued for this – it is the cheapest form of electricity generation and if the UK and Scotland are to meet climate change targets then we need to almost treble the amount of onshore wind capacity. So while welcome, this is another illustration of how Westminster makes decisions on behalf of Scotland that is not in our best interests when they blocked onshore wind. I have been challenging the UK Government to incentivise bids for offshore and onshore wind to use UK based companies for the manufacturing and fabrication of the turbines. Most are made abroad and shipped in, so we have not benefited from the jobs bonanza there could have been. This is also a Westminster failing as the UK could genuinely have been world leaders in this field, but they did not invest in the industry. As a result, Denmark is one of the world leaders as their government invested at the correct time.

Carbon Capture and Storage is another energy generation technology that is integral to the UK being able to meet its climate change targets. Companies and organisations I have met confirm that they are on the cusp of delivering this within a few years. They confirm that proper Government backing at this point will make the UK a world leader in this field. This allows companies to refine the technology and export it around the world. There is a pilot project in the Peterhead area which as well as looking at the carbon capture element of a gas power station is also looking at hydrogen production. Hydrogen is a carbon-free fuel and will be required in the future for our gas boilers and also as a fuel for buses, heavy goods vehicles and possibly cars too. So it is critical this project is fully backed by the UK Government. The Scottish Government is supporting this as best they can do, but again, while we operate in the Westminster framework, we are completely reliant on the UK Government making what might or not be the correct decision.

Heathrow

The High Court confirmed that the UK Government’s National Policy on Airport Expansion is illegal because it does not take account of the Paris Agreement the UK Government signed up to on climate change. This is incredible, but even worse, the UK Government now appear to be saying that as Heathrow Airport’s third runway proposals are a private venture it is nothing to do with them! That is completely at odds with the judgement. The Scottish Government are including air emissions in their climate change net zero targets. It is obvious the UK Government should also do so. Additionally, at present, there is no international agreement on how to measure and assign aviation emissions to different countries – it is vital this is also tackled or else we are ignoring a massive elephant in the room.